Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Use this Topic to discuss books you are reading or that fit the 8th Scavenger Hunt task.

Task 8: Read a book from a country with 5 or fewer books on the Boxall list.

For this one I will probably read The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat of Iran- I believe it's the only Iranian List book.

I will probably read The Museum of Unconditional Surrender - one of five books from Croatia on the list.

Is it the country of origin/nationality of the author?

Taylor wrote: "Is it the country of origin/nationality of the author?"

Yes.

Which list is the best to use for this? I have a list by Rosemary, but it's missing some nationalities. As I was creating a list of potential books for this challenge, I noticed that some authors have more than one book, but are listed a couple times with their nationalities, and then sometimes not listed with their nationalities. For example: Mario Vargas Llosa and Isabel Allende together had 5 Peruvian books, but when I add the 1 missing label for Mario, there are now 6 Peruvian books from only 2 authors. Once the whole nationality column is filled in, I'm afraid the number of books under 5 will drastically be reduced for all countries. Just would like a bit more clarification if possible so I dont mess anything up. Thanks! (I personally am leaning towards counting the number of authors vs the number of books, but not sure how much wiggle room there is in this challenge).

Taylor wrote: "Which list is the best to use for this? I have a list by Rosemary, but it's missing some nationalities. As I was creating a list of potential books for this challenge, I noticed that some authors h..."

Based on my version of the list, these would be a reasonable accounting of your options, in alphabetical order of nationality*:

Albanian
Broken April - Kadare, Ismail
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost - Kadare, Ismail
The Successor - Kadare, Ismail

Ancient Greek
Aesop's Fables - Aesop
Chaireas and Kallirhoe (Callirhoe) - Chariton

Antiguan
Annie John - Kincaid, Jamaica

Armenian
Retreat Without Song - Shahnour, Shahan

Basotho
Chaka the Zulu - Mofolo, Thomas

Bosnian
Nowhere Man - Hemon, Aleksandar

Bulgarian
Under the Yoke - Vazov, Ivan
Auto-da-Fé - Canetti, Elias
A Ballad for Georg Henig - Paskov, Viktor

Chilean
The House of the Spirits - Allende, Isabel
Of Love and Shadows - Allende, Isabel
The Savage Detectives - Bolaño, Roberto
2666 - Bolaño, Roberto

Croatian
The Port (Luka) - Šoljan, Antun
S: A Novel About the Balkans - Drakulic, Slavenka

Cuban
Kingdom of This World - Carpentier, Alejo
The Lost Steps - Carpentier, Alejo
Three Trapped Tigers - Cabrera Infante, Guillermo
Before Night Falls - Arenas, Reinaldo
Dirty Havana Trilogy - Gutierrez, Pedro Juan

Danish
Out of Africa - Dinesen, Isak (Blixen, Karen)
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Høeg, Peter

Dominican
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Díaz, Junot

Egyptian
Midaq Alley - Mahfouz, Naguib
Miramar - Mahfouz, Naguib
Woman at Point Zero - Saadawi, Nawal El

English
Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit - Lyly, John
The Unfortunate Traveller - Nashe, Thomas
Thomas of Reading - Deloney, Thomas
The Pilgrim's Progress - Bunyan, John
Oroonoko - Behn, Aphra

Estonian
Professor Martens' Departure - Kross, Jaan

Finnish
The Unknown Soldier - Linna, Vaino
The Manila Rope - Meri, Veijo
The Summer Book - Jansson, Tove
The Year of the Hare - Paasilinna, Arto

Guinean
The Dark Child - Laye, Camara

Guyanese
Disappearance - Dabydeen, David

Icelandic
Independent People - Laxness, Halldór

Iranian
The Blind Owl - Hedayat, Sadegh

Israeli
In The Heart of the Seas - Agnon, Shmuel Yosef
Black Box - Oz, Amos
A Tale of Love and Darkness - Oz, Amos

Kenyan
The River Between - Thiong'o, Ngugi wa
Petals of Blood - Thiong'o, Ngugi wa
Matigari - Thiong'o, Ngugi wa

Korean
The Taebaek Mountains - Jo, Jung-Rae
Land - Park, Kyong-ni

Middle Eastern
The Thousand and One Nights - Anonymous

New Zealander
The Garden Party - Mansfield, Katherine
Faces in the Water - Frame, Jane

Nigerian
The Interesting Narrative - Equiano, Olaudah
Things Fall Apart - Achebe, Chinua
Arrow of God - Achebe, Chinua
Half of a Yellow Sun - Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Americanah - Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi

Pakistani
The Triple Mirror of the Self - Ghose, Zulfikar
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Hamid, Mohsin

Phoenician
Aithiopika (An Ethiopian Romance) - Heliodorus

Roman
Metamorphoses - Ovid
The Golden Ass - Apuleius, Lucius

Romanian
The Forest of the Hanged - Rebreanu, Liviu
On the Heights of Despair - Cioran, Emil

Senegalese
God's Bits of Wood - Sembene, Ousmane
So Long a Letter - Ba, Mariama

Serbian
Dictionary of the Khazars - Pavic, Milorad

Slovenian
Alamut - Bartol, Vladimir
A Day in Spring - Kosmac, Ciril

Sri Lankan
The English Patient - Ondaatje, Michael

Sudanese
Season of Migration to the North - Salih, Tayeb

Trinidadian
The Lonely Londoners - Selvon, Sam
In A Free State - Naipaul, V.S.
A Bend in the River - Naipaul, V.S.
Enigma of Arrival - Naipaul, V.S.

