reading a book from every country, but make it fantasy / sci-fi

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isabella's video: • reading around the wor...
emmie's video: • reading a book from ev...
excited to read more books from non-english countries in the future!

[@Leonie_Christel]

turns out hans christian andersen is danish, not german! thanks for those who let me know!

[@noneofthet4880]

also Camus is from Algeria, not France!

[@TheMimiya7]

​@@noneofthet4880 but if I'm not mistaken he doesn't have the algerian nationality.

[@eurydice628]

​@@TheMimiya7Yea, He was Born in Algeria, but was French.

[@ayoolukoga9829]

Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. 1 Peter 4:16 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Acts 11:16

[@ramooyeido1772]

WoW!!! You are too beautiful... whomever see you should believe that God is true and real.. and whenever I see you I feel like Iam in a dream.. And when we wake up we will all realize that all this life was nothing but a dream and that only God is whats true and real.. ❤🌷😘 Even if let say I never seen your lovely beautiful radiant cute baby face nor touched you in any place nor smelled and kissed your wonderful neck and breast.. nor heard your lovely soft warm voice you still know that you exist, & Its true that we dont see God but we all know that God exists There was a teacher who did not believe in the existence of God, he said to his students, do you see God? the students answered no we don't see God, so the teacher said if you don't see God it means there is no God. then a smart student stood up and said to the other students hey guys can you see the teachers brain? then the student answered no we don't see the teachers brain, the student then said the teacher is crazy he has no brain :0) the universe science says was not always there it had a beginning point the big bang meaning it was begun initiated in other words created, thus there should be a creator, there must be a God, we don"t see God and we don"t know the essence of God thats a different story, But we see how things in the universe obey rules and we see some wisdom in things indicating he is knowledgeable and wise, and we see different things many verity of things and creatures and that indicates the capability of God, and we also see that all things are made of almost the same thing for example everything is made-up of particles meaning they share a similarity somehow indicating unity Which proves that the creator of all things is one One God for all of us God initiated everything and he repeats things too, and thats clear we see many cycles of things... water cycle, animal and plants food chain cycle and so on.. God created this life and it is only a temporary sample or an example of a coming everlasting one which could be either in heaven paradise or in hell. If we try to be good humans in life and try to obey God and his messengers and those whom rightly represent them, then we will go to heaven/paradise, if not we will go to hell fire and burn in it forever

[@salindrab4493]

Hello, greetings from Germany. Hans Christian Anderson is not a German but a Danish author. However if you want to dive into the lands of fairytales I can recommend for Germany the Grimm Brothers.😊

[@eurydice628]

An absolute German classic fantasy book would be The neverending Story by Michael Ende. Momo is also a great book.

[@khyrianstorms]

The museum in Odense is absolutely stunning.

[@19Rena96]

@@eurydice628 Momo is one of my favorite children books! I enjoyed The Never ending Story and enjoyed it as well, just not as much as Momo ^-^

[@laurarm24]

As a spanish, I'd recommend The Shadow Of The Wind. It is my favourite book of all time, and it totally has dark academia vibes!

[@96IDEI]

omg!! yes!! iTS SOOOO GOOOD, i recommend it too!!

[@luciablanco4876]

Spanish reader here too, I was writing the same recommendation when I saw your comment

[@Lisse_D]

I was going to recommend the same one lol

[@me_ainhoa]

dilooo tataa

[@lidia6280]

yeessss it's so good

[@mauratyson9580]

I read the title as "reading a book from every CENTURY" and honestly that would be a fun challenge too

[@DeyaViews]

Oohh that would be a really fun challenge! You'd get a lot of very early novels. Like 1600s has Don Quixote, 1500s has Journey to the West, 1400s has Le Morte d'Arthur, 1300s has The Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 1000s has The Tale of Genji. Before those you wouldn't be reading novels, but there'd be books of epic poetry or short stories or theater play scripts. Like The Canterbury Tales from the 1300s, the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda and the Volsung Saga from the 1200s, and lots of Roman and Greek and Chinese writing before then.

[@seuluvgi]

For Portugal, i would recommend Blindess by José Saramago! It's a dystopian novel and it's REALLY really good and you won't regret reading it|

[@demitwice]

i'm not portuguese but i second this, this book is really good!!

[@umidiamond7717]

I came here to suggest this! It's a great book.

[@loubardot6235]

For Brazil, I think you would like Clarice Lispector- The hour of the Star or her collection of short stories, it’s very interesting. We also have Machado de Assis “The alienist” or one of the greatest book written in Portuguese that simply has a very epic opening line “ The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas”

[@juliarangelr]

na minha opinião todos esses são insuportavelmente chatos kkkkkkkkk Raphael Montes and Stefano Volp are better and more modern options, they write thrillers For people who like Bridgerton-type of books, I recommend Karina Heid For people who want a book about wizards and magic in recent times, I recommend The Scarlet Weapon by Renata Ventura

[@diegomariottoni3086]

​@@juliarangelr coragem

[@vitoriaboemo]

Siiim! São perfeitos 😊😊

[@sofiamilla7809]

Read Clarice Lispector for Brazil!! Her writing is kind of like Virginia Woolf's but with her own flavour to it lol she was a genius, I would recommend maybe starting with her short stories or the hour of the star but my favorite from her is agua viva (it has no plot, its just the narrator spiralling over everything in an amazing way, i cannot explain it)

[@sammalneito]

I love agua viva too!

