* indicates a book that appears in our feature "Around the World in 80+ Books"published in the April 2002 issue of National Geographic Traveler.
*Heidi's Alp: One Family's Search for Storybook Europe,by Christina Hardyment (1987). It's a family affair as Hardyment and her four young daughters head out on a 4,000-mile (4,537-kilometer) road trip in search of the landscapes that inspired their favorite fairy tales.
Here is Where We Meet,by John Berger (2005). "The dead don't stay where they are buried," the narrator's long-dead mom confides to him while sitting on a park bench one steamy afternoon in Lisbon. "The dead…can choose where they want to live on Earth." In this innovative novel, the narrator sets off on a journey in the company of ghosts across Europe's history and varied landscapes, from the 1943 London Blitz to a Paleolithic cave, a market in Krakow, and Madrid's Ritz Hotel.
The Palace of the Snow Queen,by Barbara Sjoholm (2007). Inspired by her childhood fascination with Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, "The Snow Queen," author Sjoholm visits Scandinavia in winter during three different years. She observes the construction of the Icehotel in Kiruna, Sweden, and later spends a night there, watches films at an outdoor ice cinema, takes a dogsledding trip across the Finmark Plateau, and reads letters from all over the world at Santa's Post Office in Rovaniemi, Finland.
The Pillars of Hercules, by Paul Theroux (1995). The seasoned travel writer roves the Mediterranean coast by foot, horseback, train, and boat, hopscotching from pristine beaches to unspoiled villages from the Spanish coast and the French Riviera to Corsica, Sicily, and ultimately, North Africa.
Austria
The Reluctant Empress,by Brigitte Hamann, translated from the German by Ruth Hein (1986). History's 19th-century counterpart to Princess Di was Elisabeth of Austria, who at age 15, during a visit to the Austrian town of Bad Ischl, became engaged to Austrian emperor Franz Joseph. After marriage, "Sisi," as she was popularly known, embarked on a life of fame and luxury, living variously in Vienna's Hofburg Palace and the sprawling Schönbrunn Palace. She obsessed over fitness and appearance, was probably anorexic, and was never happy in her marriage. Hamann's biography tells the story of Sisi in detail, giving historical context to anyone visiting her palace homes today.
Vienna Blood,by Frank Tallis (2006). This thriller follows the search for a serial killer in 1902 Vienna, a city buzzing with the works of Freud, Klimt, and Mahler but also dealing with the rise of Nazism in Austria.
Belgium
The Sorrow of Belgium,by Hugo Claus, translation by Arnold Pomerans (1990). A Belgian boy navigates adolescence, an occupied country, and a family that's collaborating with the Nazis in this coming-of-age novel. Acclaimed Flemish writer Hugo Claus moves his rich, poetic scenes from bar to theater, church, and kitchen, leading an intimate tour through wartime Belgium.
Denmark
Smilla's Sense of Snow,by Peter Hoeg, translation by Tiina Nunnally (1993). Hoeg's protagonist, Smilla, a member of Denmark's Inuit/Greenlander community, confronts the tensions of Danish colonialism and the struggle for Greenlandic cultural identity as she investigates a young boy's death. The novel opens in Copenhagen and journeys through the city's streets to Greenland's Barren Glacier, tracing a mystery plot as chilling as the Arctic snow.
Finland
The Helsinki Chronicles of Dr. Louise C. Love and Mr. P.: Six Adventures in Finland's Capital, by Arthur M. Alexander, notes by Olen Sukkela Poika (2005). Ramble across Helsinki with Dr. Louise Love as she unravels six mysteries that take her (and the reader) all over Finland's capital. Learn about Helsinki sights and Finnish history, personalities, and language in this Sherlock Holmes-meets-Lonely Planet romp that entertains and informs travelers. Poika's "Notes" follow each mystery, adding interesting factoids and references.
The Kalevala,compiled by Elias Lonnrot, translation by Keith Bosley (1989). Like Britain's Beowulf and Greece's Odyssey,The Kalevala is Finland's 50-chapter national epic, comprised of old Finnish folk poetry compiled by 19th-century scholar Elias Lonnrot. This collection of ancient creation myths, journeys, weddings, duels, spells, and lessons inspired Finnish national identity and is required reading for understanding the country's psyche.