Turkish
Life is a Caravanserai - Özdamar, Emine
Snow - Pamuk, Orhan

Ukrainian
The Cathedral - Honchar, Oles
Cataract - Osadchy, Mykhaylo
Suite Francaise - Nemirovsky, Irene

Uruguayan
The Shipyard - Onetti, Juan Carlos
Memory of Fire - Galeano, Eduardo

Valencian
Tirant lo Blanc (Tirant lo Blanch) - Martorell, Joanot

Vietnamese
Paradise of the Blind - Huong, Duong Thu

Zimbabwean
Nervous Conditions - Dangarembga, Tsitsi

*It is frequently a question of judgement as to how you might interpret an author's country of origin. The most obvious oddity that might leap out from my list here is that I have included five works by English authors (surely there are many more than five English authors on the list, I hear you ask) because I have counted only those works produced in the Kingdom of England before the Acts of Union in 1707 led to the formation of GB/UK.

Taylor wrote: "Which list is the best to use for this? I have a list by Rosemary, but it's missing some nationalities. As I was creating a list of potential books for this challenge, I noticed that some authors h..."

Your best source would be the Group's Bookshelf. Look at our homepage. On the right side, under the title picture, are a list of quick links. Click on Bòokshelf. On the left side you wiĺl find an index list of shelves. Country entries start with c_. You can see on the index how many books are listed for each country.

Isabel Allende, though born in Lima, is considered a Chilean writer.

Kimberly wrote: "I will probably read The Museum of Unconditional Surrender - one of five books from Croatia on the list."

This will be my pick, I was already planning on reading it as it is.

Karen wrote: "Isabel Allende, though born in Lima, is considered a Chilean writer."

I see Ishiguro in lists on "Japanese literature", despite the fact that he went to the UK as an infant and never wrote in Japanese (I'm not even sure he would be able to do so, it's quite a process, even if you can speak the language: takes people born and raised in Japan a whole 9 years to learn all basic kanji, there are additional ones in high school).

Nocturnalux wrote: "... I see Ishiguro in lists on "Japanese literature", despite the fact that he went to the UK as an infant and never wrote in Japanese (I'm not even sure he would be able to do so, it's quite a process, even if you can speak the language: takes people born and raised in Japan a whole 9 years to learn all basic kanji, there are additional ones in high school)."

I think Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia get this right when they refer to Ishiguro as a "Japanese-born British novelist." The Nobel Committee lists him as a UK writer, too.

I'm going to go with Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta for this one. On the group bookshelf it is listed as Zimbabwe (5 books total- yes 4/5 from Doris Lessing). She was born in Iran, moved to Zimbabwe when she was 6, and lived there until she was 30, and is usually described as a British/Zimbabwean writer. I feel like that counts (I also have under 200 books left on the combined list so it better lol).

Alec wrote: "Taylor wrote: "Which list is the best to use for this? I have a list by Rosemary, but it's missing some nationalities. As I was creating a list of potential books for this challenge, I noticed that..."

What a Great help! Thank you 🙏

George P. wrote: "For this one I will probably read The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat of Iran- I believe it's the only Iranian List book."

Finished it.
I have a copy of The Dark Child (Guinea) that I am planning to read later in the year- if I do that would give me a double on this task. It's short and used copies $5 or $6.
I notice that I've read all three books from Bulgaria in Alec's list (thanks Alec for that post)- I'm crazy about Bulgarian literature ;) A Ballad for Georg Hening was my favorite and it's the shortest- it's hard to get one though.

Karen wrote: .... Isabel Allende, though born in Lima, is considered a Chilean writer.

That's correct, she is mis-identified in the Google doc as Peruvian. Her family left for Chile when she was three years old and in Wikipedia she is identified as of Chilean nationality. Her writer-uncle (or cousin once-removed?) Salvador Allende was Peruvian and even ran for president, which could cause confusion as to Isabel's nationality.
Vargas Llosa's nationality is listed as Peruvian on 3 books in the googledoc as has been noted, and not listed for Time of the Hero. Several other authors in the googledoc don't have their Peruvian nationality listed (Alegria, Arguedas and Bryce-Echinique); there are seven books by Peruvians as per the group bookshelf.

Under the Yoke; Ivan Vazov; 3/29.The author is Bulgarian and the book is set in 1870s Bulgaria.

Paradise of the Blind by Dương Thu Hương.
Dương Thu Hương is a Vietnamese author. Vietnam is a country with 4 books on Boxal list.

Dina wrote: "Paradise of the Blind by Dương Thu Hương.
Dương Thu Hương is a Vietnamese author. Vietnam is a country with 4 books on Boxal list."

Are you counting Duras here?

Nocturnalux wrote: "Dina wrote: "Paradise of the Blind by Dương Thu Hương.
Dương Thu Hương is a Vietnamese author. Vietnam is a country with 4 books on Boxal list."

Are you counting Dur..."
Bookshelf c_vietnam (4) in this group shows that there are 4 books, and yes Marguerite Duras is included.

Dina wrote: "Nocturnalux wrote: "Dina wrote: "Paradise of the Blind by Dương Thu Hương.
Dương Thu Hương is a Vietnamese author. Vietnam is a country with 4 books on Boxal list."

..."

Yeah, I personally wouldn't include her. She was a white woman, writing in French, born in colonized Vietnam.