[@sofiamilla7809]

@@sammalneito good taste ~

[@user-wy2pp3dw2d]

Agua viva is on my tbr :) Now I will be more motivated to get to it sooner!

[@alessiamilillo7081]

For Italy, a more famous and critically acclaimed book by Eco himself is The Name of the Rose, it also has a lot of dark academia vibes but they're mixed with a medieval setting and a thrilling murder mystery. It is also quite a long book but for me it was a page turner!

[@Maucha31]

I am learning Italian (technically B2) is this book like hard to read in italian? like language wise for someone who is learning

[@alessiamilillo7081]

@@Maucha31 To be fair it's not the easiest book to read in its original language, it's very verbose and the language is quite rich and polished and there's even some phrases in Latin. It's probably best enjoyed in your mothertongue :) but by any means, you might try browsing through the first pages and seeing for yourself!

[@biokah]

I read this almost 20 years ago and loved it!

[@lisagorska7389]

I loved Baudolino, it's so ridiculous mixing up history with an over the top A-grade serial bullshitter as a protagonist

[@luciamontanari9404]

@@Maucha31 I think that Eco is not the best italian author to star from. He use a very difficult language. Many italians have difficult to read his books. As @alessiamilillo7081 I think that is better to read it in your language and starting by his most famous book "The name of the rose". And then,maybe, see the film with Sean Connery 🤣

[@BleistiftSchwert]

If you’re interested in some German fantasy books I think you would really like Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. It’s very slow passed but the characters are really great and I love vibes and world building. The book feels like a love poem or love song to reading 🩵 (There’s also a 2008 movie adaption starring Brendan Fraser and Paul Bettany. So this is clearly no joke)

[@ShaniFox]

Inkheart is so underrated on booktube, one of my fave series ❤

[@piligom4743]

I love that trilogy! Another german author I love is Kerstin Gier, the ruby red trilogy (rubinrot) is so so good

[@danijelaostojic6182]

I'm in love with that trilogy!🥰Also think it's underrated on book tube...

[@erinh7450]

I love Inkheart!!!

[@_cwirka]

I love Inkheart and Cornelia Funke was one of my fauvorite author when I was younger 😍🥰

[@mariadocarmocandeias2640]

For Portugal, please read Saramago. Either Blindness, that is about a pandemic that makes people go blind and Death With Intermissions, that is about Death deciding she is done doing her job because she then falls in love with a human.

[@ale_neeb7549]

I am Chilean, if you want to read more magical realism you should definitely add house of the spirits by Isabel Allende to your list, I also recommend Gabriela Mistral for poetry, she is actually the first Latin American person to win the Nobel for literature, and Roberto Bolaño has some very good books.

[@ireneisameme]

Is Luis Sepúlveda good for adults? I remember reading and rereading his books in elementary school all the time, I think I also own one in Spanish

[@thebooklion]

Speaking of Japan, I recommend "Lonely Castle in the Mirror". It's a slow-paced magical realism novel with a beautiful, touching ending 💛

[@teresak2022]

Aw I love that book so much too ❤

[@gabija5304]

I would add another recommendation for possible speculative literature from Japan: Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. It's a very unusual dystopia.

[@sinead8482]

As a polish sf lover I need to recommend Stanisław Lem's novels. "Solaris" (the classic) and "Mortal Engines" are great introduction to his work. (I wrote this comment while listening to the video and Leonie wanting to read Solaris is amazing) For fantasy I would go with the witcher book series, that was the base for the Game witcher game and Netflix series.

[@DeyaViews]

Is the novel Solaris the basis for the Andrei Tarkovsky film also named Solaris?

[@deepspacedruid7673]

​@@DeyaViews ye

[@blandae5670]

I'm not sure if Witcher is a good match for Leonie's taste. I would rather suggest Olga Tokarczuk's books. Or for actual fantasty "Wait for the frost come" by Marta Krajewska - inspired by slavic folklore, unfortunatelly the rest of the trilogy isn't translated.

[@alyoskins]

🇺🇦 Hello from Ukraine to mates from comment section. If you're interested in dark forest mystic folklore, let me introduce you to our classic gems: 🌱 Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky 🌱 The Forest Song by Lesya Ukrainka 🌱 May Night, or the Drowned Maiden by Mykola Gogol 🌱 Viy by Mykola Gogol

[@ravenglebsky9404]

As a fellow Ukrainian, I approve ❤

[@aenlainaknoa]

I approve this!

[@andreaskaliks8664]

I absolutely love this concept. Thank you for bringing attention to authors from all around the world.

[@Julia-Kuu]

For Finland I highly recommend Emmi Itäranta's books The Moonday Letters and Memory of Water - her writing style is absolutely beautiful! + Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila is a super funny light fantasy book featuring some mythical creatures from Finnish folklore 😄

[@ShikiPirs]

Well, considering books that were translated in English and are from my native country (Russia) the very well-loved books in sci-fi genre are books by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (I personally never read them cause not a fan of sci-fi, but my friends love those books), for example their most popular works are 'Roadside Picnic', 'Monday Starts on Saturday' and 'The Dead Mountaineer's Inn' . Then 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin - also a famous book (dystopia) by a Russian author, it was THAT book that inspired George Orwell to write '1984' by the way) Also , Ukrainian authors that I know - Marina and Sergey Dyachenko - are translated in English too, for example Vita Nostra.

[@inessastre164]

In Spain, a really known fantasy author is Laura Gallego, she has a lot of great books, and one of her most popular series is “Idhun chronicles”

[@bookswithlau]

I was also going to recommend her! Donde los árboles cantan was amazing too 🤩

[@piligom4743]

Maybe a not so popular opinion but Todas las hadas del reino and Dos velas para el diablo, I just love those two

[@bookswithlau]

@@DescendingIntoChaos even my mom loved that book and she doesn't like fantasy ✨

[@janasamaranchcosta6654]

YEEES!!! so good. I’m in the middle of the series and 😍

[@beatrizmartinpique1412]

Yess I also wanted to recommend her, especially donde los arboles cantan, but most of her works are not translated to English I don't know why...

[@sanhirios20]

Hello! I am from India and I want to recommend a book called 'the palace of illusions' by Chitra Banerjee Divyakaruni. Its a retelling of an Indian epic called Mahabharata but from the point of view of a major Female Character Draupadi. It's a perfect combination of feminism in Medieval India and a peek at Indian Mythology and history.

[@varunisutrave2945]

+1

[@praggyan26]

I agree

[@tryjesuss]

Hi! I'm from Ukraine. If you want to read something else from the work of my country, I recommend the book "I (Romance)" by Mykola Khvylovy. This is a psychological novel, the idea of which is the fatal discrepancy between the ideals of the revolution and the methods of achieving them, the condemnation of Bolshevik revolutionary fanaticism.

[@Liriodelagua]

I'd like to recommend "Fictions" by Jorge Luis Borges from Argentina. It's a collection of short stories, so it's not very time consuming, and maybe you can use it as a palate cleanser between longer books from other countries. What I like about this book, and Borges in general, is his skill with the language, where every word has weight and a precise meaning (I had a classmate that found that very pretentious and kinda snob-ish, so ymmv).

[@piligom4743]

And from "El Aleph", the book, I really love La casa de Asterión. My favorite one from Borges

[@karirocha3095]

Me encantaría recomendaciones de autores argentinos que escriben mistério. Quiero leer más en español

[@mayyy9653]

Hello! If you want to read French fantasy book, I would highly recommend reading the series "La Passe miroir" by Christelle Dabos translated in English as The Mirror Visitor. The first of 4 books is called a winter's promise. It is a bestseller in France and is also popular worldwide. It is a mix of fantasy and science fiction. It is beautifully written and the universe is quite unique. The plot in a few words : Long ago, following a cataclysm called the Rupture, the world was shattered into many floating celestial islands, now known as arks. Over each, the spirit of an omnipotent and immortal ancestor abides. The inhabitants of these arks each possess a unique power. Ophelia, with her ability to read the pasts of objects, must navigate this fantastic, disjointed, perilous world using her trademark tenacity and quiet strength.

[@adelliane]

Yes, a 100% YES! I read the four books in less than 2 weeks (because I had exams at the same time 🥲) and I just couldn’t let go of the books

[@guyswhatifimravenclaw]

oh lol i absolutely hate this series. is there another french book u would rec?

[@Anni-zf6zn]

From Finland definitely the book on the video: Tales from Moominvalley! Other moominbooks that I recommend would be Moominpappa at sea, Finn family Moomintroll or Moominsummer Madness. Apart from Moomins there is Memory of Water (the author has written both the Finnish and the English versions), then there is Not Before Sundown / Troll - a love story, which I haven't read yet but it is very famous in Finnish fantasy (it has trolls which is really common fantasyelement in Fenno-Scandia, It also has queer themes apparently). Another iconic book apart from Ronia (I love her too!) is My borther Lionheart also by Astrid Lindgren. The Witcher series is from Poland! I have read two fantasy books from German author Michael Ende that are The Neverending Story and Momo. They were great if I remember correctly.

[@bookswithlau]

Omg the scum villain self saving system is CRAZY in the best way possible. It's a satire of the fantasy genre, and it was hilarious. I really really hope you enjoy it if you give it a try!!

[@Leonie_Christel]

that sounds exactly like what i want

[@AliciaGarcia-qy9hk]

i have to second this especially since you like video games leo, it has aspects that feel video game esque! scum villain has been the most fun i’ve had while reading all year! ps: enjoy tears of the kingdom i know you’ve been waiting along with me!! 💚

[@jeannareadsbooks8475]

For New Zealand, in order to get a new perspective you may not have heard before / alleviate the 'ugh english speaking country and centring colonialism and whiteness BORING' vibe, try Purakau, edited by Witi Ihimaera and Whiti Hereaka. It's a short story collection based on Maori myth and legend, organised into sections based on what kinds of myth the stories tackle e.g. creation myth e.t.c., and even though they're all written by different authors, they do seem cohesive and have a chronology to them, especially the section about creation myths. Some of them do stick to the more mythological tone, some of them are set in modern day New Zealand and there are a few that are actually set in the far future (including one about a theme park with an animatronic river god!). I used it for my own around the world challenge and about a year ago and had a great time (also I'm surprised you're not counting Iron Widow for China, although it was published and released from the states, the author is from China)

[@CateCrafter]

Omg, Purakau sounds fantastic! I'm actually doing a "reading the world challenge" myself, and I've been looking for a book from Aotearoa/New Zealand for a while, so this is an amazing recommendation, thank you 😊

[@Sarah-nh1lx]

I know Leonie mentioned it for NZ but it really enjoyed Gideon the Ninth. Hilarious! But Purakau sounds really interesting too. Thanks for the recommendation

[@ameliaretter8120]

Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka is good too. Also, She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall is about ecological disaster and migration (I wasn't a massive fan, but it was interesting as speculative fiction).

