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Books set in other cultures

56 replies

FairyPenguin · 12/02/2017 15:19

I really enjoy reading books that are set in other cultures and ways of life, both current and historical. I love finding out about how other people live/lived.

For example, I have liked:

The Kite Runner
The Help
Memoirs of a Geisha
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Wild Swans
Plain Truth (Amish community)
Faye Kellerman books (Jewish family)
Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean Auel
Nothing To Envy (North Korea true stories)

Also, I read a book set within a Quaker community which I was very interesting (I can't remember the title!).

Can anyone recommend other books that I might like, please? Thanks!

OP posts:
AristotlesTrousers · 12/02/2017 18:13

I'll probably think of loads more, but off the top of my head:

The Colour Puple
The Joy Luck Club
Books by Victoria Hislop

Sadik · 12/02/2017 18:20

Peter Hessler's books about living in China, especially the first one (River Town)
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev (Russia)

Sadik · 12/02/2017 18:23

Also, a bit different but if you have young children then the Anna Hibiscus series by Atinuke are lovely to read aloud - short-ish chapter books all about a little girl living in an (un-named) African country.

Whattodo23 · 12/02/2017 18:23

A thousand splendid suns

BarchesterFlowers · 12/02/2017 18:27

Two Wings of a Nightingale.

Glass Palace.

Lots more if I could be bothered to get up and go and look Grin, I have just bought Paul Scott's Raj Quartet but it hasn't arrived yet.

BarchesterFlowers · 12/02/2017 18:29

Oh forgot Orhan Pamuk's books which I loved enough to read more than once.

tormentil · 12/02/2017 18:31

The House by the Dvina - Eugenie Fraser

BoboChic · 12/02/2017 18:32

Olivia Manning's Balkan and Levant Trilogies.

CoteDAzur · 12/02/2017 18:41

The Skull Mantra and its sequels by Eliot Pattison (contemporary Tibet under Chinese occupation)

The Janissary Tree and its sequels by Jason Goodwin (Istanbul in Ottoman Empire times)

Dissolution and its sequels by C J Sansom (Tudor era England)

tormentil · 12/02/2017 18:42

Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I know why the cages bird sings - Maya Angelou
The Devil that Danced on the Water - Aminatta Forna

Tartle · 12/02/2017 18:43

A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth. Set in post independence India.

tormentil · 12/02/2017 18:52

Guernica - Davi Boling
Winter in Madrid - CJ Sansom

Sadik · 12/02/2017 19:06

tormentil reminds me of
South from Granada - Gerald Brenan (Southern Spain in the 1920s/early 30s leading up to the Civil War)

crapfatbanana · 12/02/2017 19:20

Indian:

God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta (nonfiction)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (nonfiction)
There's loads of Indian lit out there basically.

Chinese:

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
and
The Vagrants, both by Yi Yun Li

Korea:

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Mexico:

Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Signs Preceding The End of the World by Yuri Herrera

Congo? (Possibly a different Central African nation):

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Nigeria:

All of Chinimanda Ngozi Adichie's books.

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave (part U.K setting)

Uzbekistan:

The Dead Lake
and
The Railway by Hamid Ismailov

Brazil:

City of God by Paolo Lina

Malaysia:

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Portugal:

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Finland:

Anything by Tove Jansson

Afghanistan and Pakistan (also U.K.):

Anything by Nadeem Aslam
Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Italy:

The Leopard by Tomasi Giuseppe de Lampedusa

Turkey:

Anything by Orhan Pamuk
Anything by Elif Shafak

Egypt:

The Map of Love by Ahmad Souief

Albania:

Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare

Also:

Books by Elizabeth Laird. She writes for children by doesn't patronise and explores different cultures.

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

mmack · 12/02/2017 19:58

Japan: The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki. It reminded me a lot of Pride and Prejudice and the level of detail about life in Japan before WWII is amazing. Don't be put of by the length of it-it is very easy to read and totally gripping.
China: I am currently reading and enjoying Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie. It's set in 1970s China during the cultural revolution.

FairyPenguin · 12/02/2017 20:37

Thank you for all the recommendations. I'm making a very long list of books to look at. I forgot about Winter In Madrid - that was another favourite. I loved The Color Purple when I read it about 20 years ago, so I'm going to re-read that one.

I'm going to Mexico this year so I might read those suggestions from crapfatbanana before I go.

OP posts:
AuldHeathen · 12/02/2017 21:21

Years ago I met Eugene Fraser. He was in an evening class I attended. Just saying ....

OP, Maybe some Scottish writers. Assuming you aren't a Scot. There are loads, just can't think of titles. Buddha Da, set in Glasgow. Author is Anne somebody. Another is based on An English classic writer ?Jane Austen. Sorry, hopeless tonight. Set in modern time, in Glasgow, 2 senior schoolchildren, one from a Scottish Sikh family. It was very good.

tobee · 12/02/2017 21:54

Off the top of my head I really enjoyed Midnight in Peking when I listened to the audiobook. True story about a murder in Peking in 1937. An era in that country I knew very little of.

PopGoesTheWeaz · 12/02/2017 23:03

Such a great list. Everything that sprung to mind immediately has already be stated so just shameless marking my place instead.

FeliciaJollygoodfellow · 13/02/2017 10:07

Lisa See is a great Chinese American author, as is Amy Tan. I've enjoyed most of theirs.

If you like grand historical dramas than Shogun? Can't remember the author but it's very well known!

Yes to all the others, particularly anything by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie. Wonderful.

TartYvette · 13/02/2017 10:13

"The Secretary River" by Kate Thornhill. First of a trilogy set in Australia during its days a a penalty colony.

TartYvette · 13/02/2017 10:26

The secret river, not secretary!!!!

TartYvette · 13/02/2017 10:26

And PENAL not penalty!

redexpat · 13/02/2017 10:31

The visit of the royal physician is a hisrorical novel set in Denmark.

Ditto Music and Silence which has really lovely story telling.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 13/02/2017 10:37

Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie is a fantastic book.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist.