A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) by Khaled Hosseini

“A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them . . .” (Publisher’s description)

The Last Wave: An Island Novel (2014) by Pankaj Sekhsaria

“Ever the aimless drifter, Harish finds the anchor his life needs in a chance encounter with members of the ancient—and threatened—Jarawa community: the 'original people' of the Andaman Islands and its tropical rain forests. As he observes the slow but sure destruction of everything the Jarawa require for their survival, Harish is moved by a need to understand, to do something . . .” (Publisher’s description)

Teoria geral do esquecimento (2012) by José Eduardo Agualusa; A General Theory of Oblivion (2015) translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

“As [Angola] goes through various political upheavals from colony to socialist republic to civil war to peace and capitalism, the world outside seeps into Ludo's life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of someone peeing on a balcony, or a man fleeing his pursuers. A General Theory of Oblivion is a perfectly crafted, wild patchwork of a novel, playing on a love of storytelling and fable.” (Publisher’s description)

Las viudas de los jueves (2005) by Claudia Piñeiro; Thursday Night Widows (2009) translated from the Spanish by Miranda France

“A fast-paced thriller, Pineiro's novel describes and critiques the lifestyles of Argentina's nouveau riche, chronicling their rise into the exclusive world of the Heights and their downfalls as the economy sours after 9/11.” (Booklist)

Petit pays: roman (2016) by Gaël Faye; Small Country: A Novel (2018) translated from the French by Sarah Ardizzone

“A novel of extraordinary power and beauty, Small Country describes an end of innocence as seen through the eyes of a child caught in the maelstrom of civil war and genocide. Shot through with shadows and light, tragedy and humor, it is a stirring tribute not only to a dark chapter in Africa’s past, but also to the bright days that preceded it.” (Publisher’s description)

Fruit of the Drunken Tree (2018) by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

“A mesmerizing debut set against the backdrop of the devastating violence of 1990's Colombia about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both . . .” (Publisher’s description)

Trilogía sucia de La Habana (1998) by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez; Dirty Havana Trilogy (2001) translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer

“Banned in Cuba but celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world, Gutierrez's picaresque novel is a fierce, loving tribute to Havana and the defiant, desperate way of life that flourishes amid its decay.” (Publisher’s description)

Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí (1984) by Milan Kundera; The Unbearable Lightness of Being (2004) translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim

“A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover—these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel . . . In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel ‘the unbearable lightness of being’ . . .” (Publisher’s description)

The Map of Love (1999) by Ahdaf Soueif

“Spanning three continents and the course of a century, The Map of Love traces a transcendent cross-cultural love affair back to its dramatic precursor generations earlier . . . Combining the romance and intricate narrative of a nineteenth-century novel with a very modern sense of culture and politics—both sexual and international—Ahdaf Soueif has created a thoroughly seductive and mesmerizing tale.” (Publisher’s description)

Schwindel, Gefühle (1990) by W.G. Sebald; Vertigo (1999) translated from the German by Michael Hulse

"An unnamed narrator, beset by nervous ailments, journeys across Europe—to Vienna, Venice, Verona, Riva, and finally to his childhood home in a small Bavarian village. He is also journeying into the past. Traveling in the footsteps of Stendhal, Casanova, and Kafka, the narrator draws the reader line by line into a dizzying web of history, biography, autobiography, legends, literature, and—most perilously—memories." (Publisher’s description)

Schwindel, Gefühle / Vertigo is the first book in a trilogy.

Homegoing (2016) by Yaa Gyasi

“[Follow the parallel paths of two] sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast of Ghana to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.” (Publisher’s description)

This is Paradise: Stories (2013) by Kristiana Kahakauwila

This is Paradise: Stories is a debut collection that provides glimpses of life behind the touristy side of Hawai’i. Set on various islands, the stories show the complexities of modern Hawaiian life, which often includes navigating between past and present, tourists and islanders, native traditions and commercialism.