[@floraf3426]

For Hungary, I'd recommend István Örkény, particularly his 'one minute stories'. They're kind of surreal and whimsical, I read a lot of them for school and I really love his work! I'm pretty sure there's a collection of them translated into English.

[@sofib9725]

Hey! I'm Uruguayan but I´ve been currently reading a lot of Argentinian literature, mainly Julio Cortázar's works and I think they perfectly fit what you are looking for! I have obviously read them in spanish so i don´t know much about translations and how well they manage to adress the piece of art that his short stories and novels are, but the concepts of his stories alone are already insane and worth reading as is. Most of them are realistic fantasy and have a lot of hints to psycology and metaphorical imagery that is left to the reader´s interpretation (which i really like and could be an amazing topic of discussion for a book club). You could check out his short stories, the compilation i like the most is "Bestiario", but he also has this very famous long novel called "Rayuela" which is a beautifully written piece of literature. I've gotten into this author because of my boyfriend and we've been reading them together and chatting about the meaning of the symbols and the psycology of the characters (I 100% recommend buddy reading them)

[@aiela]

The best speculative novel to come out of Mexico is Pedro Paramo. Trust me, if you like bunny, this one’s for you. It’s a super weird, dark descent into the underworld 👀

[@riles342]

you just convinced me so easily

[@daisymoon8]

From Uruguay I would recommend one of the short story collection by Horacio Quiroga, like The decapitated chicken and other stories, or Jungle Tales. But we don't have much translated speculative fiction.

[@rainbowpanic9907]

From India, The Jasmine Throne (sapphic hi-fantasy) and The Palace of Illusions (myth retelling from a woman's perspective) are my favourites

[@AnotherEmi]

Hi from Sweden! I definitely think you would like some Mumin stories! Fun fact about Tove Jansson: she grew up in a Swedish speaking part of Finland and studied in Sweden for a while so her books are originally written in Swedish and they can sort of count towards both Finland and Sweden depending on how you look at it (we like claiming her as our own even though her nationality was Finnish haha, we just love her so much). I think it might be cool to read something that was originally written in Finnish as well so if anyone has any recommendations of that I would appreciate it! A book that I would personally like to read from Sweden is Karin Boye's "Kallocain" (1940). It's a dystopian, sci-fi novel, probably the first of its kind in Sweden. Karin Boye is very famous in Sweden for her poetry which is very beautiful and the fact that she was queer (just like Tove Jansson btw) which we love

[@hiimnora]

"Sophies world" would be a great choice for Norway! It's a great introduction to/summary of the history of philosophy, and personally it made me reconnect to my inner child and feel curious and wondrous about the world again:)

[@ciaraoshea8946]

Thank you for making the point about Sally Rooney's books and being Irish . I am Irish myself and I was so happy you made the point about culture within Rooneys books. It is an important note most book reviewers have not brought up when it comes to Rooneys books so thank you❤🇮🇪.

[@cocochanell8884]

For Greece I would recommend Mission Box by Aris Alexandrou which is a mixture of historical fiction and dystopia, very reminiscent of Kafka.

[@lunalove8733]

Ronia the robber's daughter is soooooo good

[@vitareads]

For Japan, I love Convenience Store Woman and would recommend Haruki Murakami. His book After Dark is a good place to start, and it's pretty short.

[@viktoriabazyk8193]

if you want to try mo xiang tong xiu's books i would highly recommend to start not with scum villain but with grandmaster of demonic cultivation! the thing about scum villain is that it satirizes chinese xianxia fantasy tropes and so if you're not familiar with them it takes away from your understanding and reading experience. so it's better to learn those tropes through a different novel and grandmaster is the best in my opinion (also it has two adaptations already if you need some visual material to accompany your reading)

[@Giga-lemesh]

That is my girlfriends favourite too

[@RachelHaraburda]

I have a German non-fiction for anyone interested. The English title is "Speaking and Being" and I haven't finished it but I'm loving it so far. The Author is Turkish but grew up in Germany and it's about her relationship to each of the languages she speaks and how our native language shapes our thinking and subsequentially how learning new languages changes how you are able to express yourself

[@bujobyfilo]

That sounds so interesting! Adding it to my tbr, thank you!

[@bujobyfilo]

It's written by Kübra Gümüşay if anyone's interested

[@Mar-or5do]

As an Argentinian I will always recomend Mariana Enriquez, specially Our share of the night she is a great terror author

[@rafaelafigueiredo1277]

You choosing Danmei as the genre for China was a plotwist that I should be expecting but I did not see coming 😂

[@analuisa9516]

Same omg, when she mentioned books with a cult following I was like, not MXTX, surely. Imagine the cackle I let out when I saw it hahahha

[@gabriellaemilly4201]

I'm Brazilian, and I think you're going to love Machado de Assis. It is not sci-fi or fantasy, but I believe everyone should read it. Try Dom Casmurro (the most famous) and Quincas Borba (my favorite). Anyway, I really liked that you're giving preference to non-English-speaking countries :)

[@mairabezerra915]

Outra brasileira nos comentários 👋🏻.

[@thais5889]

acho que ela ia gostar de Clarisse Lispector também

[@brunahelena6951]

Eu vim aqui recomendar Helena do Machado de Assis 😂😂

[@booksnmovies]

Amando encontrar outras leitoras do Brasil por aqui kkkk ótimas recomendações btw

[@litera_queen]

Amo ver o pessoal do Brasil comentando :) Ótimas dicas, Gabriella!

[@littleknittingcorner]

Moomins are an excellent choice for Finland but I also want to recommend Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila! Set in the north of Finland with lots of mythological elements! The English translation is being published this summer

[@kikipongo371]

oh, yes! Solaris was my first thought as a recommendation. it's very much a discussion on what a first contact could be from the perspective of human society. it's far bigger than just communication. really recommend!

[@Fiorentina97]

For Italy - if you find Foucault's Pendulum to be too long (It's awesome though!) The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio de Maria may be up your alley. It involves, partially, a library where people can anonymously write down and share their innermost, ugliest thoughts. It's horrifying in its predictions about what the internet has become - an ideal vector for hate speech - and it was written in the 1970s, before the internet as we know it existed! Highly recommended!

[@claudias9628]

Hi! I read both Sayaka Muraka's books on your TBR and I'd like to warn you that Earthlings has extremely graphic child SA and grotesque themes (nearly every TW is in that book), just in case this is not what you're looking for, because the cover and the marketing don't show this. I liked the book, but it has some really disgusting and hard-to-read scenes. Convenience Store Woman, on the other hand, is exactly what you said and I loved it. On the other hand, from Spain I'd recommend Eduardo Mendoza's No Word from Gurb. It's a comedy about an alien that gets lost in Barcelona. A famous fantasy writer here is Carlos Ruiz Zafón, being "The Shadow of the Wind" his most famous book, but he has a lot more options and he's been translated into English and many other languages. Laura Gallego is another really good fantasy writer, although her books are more young adult mostly. I love her book "Donde los árboles cantan" ( Something like "Where the trees sing") but I'm not sure if it's translated into English. For a more mature side, Torcuato Luca de Tena's "Los renglones torcidos de Dios" is amazing(God's Crooked Lines). Again, I'm not sure if there's an English translation, but there's recently been made a Netflix adaptation. Even if you can't read the book, the story is worth the watch. I hope this helps and that you see this warning about Earthlings! ☺️

[@alejandravazquez9738]

I was not prepared for reading earthlings, it gets pretty dark pretty quickly. By page 30 I was like oh my god, what am I reading

[@claudias9628]

@@alejandravazquez9738 Same, I liked the themes it treats and how Murata portrays the main character's trauma, but it left me feeling nauseous for a couple days after reading it

[@agnesbekefalvi8900]

Hi! From Hungary I can recommend you from Attila Veres The Black Maybe: Liminal Tales. It is a weird/ horror/ folk horror short story collection. From Ervin Lazar there is a whimsical funny folkish children book: Arnica the Duck Princess. Or from Magda Szabo- Abigail. It is a story about a teenage girl from the Second World War, who have to live in a boarding school.

[@masham8071]

Hi, a wee FYI, Hans Christian Andersen was Danish hehe But here are some modern Russian recs: Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin (bit on the historical speculative fiction side of things), Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko (extremely popular urban fantasy), and I think someone already recommended this, but Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky for a post-apocalyptic vibe. And Stanislav Lem's Solaris (this is sci-fi) is a good Polish one too.

[@masham8071]

@@swekanadesu I made an attempt to read Night Watch, wasn't really my thing either, but I just thought that with how popular it is, there has to be someone out there who could appreciate the suggestion. Plus, as you probably know, there isn't too much that's been translated, so the choice is limited haha

[@wooseoksbasement]

The Night Watch series was so good

[@theapenning8944]

I recently started this challenge too and I got a scratch-off map to scratch all the countries!

[@andreaskaliks8664]

That’s such a cute idea!

[@hind2384]

For France, I'd recommend "la passe miroir", it's like the best fantasy serie I've ever read ! I actually thought it was translated from english when I read it for the first time but no, it's really french ! What you showed in this video is our version of "boring books that we have to read in high school" so I feel it would be more fun to read a book a little less "serious" ? Anyway, I highly recommend it.

[@fromgillianwithlove]

for the philippines, try smaller and smaller circles! it's a thriller novel with commentary on the country's blind following of religion and the corruption that goes on in the government in general. it also has a movie adaptation which i really liked so!

[@ggoossiippggiirrll]

I'm from Canada and I also absolutely loved The Last Tale of the Flower Bride & Bunny!!!! I'm pretty sure you'd like Silvia Moreno Garcia (Mexican Gothic is really good! It's a gothic novel set in Mexico), Emily St-John Mandel (loved Station Eleven and how it showed the importance of art, especially during hard times. It talks about how everything/everything is connected. It's hard to describe, but it made me feel as if I am part of something bigger than myself as a human.) & Cherie Dimaline (Venco, especially! she's a First Nation author).

[@matildecardetas5034]

these are my favorites from a couple countries i’ve read: south korea - “i want to die but i want to eat tteobokki” and “kim jiyoung, born 1982” portugal - “blindness” japan - “my days at morisaki library” france - “the second sex”

[@surabhi6860]

hey an Indian reader here, Amish's novel series are absolutely incredible. I have seen so many western reading audience loving different takes on Greek mythology so try Indian Mythology! It is such a dense well crafted ay of mythological and folktale retellings and indeed one of my all time favorites. The immortals of Meluha and Sita are two of my favorites. Another series I recommend is Ponniyin Selvan series. Its a very well known read among young people here as its a historic fiction and a beautiful insight into history of southern India back then.

[@obscurekeyboard7437]

Ponniyin selvan series has movie adaptation now

[@wonderinggirl8521]

Yes definitely ❤

[@bursucantonia-luciana9380]

Omg, so inspiring ❤ Never thought to count the countries I read from! Thank you for a great video!

[@wikiratas]

If you think One Hundred Years of Solitude is too long, you might like Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It is shorter and it is also from García Márquez, I personally loved it!

[@_cwirka]

Ooooh I love both of this books, my favourites from The author❤

[@analuisa9516]

Seconding this, I read it an a day and it was very engaging!

[@patax144]

my personal favorites are, Tales of a shipwreck and of love and other demons, that last one is quite weird, not sure why I liked it, but I did. and about One Hundred Years of Solitude, I have the whole forced school reading problem, and my teen self found the book quite confusing so i didn't finish it, might do it one day though when I have the time and the brain power.

[@valeryechriske8052]

*immediatley adds every book mentioned to never ending tbr*

[@davko8]

I can recommend to you “Forest Song” , which is a play by Lesia Ukrainka that is based on Ukrainian folklore! Also , there is a provocative novel “The city” by Valerian Pidmohylny. If you would like something from modern Ukrainian literature ,there is “ The orphanage “ by Serhiy Zhadan and “Felix Austria” by Sophia Andrukhovych. The English translation of “The city” will be coming out this August and “Felix Austria” will be coming out this spring

[@alder6667]

Hell yeah, more recognition for Ukrainian literature! It's such a pity so little of our literature has been translated into English 😭

[@aenlainaknoa]

I approve this

[@laindarko3591]

For Singapore, I recommend the Tensorate series by Neon Yang (the first book is called The Black Tides of Heaven). It has one of my favorite magic systems I've ever read in a fantasy book. And for Japan, I don't think you can go wrong with Lonely Castle in the Mirror!

[@alicen3162]

Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories is on my reading list and i'm very excited to read it! It's apparently a folklore fairytale classic so it sounds exactly like what you are looking for😊

[@zhrraaw]

for an Iranian fiction book, there is this fantasy-fiction that has that fantasy elements that you seek but i'm not sure if it has been translated to english or not. it's called " Parsiaan and i" by Arman Arian and it's about persian mythology. and of course there is the great "shahnameh" which is THE book for persian fiction and persian literature. Sadegh Hedayat is a well-known iranian author whose books have been translated to other languages and he does a great job picturing the scenes. his books mostly have this dark gothic vibe that i think you'll actually love. although he lived in france for a while and had been affected by french culture, you can still see the iranian elements in his stories. "Perspolis" is another masterpiece by Marjaneh Satrapi. it's actually not a fantasy and not fiction either, but believe me, it's not like any other book that you've read. i'm not gonna say anything about this one, because i really want to see your reaction and your honest take from this book. Firoozeh Jazayeri Duma is an iranian-american author who writes about her memories from iran. i only have read one of her books and enjoyed it soooo much! it's amazing how much she remembers from iran and her days in here! and the way she tells those stories is just inspiring! i burst out laughing every pages in a while! i'm pretty sure you'll love it! i actually know a lot other iranian books but i'm kind of sure they haven't been translated. i'll be so very happy if you read a book from our culture considering the situation in our country. love you soooo much, Z

[@KatieC88]

My two recommendations are "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria (which is about the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War and quite emotional) and "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith from Botswana (which is just a light-hearted easy read). I think both were published from the UK, but are two of my favourite books!

[@inkygenes]

Hi, I'm from Cuba! Seeing you enjoy magical realism I would recommend El Reino de este Mundo by Alejo Carpentier. Also, an emblematic book from Cuba is La Edad de Oro, a recopilation of tales for children which includes poetry and some small historical essays; every child in Cuba has read it at least once.

