Books that whisk you away to far flung exotic places

[Newmumtoo1]

Fellow readers, can you please recommend books that you loved which are set in far flung destinations. I won’t have a chance to visit any where other than my local supermarket anytime soon. So I would love to loose my self in a distant land. Up for any genres, time periods and writers, looking for gorgeous descriptions so that I can soak up some sun. Thank you x

My Family And Other Animals and the rest of the Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell - beautiful writing about a beautiful island.

Chocolat and other Joanne Harris books - lovely South of France setting.

Not sure if either of those are exotic though!

Ahh yes I have read chocolat! I will check the other recommendation out. Thank you :)

Two Women in Rome - Elizabeth Buchan, Rome and other parts of Italy. Beautifully atmospheric.

The Island - Victoria Hislop
Patricia Fischer series - Steve Higgs - cozy mystery series set on cruise ships
Seven Sisters series - Lucinda Riley
The Venice sketchbook - Rhys Bowen

Thank you for these Rec’s excited to check them out! Cant wait to escape the grey skies

Bruce Chatwin: In Patagonia

Patrick Leigh Fermor: Mani

Kipling: The Jungle Book and Kim

E. M. Forster: A Room With A View (the film is gorgeous as well)

John Ruskin: The Stones of Venice (bit heavy, but beautiful writing)

Bill Bryson: Notes from a Big Country

The Poisonwood Bible

Jane Harper’s The Lost Man is a mystery set in the heat of the Australian outback that makes you grateful for the cold and grey!

Yes I love room with a view, such a fabulous book. @ChessieFL I have downloaded a sample of my family and other animals and it’s fab! Such beautiful descriptions of corfu.

I am adding all of these to my list. I haven’t been abroad in a long time and not sure when I will be able to again so these are all such a tonic.

thanks everyone :)

She's not very PC these days (many of her heroes are truly dreadful and some of the plots VERY questionable from a modern stance) but if it's far-flung destinations you're after, I grew up reading Victoria Holt, mainly for that glimpse so many gave of other lands and cultures....

how intriguing! @Belladonna208 I will download a sample, just to see the controversy. It’s now on the list!

Shantaram! It's an autobiography written by an Australian convict who escaped prison and fled to India. It's completely gripping! Literally could not put it down.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

The far pavillons by MM Kaye - set in India not long before the mutiny - about an orphan brought up as Indian.
They also wrote a murder mystery but can't remember the title.

The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning

A state of wonder - in the Amazons, if I remember correctly

Anything by MM Kaye.

The Dust Diaries, Owen Sheers

The Night Circus and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, more fantasy but definitely transport you with beautiful descriptions.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Wild Swans (nonfiction)
Holy Fools by Joanne Harris
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Constant Gardener and The Night Manager by John le Carre
Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard

Thanks everyone! Going to be downloading loads of samples. Appreciate everyone who has commented and made a suggestion. Hope you all have a restful evening x

Another vote for poisonwood bible and will also add the Last Concubine-amazing

Pachinko?
A Suitable Boy! Wonderful Indian setting (if turbulent; it covers pre-Partition and Partition itself) AND the most immersive, witty, warm, gripping family saga imaginable.

Mrs Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce
The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
The Colour by Rose Tremain
If you read the Balkan Trilogy, do also read the Levant Trilogy which follows on from it

@MarkWithaC beat me to it, I was going to recommend Pachinko (Korea and Japan). Also, The Garden of Evening Mists (Malaya) and Still Life (Italy).