Read a book from each country in Europe.

Eric Dickens is a prize winning translator with a solid body of European work, especially Dutch/Flemish and Estonian, so very well worth a Google.

The Dedalus publishing house specialises in European work, so again, worth a Google.

Oh, what a marvellous thread.

Germany: Berlin Alexanderplatz, All Quiet on the Western Front
Italy: the Leopard (divides opinions, I adore it), the Divine Comedy
France: Dangerous Liaisons
Russia: Doctor Zhivago, Quiet Flows the Don and Anna Karenina

Don Quixote for Spain? I'll admit I've never been able to finish it.

I don't know how to categorise Primo Levi, but he ought to be on the list.

Germany: The Bread of Those Early Years - Heinrich Boll. My favourite book ever. I also loved The Call of the Toad by Gunter Grass - as close as a quick read to anything you will get by Grass.

Poland: A Warsaw Diary by Kazimierz Brandys. If you want something more literary, try Joseph Conrad (I struggle with Conrad).

Romania: Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller. What it was like being a German Transylvanian under communism.

France: The Ripening Seed by Colette. Or maybe Cheri.

Croatia: (or Former Yugoslavia) How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic.

Belgium: The Sorrow of Belgium by Hugo Claus. Growing up in Flanders at the outbreak of WW2.

I was given the Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch by a Belgian boyfriend.

Oh what a great post! My English education 16-18 was the international baccalaureate, in the Netherlands, and it was great to have lots of 'international' authors... Have been very boringly English- centric since then, apart from my Scandiwegian crime addiction!

For the Netherlands, I would perhaps leave anne frank's diary, which is amazing ... But not perhaps so much about the Netherlands. We read 2 amazing books at school: Het Bittere Kruid (the Bitter herb - cannot remember the author), and 'the Assault' by Harry Mulisch. Both amazing.

A short history of tractors in Ukrainian - loved it.

revolutionary,

I wouldn't say it's easy to enjoy Homer as you do need to know just a bit about the history and the gods, but it isn't too difficult to get into. It does take a couple of pages to get the hang of reading the verse.

The first time I read Homer all the way through, I read a prose version. It certainly helps to know the story, roughly, before you try to read one of the verse translations. I also think it depends very much on the translation how much you enjoy the read, some of the translations can be very stuffy. I personally enjoyed reading the Robert Fagles translation and listened to the audiobook read by Ian McKellen this winter and actually enjoyed listening more than reading. It is a great story and told really well.

For Italian classics I'd recommened the divine comedy/the betrothed (i promessi sposi)/or the name of the rose

Or for a modern novel - I'm not scared.

Are there any authors from the little countries like Andorra and San Marino and Lichtenstein?

Can't remember the author but i loved We The Drowned - its about generations of sailors from a danish seafaring town. Not a subject i would normally go for in a novel but it was beautiful.

Zhbniev Herbert Polish poet.

Wonderful children's books, The Good Master, The Singing Tree, Hungary before and then in WWl . Author ended up in the US.

Is it easy to enjoy Homer though if you don't have a particular interest in the history of it and don't know what's special about the language? I tried a bit ago and couldn't get through a page, like treacle! They don't seem very 'for the everyman' IYSWIM. I wish I could get it!

Denmark:
'Pelle the Conqueror' by Martin Andersen Nexoe (was made into a movie)
'Murder in the Dark' by Dan Turell (Copenhagen noir)

France:
'All Men are Mortal' by Simone de Beauvoir

Romania:
'The Land of Green Plums' by Herta Muller, very literary but very good

Russia:
'Crime and Punishment' by Dostoyevsky

Greece:
if you haven't read Homer, you've got something to look forward to, there is a very good audiobook of the Odyssey read by Ian McKellen

Italy:
'Decameron' by Boccacio

You could do better than Kundera for the Czech Republic (and I guess Slovakia too, as it was Czechoslovakia at the time). Kundera defected to France in 1975 and was not thought of that well by writers who stayed when he kept harping on about how 'Czech' he was. Far better to read something by Vaclav Havel.

OP - I do a variant of this. Whenever I go away, I try and read a book set in the place I am visiting, preferably written by a native of that country.

The Radetzsky March by Joseph Roth. It features the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so I reckon you could tick off both Austria and Hungary . (It is very readable and not nearly as dry and dull as a book about the decline and fall of the A-H Empire might sound.)

Oh yes and Rose tremain wrote Music and Silence which is anohter historical novel about Denmark. Beautiful beautiful story telling.

Denmark:
The visit of the royal physician by Per Olav Enquist. Ok the author is Swedish, but it's a good historical novel.

Number the stars - Lois Lowry. Again she's american, but beautiful children's book about German occupation in WW2.

Smila's Sense of Snow - Peter Høeg

Failing that Hans Christian Andersen or Karen Blixen. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I like how Rose Tremain writes. The long road home is brilliant.

in that case, either the new J K Rowling (her Cormoran Strike novel), or Capital by John Lanchester for London.

A Stuart MacBride for Aberdeen (and because they are brilliant crime fiction novels).

Denise Mina for Glasgow.

um. I haven't read much since the DC arrived...

maybe something from the town/area you live in?

Brilliant idea. My reading has pretty much gone out of the window since DD was born, but this is inspiring me to read more.