[@anavidreader277]

Having done this challenge for over a year and a hell of a lot of research it’s impossible to exclusively read science fiction or fantasy but with a bit of deep diving you can do it for most! I’ll share my list in a minute :)

[@reverie2190]

PLEASE FROM SPAIN I’m begging you to read “The shadow of the wind “ from Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I can tell how much you would love it 💘

[@riakataria8085]

sri lanka: a passage north - anuk arudpragasam india: the palace of illusions - chitra banerjee pakistan: midnight doorways - usman t. malik

[@kylewhelan23]

Your content always brings me the sweetest smiles, thank you

[@dettymakesart]

Hi, hungarian here:) i can't really give you any hungarian fantasy recs but i believe Attila Veres has a book called The black maybe, I dont know if its good because I didn't get the chance to read it yet but I loved his hungarian works, he writes in a very unique weird horror-ish style. Also Magda Szabo had lots of her books translated, they're really good. 😊

[@justjay6388]

hi leonie! albanian here :) for my country i would definitely recommend you read “the ghost rider” by ismail kadare (alternatively titled “doruntine”.) he’s one of the most well known albanian authors and his books are some of the easiest to find translated in english, and this one is a novelization of one of the most famous albanian legends, the ballad of constantine / kostandin and doruntine. it’s a great horror read that you will find to be faintly reminiscent of the legend of sleepy hollow, and also a great introduction into gothic albanian folklore. other than the horror aspect, it’s a very haunting and heartbreaking tale of how powerful the love between two siblings is that not even death can part them. it’s a story i originally studied in grade school as a folk ballad & later saw as a theater play. i hope you check it out and enjoy it!! thank you for doing this series, it’s inspired me to challenge myself to read a book from every country i haven’t!!

[@lisagna7234]

That sounds amazing!

[@justjay6388]

@@lisagna7234 it truly is, i highly recommend it!!

[@AMY-vx5ww]

I am obsessed with your channel now🤯🌟

[@hegaukatze1599]

I ❤ reading around the world videos. For Germany: I know that "Tschick" is translated to english, which is a modern book and not an old classic. German fantasy for example: never ending story and Momo (M. Ende) the little witch and Krabat (O. Preussler), ink heart (C. Funke).

[@BleistiftSchwert]

I can really see Leonie reading Momo and Krabat

[@hegaukatze1599]

@@BleistiftSchwert yes Momo!

[@carlacarinreads7634]

Momo is perfect❤

[@justjaq2319]

Ohhh Umberto Eco!! Il nome della rosa (the name of the rose in English, I think?) is also a really cool mystery with interesting philosophical and linguistic elements set in a monastery :)

[@pendragon2012]

What a great challenge! I look forward to seeing the results! And yes, do read One Hundred Years of Solitude. I read it on Emma's recommendation and did not regret it. For Finland, you might look for a copy of The Kalevala--an old fairy tale. Have a great week, Leonie!

[@winterwonderbookland3679]

Hey Leonie, I got so excited when I saw Jostein Gaarder mentioned, he is one of my favorite authors! Sophie’s World is pretty good, but my personal fave is The Solitaire Mystery. It’s philosophical speculative fiction and I can highly recommend it!

[@bia-cz2hi]

Im from Brazil and my favorite book is jorge amado sand captains, its about the obstacles of living in a very poor place. So good!

[@ells94w]

I looove this topic of reading a book from every country!!!! Loved the video Leoni!!

[@emilycuneo42]

Thanks for the sci-fi/fantasy recommendations! I also prefer speculative fiction to literary fiction, so it's nice to see recommendations for books from other countries that I might actually be interested in!

[@radoslayoufo]

This challenge sounds so interesting and fun! Keep us posted on how you're progressing too :) From Bulgaria I would recommend Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov. It was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023. It is certainly speculative, as there are "clinics for the past" or "time shelters", where patients can dwell in the past and relive their golden age of their choosing. At the same time it also heavily draws on the history and culture of our country too.

[@mayisunreal]

For Spain, you should real y read Carlos Ruiz Zafon or if you want something a bit more classic Lorca is a good option!!!

[@snapdragona]

Oh my god Leonie you just unlocked a core memory of me reading Sophie's World when i was younger.

[@siskenbe]

Hi, Belgian here :) If you want to read something from Belgium I recommend De engelenmaker by Stefan Brijs (for non-Dutch speakers: it has been translated into English as The angel maker). It's about a mad professor and cloning, set in de 1980's but it feels very gothic. Another great recommendation is Het echte leven by Adeline Dieudonné (translated from French - she's from Brussels - La vraie vie and it also has an English translation: Real life). It's about a girl who wants to put back the smile on her little brother's face after he witnesses a horrible accident an retreats into himself, and she turns to science to do this. Not for the faint hearted, but definitely a great read. And off course, everything by Amélie Nothomb, though her early works are the best.

[@fatimajawad1549]

As a Pakistani I’d highly recommend manto. Anything by that writer is mind blowing and so eye opening. He wrote short stories about all bitter and ugly aspects of society so just a heads up that’ll be very dark lol

[@maryambabar2117]

Oh, hello fellow Pakistani! I don't know if you've read this series but I'd also recommend to you The Marghazar Trials by Aamna Qureshi which is set in fictional Swat.

[@raenef21]

I'd recommend Rosewater by Tade Thompson for Nigeria. It's about a town built around an alien biome that popped up one day. And also a detective story involving psychic powers.

[@lea8457]

My favourite german fantasy books are "Igraine the brave" by Cornelia Funke, "Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures" by Walter Moers and "Momo" by Michael Ende.