Mýrin (2000) by Arnaldur Indriðason; Jar City: A Reykjavik Thriller (2006) translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder

“When a lonely old man is found dead in his Reykjavik flat, the only clues are a cryptic note left by the killer and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Inspector Erlendur discovers that many years ago the victim was accused, but not convicted, of an unsolved crime, a rape. Did the old man's past come back to haunt him? As Erlendur reopens this very cold case, he follows a trail of unusual forensic evidence, uncovering secrets that are much larger than the murder of one old man.” (Publisher’s description)

Mýrin / Jar City is the third book in Arnaldur Indriðason’s Detective Erlendur mystery series.

A Fine Balance (1995) by Rohinton Mistry

“A portrait of India featuring four characters. Two are tailors who are forcibly sterilized, one is a student who emigrates, and the fourth is a widowed seamstress who decides to hang on. A tale of cruelty, political thuggery and despair by an Indian from Toronto . . .” (Publisher’s description)

Lelaki Harimau (2004) by Eka Kurniawan; Man Tiger (2015) translated from the Indonesian by Labodalih Sembiring

A violent murder disturbs life in a quiet, coastal village in Indonesia, and a young man with an inner white tigress is responsible. In unraveling what led to the crime, Man Tiger incorporates storytelling and mythology with cultural critique, with the village as much of a character as the people within it.

Exodus (1958) by Leon Uris

“Leon Uris tactfully meshes together the story of two 19th century Jewish brothers who seek refuge in Palestine with the 20th century story of how Israel gained its independence after World War II. Rich in historical accuracy and compelling characters, this literary classic sheds light on the long history of the Jewish diaspora, their struggles for liberation, and the costs of war.” (Publisher’s description)

The Hope (1993) and The Glory (1994) by Herman Wouk

“In The Hope, which opens in 1948 and culminates in the miraculous triumph of 1967’s Six-Day War, Wouk plunges the reader into the story of a nation struggling for its birth and then its survival. As the tale resumes in The Glory, Wouk portrays the young nation once again pushed to the brink of annihilation—and sets the stage for today’s ongoing struggle for peace . . .” (Publisher’s description)

Day After Night (2009) by Anita Diamant

"Day After Night is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisoners from the Atlit internment camp, a prison for 'illegal' immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp who survived the Holocaust . . ." (Publisher's description)

Death in a Strange Country (1993) by Donna Leon

“Early one morning Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Police confronts a grisly sight when the body of a young man is fished out of a fetid canal. All the clues point to a violent mugging, but for Brunetti the motive of robbery seems altogether too convenient. When something is discovered in the victim’s apartment that suggests the existence of a high-level conspiracy, Brunetti becomes convinced that somebody is taking great pains to provide a ready-made solution to the crime…" (Publisher’s description)

Death in a Strange Country is the second novel in Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti mystery series.

A vol d'oiseau by Véronique Tadjo; As the Crow Flies (2001) translated by Wangũi wa Goro

“The narrative . . . weaves together a rich tapestry of characters who are both nameless and faceless, representing everyman and everywoman, to tell stories of parting and return, suffering, healing and desire in a lyrical and moving exploration of the human heart. Like a bird in flight, the reader travels across a borderless landscape composed of tales of daily existence, news reports, allegories and ancestral myths, becoming aware in the course of the journey of the interconnection of individual lives.” (Publisher’s description)

A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014) by Marlon James

“Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters—assassins, drug dealers, journalists, and even ghosts—James brings to life the people who walked the streets of 1970s Kingston, who dominated the crack houses of 1980s New York, and who reemerged into a radically altered Jamaica of the 1990s.” (Publisher’s description)

The Gift of Rain (2007) by Tan Twan Eng

The Gift of Rain is a historical fiction that primarily takes place on the island of Penang (then Malaya, now Malaysia) on the eve of and during World War II. The story of a mixed race (Chinese and English) teenage boy from a wealthy family who develops a friendship with a Japanese diplomat, it is about identity and belonging, as well as loyalty and betrayal.

Le dernier frère (2007) by Nathacha Appanah; The Last Brother (2011) translated from the French by Geoffrey Strachan

“As 1944 comes to a close, nine-year-old Raj is unaware of the war devastating the rest of the world. He lives in Mauritius, a remote island in the Indian Ocean, where survival is a daily struggle for his family. When a brutal beating lands Raj in the hospital of the prison camp where his father is a guard, he meets a mysterious boy his own age. David is a refugee, one of a group of Jewish exiles whose harrowing journey took them from Nazi occupied Europe to Palestine, where they were refused entry and sent on to indefinite detainment in Mauritius . . .” (Publisher’s description)

Dogside Story (2001) by Patricia Grace

Set in a rural coastal community in New Zealand, Dogside Story is about a young man trying to claim his daughter, as well as his community and its relationship to outsiders. Like many of Grace’s novels, it provides insight into contemporary Maori life and employs Maori words and rhythm.

Ciudad de payasos (2003) by Daniel Alarcón and Sheila Alvarado; City of Clowns (2015) translated from Spanish

“Oscar ‘Chino’ Uribe is a young Peruvian journalist for a local tabloid paper. After the recent death of his philandering father, he must confront the idea of his father's other family, and how much of his own identity has been shaped by his father's murky morals . . .” (Publisher’s description)

Ciudad de payasos / City of Clowns is a graphic novel.

Rodzinna Europa (1959) by Czesław Miłosz; Native Realm: A Search for Self-Definition (1968) translated from the Polish by Catherine S. Leach

“Before he emigrated to the United States, Czesław Miłosz lived through many of the social upheavals that defined the first half of the twentieth century. Here, in this compelling account of his early life, the author sketches his moral and intellectual history from childhood to the early fifties, providing the reader with a glimpse into a way of life that was radically different from anything an American or even a Western European could know . . . ” (Publisher’s description)

Les cigognes sont immortelles (2018) by Alain Mabanckou; The Death of Comrade President: A Novel (2020) translated from the French by Helen Stevenson

“The Death of Comrade President [tells] the story of Michel, a daydreamer whose life is completely overthrown when, in March 1977, just before the arrival of the rainy season, Congo’s Comrade President Marien Ngouabi is brutally murdered . . . Moving seamlessly between the small-scale worries of everyday life and the grand tragedy of postcolonial politics, Mabanckou explores the nuances of the human soul through the naive perspective of a boy who learns the realities of life―and how much must change for everything to stay the same.” (Publisher’s description)

Петербург: роман (1913) by Andrey Bely; Petersburg (2018) translated and annotated from the Russian by Robert A. Maguire and John E. Malmstad

“Set in 1905 in St. Petersburg, a city in the throes of sociopolitical conflict, the novel follows university student Nikolai Apollonovich Ableukhov, who has gotten entangled with a revolutionary terrorist organization with plans to assassinate a government official—Nikolai's own father, Apollon Apollonovich Ableukhov. With a sprawling cast of characters, set against a nightmarish city, it is all at once a historical, political, philosophical, and darkly comedic novel.” (Publisher’s description)

Leaves of the Banyan Tree (1994) by Albert Wendt

Considered a classic of Pacific literature, Leaves of the Banyan Tree is a family saga that spans three generations and covers the period of New Zealand colonization of (Western) Samoa through the early years of independence (early 1900s to 1970s). It tells the stories of the men in the family and touches on such heavy topics as greed, corruption, environmental destruction, loss of traditional life, and the effects of colonization, especially through religion.

Sweet and Sour Milk (1979) by Nuruddin Farah

“The first novel in Farah's universally acclaimed Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship trilogy, Sweet and Sour Milk chronicles one man's search for the reasons behind his twin brother's violent death during the 1970s [in Somalia] . . .” (Publisher’s description)

Indala id' indoda (2012) by Nkosinathi Sithole; Hunger Eats a Man (2015) translated from the Zulu

“Beautifully poetic, funny and highly relevant, Nkosinathi Sithole’s debut novel highlights the ongoing plight of many rural South Africans and the power of a community working together to bring about change.” (Publisher’s description)

Lyrics Alley (2010) by Leila Aboulela

“Lyrics Alley is the evocative story of an affluent Sudanese family shaken by the shifting powers in their country and the near-tragedy that threatens the legacy they’ve built for decades . . . Moving from Sudanese alleys to cosmopolitan Cairo and a decimated postcolonial Britain, this sweeping tale of desire, loss, despair, and reconciliation is one of the most accomplished portraits ever written about Sudanese society at the time of independence.” (Publisher’s description)

Materena Mahi trilogy (2000, 2004, 2006) by Célestine Hitiura Vaite [on order]

This trilogy, comprised of Breadfruit, Frangipani, and Tiare in Bloom, follows the lives of Materena and her family in rural Tahiti. Told in short stories, it describes characters and events while incorporating traditional folklore, local history, and contemporary politics, showing what reality can be like behind the picture-perfect postcards.

Kintu (2014) by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

“Kintu is a modern classic, a multilayered narrative that reimagines the history of Uganda through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan . . . In an ambitious tale of a clan and a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future . . .” (Publisher’s description)

The Steppe, and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov; edited and translated (1991) from the Russian by Ronald Hingley

“The first of Chekhov's works to be published in a serious literary journal, The Steppe, with its masterly account of a spectacular thunderstorm, signifies his maturation as a writer of short stories. While the majority of his tales focus on the privileged classes, this selection shows that Chekhov never forgot his origins as the son of a failed provincial grocer, and characters as varied as the brutal soldier in Gusev, the downtrodden old constable in On Official Business, and the bemused peasants in New Villa testify to the power and flexibility of his art.” (Publisher’s description)

Железная дорога (1997) by Hamid Ismailov; The Railway (2006) translated from the Russian

“Set mainly in Uzbekistan between 1900 and 1980, The Railway introduces to us the inhabitants of the small town of Gilas on the ancient Silk Route. Among those whose stories we hear are Mefody-Jurisprudence, the town's alcoholic intellectual; Father Ioann, a Russian priest; Kara-Musayev the Younger, the chief of police; and Umarali-Moneybags, the old moneylender. Their colorful lives offer a unique and comic picture of a little-known land . . .” (Publisher’s description)

I︠A︡lmoghiz Gei︠a︡ ë mŭr-malakh malikasi (2019) by Hamid Ismailov; Gaia, Queen of Ants (2020) translated from the Uzbek by Shelley Fairweather-Vega

“Uzbek author-in-exile Hamid Ismailov . . . narrates an intimate clash of civilizations as he follows the lives of three expatriates living in England. Domrul is a young Turk with vague and painful memories of ethnic strife in the Uzbekistan of his childhood. His Irish girlfriend Emer struggles with her own adolescent trauma from growing up in war-torn Bosnia. Domrul is the caretaker for Gaia, the eighty-year-old, powerful wife of a Soviet party boss with a mysterious past . . . . As Ismailov’s characters grapple with questions of faith, power, sex, and family, Gaia, Queen of Ants presents a moving tale of universal themes set against a Central Asian backdrop in the twenty-first century.” (Publisher’s description)

The Hairdresser of Harare (2010) by Tendai Huchu

“Vimbai is the best hairdresser in Mrs. Khumalo's salon, and she is secure in her status until the handsome, smooth-talking Dumisani shows up one day for work. Despite her resistance, the two become friends, and eventually, Vimbai becomes Dumisani's landlady . . .Yet, by novel's end, the pair's deepening friendship . . . collapses in unexpected brutality. The novel is an acute portrayal of a rapidly changing Zimbabwe . . .” (Publisher’s description)