The Seven Brothers, by Aleksis Kivi, translation by Alex Matson (1929). Called "Finland's most celebrated literary treasure" and "the greatest Finnish novel of all time," this novel is a coming-of-age tale of seven brothers who struggle to survive and run the family farm after their parents die. Required reading for most Finnish students, The Seven Brothers celebrates the Finnish homeland and the transformation of seven scared young boys to noble men.
France
Capturing Paris, by Katharine Davis (2006). In this debut novel set against a romanticized backdrop of sidewalk cafés, intimate dinner parties, and quaint country gardens, American expats Annie and Wesley Reed live a posh lifestyle on the left bank of Paris, until a series of events causes marital upheaval and stirs up their dreamy outlook on the City of Light.
Exile's Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s, by Malcolm Cowley (1934). Cowley, one of the "Lost Generation" of American writers and artists, shares his anecdotes about the American literary community that settled in Paris post WWI. Enter the creative locus of a Paris that facilitated the birth of a fruitful new American literature by the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Stein.
*The Flâneur: A Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris, by Edmund White (2001). "Paris is a big city, in the sense that London and New York are big cities and that Rome is a village, Los Angeles a collection of villages, and Zürich a backwater." So begins White, our flâneur (enlightened ambler), who lived in Paris for 16 years.
A Gift from Brittany,by Marjorie Price (2008). In this memoir, American artist Price recounts her struggles and triumphs in a traditional Breton village after she meets and marries (and eventually leaves) a mercurial French painter.
Les Misérables,by Victor Hugo (1862). This epic novel brings to melodramatic life the Battle of Waterloo, the Revolution of 1830, and no end of Parisian local color.
*A Moveable Feast,by Ernest Hemingway (1964). "This is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy," recollects Hemingway in this vivid memoir of 1920s Paris, a metropolis brimming with creative types and revolutionary ideas.
My Life in France,by Julia Child (2006). Julia Child recounts her favorite, formative years (mainly 1948 through 1954) living, cooking, and eating with her husband in Paris and Marseille. Diving into cooking classes at the Cordon Bleu and buying produce from the "vegetable woman" at the neighborhood market on Rue de Bourgogne, Child tells how she fervently became transfixed with both the culinary arts and la belle France.
Nadja,by André Breton (1928). The narrator in this surrealist masterpiece pursues an enigmatic woman through the streets of a dreamlike Paris filled with sphinxes and electric signs.
Paris to the Moon,by Adam Gopnik (2001). An American's witty and informative memoir of life with his family in the city was mostly taken from essays published in the New Yorker.
A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne (1768). This satirical novel from the author of Tristram Shandy recounts a series of dramatic encounters during travels through France and Italy.
The Sun Also Rises,by Ernest Hemingway (1926). Weary ex-pats in Paris during the 1920s bemoan the state of their post-World War I lives while knocking back aperitifs, Pernods, and countless bottles of vin in cafés set in Montparnasse and along the cobblestones of the Rue Mouffetard. Their pilgrimage to Pamplona for the bullfights and encierro (a three-minute running of the bulls) immortalized that annual Spanish fiesta.
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes,by R.L. Stevenson (1879). Stevenson and his trusty-but-stubborn companion, a donkey named Modestine, trek through the Cevennes on a 12-day journey through remote France. Laced with self-deprecating wit, Stevenson's travelogue narrates the folksy Lozère villagers he encounters as well as his rocky relationship with Modestine.
*Two Towns in Provence,by M.F.K. Fisher (1964). Fisher, author of a wealth of worthwhile books, is like an Impressionist painter with a photographic imagination. In this book, France is her canvas. She contrasts village life in Aix-en-Provence with bustling Marseille, capturing with graceful finesse all the details and moods.
Vie Francaise,by Jean-Paul Dubois (2007). This translation of an award-winning 2004 French novel introduces English readers to Paul Blick, a literary French-everyman, as he travels through a life he's never quite sure is under his control. Dubois uses Blick's often uniquely ordinary exploits to mirror France's uneasiness with the rapid changes of 21st-century life. A Year in Provence,by Peter Mayle (1989). In this international best seller, Mayle shares his and his wife's love for Provence as they leave their home in England and move to a 200-year-old farmhouse in France's Lubéron Valley. Watch goat-racing, hunt for mushrooms, contend with the aftermath of the mistral, walk the countryside—live the Provençal life through Mayle's words.