[@J_R186]

Also The Never-ending story by Michael Ende 😍

[@alien777]

Lycidas by Christoph marzi is great

[@c4refu11i]

What a great format! You already received plenty of good German recommendations like Inkheart by Cornelia Funke or the never ending story by Michael Ende but I actually wanted to recommend you a Portuguese book. On my travels to Portugal a guide told us about the author José Saramago who is like a national hero. I read the elephants journey and loved it - it is super funny, narrated in the perspective of an elephant and is just pretty wholesome alltogether. A good Swedish book was "the hundred year old who claimed out of the window and disappeared".

[@nevskislake]

The Route of Ice & Salt sounds like my kind of book. Thank you for this video!

[@mariaaramirez2735]

I need to jump on my studies right now. But the moment I heard you say you had a TBR for other countries I stayed watching this because I felt you had colombia on your list. Now I can hit the books in peace.

[@hodif]

Moomitrolls were in my school program, and as a child I was really impressed. Maybe it was even that first book with which my reading way has been started. It really has a special comfort atmosphere. (Sorry, I assume I've made some grammar mistakes, but I'm from Ukraine and still try to learn English)

[@paulinehamerslag3428]

Hi Leonie! I'm Dutch and I can't recommand the Dutch author Thomas Olde Heuvelt enough! He writes these creepy, really scary books like Hex and November. They are translated into English, November even takes place in the US.

[@jamesduggan7200]

Okay! I'm excited to be part of this reading excursion. You've mentioned titles that are near and dear to my heart, and I hope sincerely you derive the same degrees of pleasure from them that I have had. Take care.

[@portiakunz3378]

Hello! I just got to the part where you mentioned Jawbone for Ecuador but I think you might also enjoy Poso Wells by Gabriela Aleman. For Uruguay, I also really really recommend short stories from Horacio Quiroga. I read a collection titled “The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories” and loved it. The setting is so vivid. Really fantastic.

[@PrisBzo]

You should read Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (for Mexico, it’s tiny and I’ve read it inspired Garcia Marquez to write 100 years of solitude) plus it’s one of my favorite books :)

[@stefaniacampos4992]

Yes yes yes! When she mentioned México I was expecting her to talk about Pedro Páramo

[@PrisBzo]

@@stefaniacampos4992 siiii! I hope she reads it! I know she’d love it!

[@princessbubblegum7111]

If you intrested in reading some Belarusian literature, there's a collection of stories by Jan Barszczewski "Shlyakhtich (Nobleman) Zawalnia, or Belarus in fantastic stories". It's a collection of gothic and folk horror stories based on eerie tales and legends of northern Belarus which are told by Zawalnia to his guests or travellers. Just like you, I wasn't really interested in the books that we read at school, but "Shlyakhtich Zawalnia" might be an exeption, I really loved it!

[@_ashleylh]

Yay for several Canadian books! I'm from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. I have an adult fantasy from Canada to recommend that actually has super Canadian vibes (though to be honest it is currently on my TBR but I'm thinking it's going to be good). It's about a Metis witch going on a witchy road trip and finding things out about her Indigenous ancestors. It's called "VenCo" by Cherie Dimaline. A sci-fi dystopian book from France that I've recently read is called, "I Who Have Never Known Men" and it was bleak but fantastic. I have a lot of books from other countries on my TBR shelf this year, too - particularly Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea

[@andreapap15]

the island of missing trees is gorgeous, and also takes place in cyprus

[@jodiet]

for Singapore, "Red Earth" by Esther Vincent Xueming is a lovely little poetry collection that can literally be read in one sitting!

[@i_dont_know_who_i_am69]

I think you're gonna love the Moomin books. i was gonna recommend them cuz theyre also in that "all vibes no plot" category of fantasy. The good thing about them is that they're all short and standalone, but if I had to pick one to recommend it would probably be Moominland Midwinter. Tove Jansson's writing is just so subtle and beautiful. I read those books to learn Swedish, not expecting to like them so much, and it ended up being one of my favorite series.

[@johat1219]

Chilean here. I don´t really have fantasy/sci fi chilean authors that I have personally read, but Aurea Ediciones has a full collection of emerging authors in this categories. Most recently, a friend of mine published his first novel this way, Diego Vergara with Zoma. I don´t know how available these kind of books are in other languages, because fantasy/sci fi is an emerging genre in popularity (our most noted authors are dedicated to poetry or magical realism). Doing a little research, Hugo Correa was a chilean author that participated in the writers program from Iowa university, getting some of his stories presented by Ray Bradbury in the Magazine of fantasy and science fiction, at a time Issac Asimov was it´s scientific editor, so he does have translated works and it´s the only chilean listed in The encyclopedia of science fiction.

[@user-qp8xk8kl9x]

So happy to see u 🎉 I also think of doing this challenge before!

[@ritaferrao2669]

Heeey ! From Portugal ! My recommendation it's blindness by José Saramago. It's a great book once you get over the writing style (aka the guy didn't know the concept of pontuation). And please be in the right state of mind it's about a pandemic people start to get blind for no apparent reason except dor 1 women and its social critic about how people react to it !

[@booksvsmovies]

I promise I'm not trying to be pedantic but technically most countries in the British Commonwealth (Jamaica, South Africa, Malta etc) ARE English-speaking countries and have books by authors who fluently speak and write in English. It is limited to say that the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand are the only English-speaking countries when almost every single country previously colonized by England has English as one of their official languages. So don't assume a country with a majority non-white population immediatelyly means its non-English speaking.