Reading a book allows you to visit somewhere new, transporting you to the past, an imagined future, and entirely new worlds.I am not a big fiction reader but this looks like a pretty interesting list.
The best books are set in locations that are so vivid they feel like another character in the story. Many books are written by a local author who knows the back streets and unspoken history of a place. Occasionally an author will fall deeply in love with a new place, however, and base a fantastically evocative setting on an adopted home instead.
Whether you are looking to revisit a favorite country or learn about someplace new, our list of the most iconic books set in 150 countries has something for everyone. With this list, you can tour the entire world—without ever leaving home.
Best to go to the article for a thumbnail on each book, but here is the list.
Afghanistan: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Albania: Broken April by Ismail Kadare
Algeria: The Plague by Albert Camus
Angola: Good Morning, Comrades by Ondjaki
Antigua: A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Argentina: Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Armenia: Passage to Ararat by Michael J. Arlen
Australia: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
Austria: Radetsky March by Joseph Roth
The Bahamas: Wind from the Carolinas by Robert Wilder
Bangladesh: A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Barbados: Song for Night by Chris Abani
Belarus: Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
Belgium: War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertman
Belize: On Lizards, Heroes, and Passion by Zoila Ellis
Bhutan: The Circle of Karma by Kunzang Choden
Bolivia: American Visa by Juan de Recacoechea
Bosnia: The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric
Botswana: When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head
Brazil: The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa
Brunei: Devil of a State by Anthony Burgess
Bulgaria: Under the Yoke Ivan Vazov
Burma: Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
Cambodia: First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung
Cameroon: Dog Days: An Animal Chronicle by Patrice Nganang
Canada: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Chad: Told by Starlight in Chad by Joseph Brahim Seid
Chile: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
China: Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Colombia: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Costa Rica: The Lonely Men’s Island by Jose Leon Sanchez
Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast): The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan
Croatia: The Return of Philip Latinowicz by Miroslav Krleza
Cuba: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Cyprus: Othello by William Shakespeare
Czechia: I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Denmark: Beowulf
Dominica: Black and White Sands by Elma Napier
The Dominican Republic: The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Ecuador: The Villagers by Jorge Icaza
Egypt: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
El Salvador: Bitter Grounds by Sandra Benitez
Equatorial Guinea: By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel
Ethiopia: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Finland: Under the North Star by Väinö Linna
France: The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
Georgia: The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli
Germany: Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ghana: No Sweetness Here and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo
Greece: Zorba the Greek by
Grenada: Pynter Bender by Jacob Ross
Guatemala: Men of Maize by Miguel Ángel Asturias
Guinea: The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye
Guyana: Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris
Haiti: The Comedians Graham Greene
Honduras: Cipote by Ramón Amaya Amador
Hong Kong: A Many-Splendoured Thing by Han Suyin
Hungary: Fatelessness by Imre Kertész
Iceland: The Sagas of Icelanders
India: The White Tiger Aravind Adiga
Indonesia: This Earth of Mankind by Hasta Mitra
Iran: My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad
Iraq: The Long Way Back by Fuad al-Takarli
Ireland: Ulysses by James Joyce
Israel: Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz
Italy: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Jamaica: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Japan: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
Jordan: The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber
Kenya: Weep Not, Child by Ngūgī wa Thiong’o
Kosovo: Travels in Blood and Honey: Becoming a Beekeeper in Kosovo by Elizabeth Gowing
Kuwait: Small Kingdoms by Anastasia Hobbett
Kyrgyzstan: Jamila by Chingiz Aymatov
Laos: The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill
Latvia: The Earth is Singing by Vanessa Curtis
Lebanon: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Lesotho: Chaka by Thomas Mofolo
Libya: The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim al-Koni
Liechtenstein: Seven Years in Tibet: My Life Before, During and After by Heinrich Harrer
Lithuania: Vilnius Poker by Ričardas Gavelis
Madagascar: Voices from Madagascar
Malawi: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Brian Mealer
Malaysia: The Garden of Evening Mists by Yun Ling Teoh
Mali: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer
Mexico: Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
Monaco: Loser Takes All by Graham Greene
Mongolia: The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag
Montenegro: The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrovic Njegos
Morocco: The Sand Child by Tahar Ben Jelloun
Mozambique: Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto
Nepal: Palpasa Cafe by Narayan Wagle
Netherlands: The Diary of Anne Frank
New Zealand: The Matriarch by Witi Ihimaera
Nicaragua: Azul… by Rubén Darío
Nigeria: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
North Korea: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
Norway: Hunger by Knut Hamsun
Oman: The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye
Pakistan: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Palestine: Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
Panama: The Tailor of Panama by John le Carré
Papua New Guinea: The Crocodile by Vincent Eli
Paraguay: I, the Supreme by Roa Bastos
Peru: Who Killed Palomino Molero? by Mario Vargas Llosa
Philippines: Noli Me Tángere by José Rizal
Poland: Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz
Portugal: Blindness by José Saramago
Romania: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Russia: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Rwanda: Running the Rift by Jean Patrick Nkuba
Samoa: Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel
Saudi Arabia: Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
Senegal: So Long a Letter by Senegalese author Mariama Bâ
Serbia: Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić
Sierra Leone: A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Singapore: The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell
Slovakia: Rivers of Babylon by Peter Pišt’anek
Slovenia: Alamut by Vladimir Bartol
Somalia: The Orchid of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed
South Africa: Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
South Korea: The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Spain: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Sri Lanka: Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatjeh
Sudan: Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
Swaziland: Weeding the Flowerbeds by Sarah Mkhonza
Sweden: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Switzerland: Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Syria: The Dark Side of Love by Rafik Schami
Taiwan: Crystal Boys by Pai Hsien-yung
Tajikistan: Hurramabad by Andreī Volos
Tanzania: Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Thailand: The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
Tonga: Tales of the Tikongs
Trinidad and Tobago: A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Tunisia: The Pillar of Salt by Albert Memmi
Turkey: My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk
Turkmenistan: The Tale of Aypi by Ak Welsapar
Uganda: Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa
Ukraine: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky
United Arab Emirates: The Sand Fish by Maha Gargash
United Kingdom: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
United States of America: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Uruguay: The Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertís
Uzbekistan: Chasing the Sea by Tom Bissell
Venezuela: Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos
Vietnam: Paradise of the Blind by Dương Thu Hương
Yemen: A Land without Jasmine by Wajdi al-Ahdal
Zambia: A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe
Zimbabwe: The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
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