Books that give you a feel for other cultures/countries/religions etc

[feralunderclass]

Currently reading a book set in Syria (As long as the lemons grow) and it has been such a lovely introduction to another culture/country to me. Also loved Durrells Corfu trilogy, felt like I was in the strawberry villa. Any other recommendations? Preferably somewhere with a nice climate now we're coming into winter.

Isabel Allende is one of my favourite authors, and I think lots of her books do a great job of making you feel in the different settings. My favourite is House of the Spirits - it’s not said that it’s Chile but it’s set in Chile.

Other books that came to mind:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera (Colombia)

Aravind Adiga - White Tiger (India)

Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things (India)

Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings (Jamaica)

Elizabeth Von Arnim - The Enchanted April (Italy)

Andrea Camilleri - The Inspector Montalbano Mysteries series (Sicily)

Miguel Torga - Tales from a Mountain (Portugal)

Jose Maria de Eça de Queiroz - The Maias, The City and the Mountains (Portugal)

Nikos Kazantzakis - Freedom and Death (Crete)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus (Nigeria)

Wangari Maathai - Unbowed (Kenya)

I did a lot of this sort of reading during lockdowns!

Was going to say Isabel Allende too - I'm currently reading The Long Petal of the Sea. Very evocative of Spain and Chile.

Khaled Hosseini's books (Thousand Splendid Suns etc) excellent for Afghanistan.

As above: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Nigeria

I recently read the Garden of Evening Mists which was beautifully evocative of a Malaysian post war life.

A few I've read recently with a sense of place:

Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet is the story of a friendship set in 20th century Naples.
Jamilia by Chingiz Aïtmatov is a short romance set in Kyrgyzstan.
The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili is set in a children's home in Georgia.
Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan is set in an isolated village in Armenia.
Bright by Duanwad Pimwana is set in a slum in Thailand.
Havana Year Zero by Karla Suárez is about 1990s Cuba.
The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey is set in the Carribean
The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani is set in Morocco (and a small amount in the Alsace).
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi is set in Oman

I like reading books from around the world and there are lots of blogs about 'reading the world' which are good for finding books you'd enjoy or find interesting.

Brilliant, I'm absolutely loving these,thank you all.

Rumer Godden. Kingfishers Catch Fire, The Peacock Spring, The River (India)
Actually any of her other books, also, that are set in other countries.
I agree about The Enchanted April (Italy) too, very atmospheric.

I wonder which book best represents Britain? I think for England (if we were talking novels) I would nominate Dickens' David Copperfield or D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. Maybe also P. G. Wodehouse and Douglas Adams, who capture something of the humour. Other English novelists I admire, like Jane Austen, Evelyn Waugh, Thomas Hardy, Virginia Woolf, Edward St Aubyn, etc, are too class-bound.

Lots of Elif Shafak books cover Turkey

@JaneyGee those are all quite old books though, even Douglas Adams is nearly 50 years old. Suggesting Dickens is like suggesting War and Peace by Tolstoy for Russia. Fabulous book but not representative of the modern world. Zadie Smith would be a more modern writer about London.

Interesting question though, indeed is it possible for a single book or writer to encapsulate an entire country? Ann Morgan has written about the genrefication of national literatures, it's an interesting question, how much of what is travslated is truly refkective of the country and language it's being translated from.

Kite Runner

American Grit

Thank you all for the suggestions, I've added quite a few to my Amazon basket and saved others for later.
Thanks for that link @JaninaDuszejko , very interesting.

How the mountains echoed - about Afghanistan - this is absolutely beautiful prose I highly recommend (by same author as the kite runner)

The piano teacher and one for my baby - both about Hong Kong very nostalgic

Americana by the same author who was sampled in beyonces flawlss / wrote 'we should all be feminists

• good description of Nigeria and America

The Inspector Singh series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Singh_Investigates

Alexander McCall's Smith No.1 Lady Detctive

For Zimbabwe - Tsitsi Dangarembga, NoViolet Bulawayo - once you start you’ll find more!

also the classic The House of Hunger by D Marechara

for Japan - there are so many that have been translated recently - Before the Coffee gets cold, convenience store woman, the travelling cat chronicles, Pushkin vertigo have a whole series of Japanese crime novels

Amitav Ghosh is a master of books set in India and variously on the subcontinent. I’ve actually only read one of his The Glass Palace set in Myanmar and it is absolutely fabulous. I have many of his others but am waiting for the right time to devour them.

Janina’s list is fab and includes lots that I’ve enjoyed. Jamilia and The Pear Field have been two stand outs this year for me.

The Poisonwood Bible (set in Belgian Congo)

The Inspector Brunetti series, Venice and Italy
How true to life are the Botswana series by Alexander McCall Smith? It seems realistic.

A Suitable Boy.
The Jewel in the Crown

Heart of darkness, Conrad