Berlin Diary: Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941, by William Shirer (1941). One of the greatest 20th-century journalists provides a riveting eyewitness account of the Nazis' rise to the power. Shirer spent the 1930s as a CBS radio reporter in Berlin.
Berlin Noir,by Philip Kerr (1994). This highly readable trio of novels about Berlin is seen through the eyes and predations of a world-weary private eye before, during, and after World War II. Descriptions, characters, and wickedly clever turns of phrase out-Chandler even Chandler himself.
The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood (1946). This collection combines two of his best novellas: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin. Readers are thrown headlong into the artistic, debauched Berlin of the boisterous 1930s, as Nazism and World War II loom. Isherwood's unforgettable character Sally Bowles was the inspiration for the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret.
In A German Pension,by Katherine Mansfield (1911). Thirteen short stories, written after Mansfield herself visited a Bavarian spa town, take a bitingly humorous look at the German sensibility through the eyes of a proper English narrator.
The Innocent,by Ian McEwan (1990). This intelligent, under-the-skin spy thriller set in 1950s Berlin follows a young Brit who loses both his sexual and political innocence when assigned to work on a top-secret tunnel the Americans are building to infiltrate Soviet communications.
My Century, by Günter Grass, translation by Michael Henry Heim (1999). Through a collection of fictional stories, Nobel laureate Günter Grass narrates one hundred years of German history—one chapter for each year of the 20th century. Written from the perspective of one hundred different characters, each chapter relives, reconsiders, and re-creates Germany's history while voicing the varied experiences of German citizens.
Russian Disco,by Wladimir Kaminer (2000). This breakthrough work by a best-selling Russian-Jewish immigrant strings together dozens of smart and humorous vignettes about the quirks, foibles, and characters in post-reunification Berlin.
Simple Stories,by Ingo Schulze, translation by John E. Woods (2000). Set in the small town of Altenburg, 29 seemingly disconnected narratives converge to build a catalogue of contemporary German history. Schulze links the everyday trials of small-town politics and the extraordinary challenges of life in a fragile nation, exposing a complicated portrait of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall,by Anna Funder (2003). The all-pervasive and destructive powers of the East German secret police—the Stasi—come vividly to life through interviews with both victims and perpetrators in this Australian journalist's award-winning work.
Greece
Captain Corelli's Mandolin,by Louis de Bernieres (1994). This war-novel-turned-movie reveals the quirks and idiosyncrasies of close-knit village life in the Greek Isles' Cephallonia during the Italian occupation of the 1940s. The novel narrates the bittersweet love triangle between a beautiful local woman, her fiancé off at war, and an Italian officer stationed in the village.
*The Colossus of Maroussi,by Henry Miller (1941). Miller captures the spirit and warmth of the resilient Greek people in his story of a wartime journey from Athens to Crete, Corfu, and beyond with his friend Lawrence Durrell, himself the author of Bitter Lemons, a brilliant and funny evocation of Cyprus. Dinner With Persephone: Travels in Greece, by Patricia Storace (1996). In this New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Storace immerses readers in the restless modern Greece she experienced during the year she lived in Athens—the complexity of the Greek language, the often contradictory perception of women, the delicacies of the islands and daily routines, and the fervent pride for the past that dominates the consciousness of modern Greeks. Storace explains, "Greece, with its some twenty-five hundred islands, is like the human body, made up mostly of water, and like the body of someone you love, is finite, but inexhaustible."
Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens,by Sofia Zinovieff (2004). British anthropologist Sofka Zinovieff's account of moving to Athens with her expat Greek husband and two daughters captures the joyous exuberance and maddening contradictions of the city from an insider-outsider perspective.
Les Liaisons Culinaires,by Andreas Staikos (2000). A contemporary Athenian love story is told through the recipes of suitors Dimitris and Damocles who compete to win the affections of the capricious Nana.
Reflections on a Marine Venus, by Lawrence Durrell (1953). In this memoir about his stay in post-war Rhodes as an information officer, Durrell attempts "an anatomy of islomania," described as a condition suffered by those who find islands irresistible. Durrell describes Rhodian sunsets and Greek villages of creamy limestone and gives an account of the island's Crusader history—ultimately transforming readers into islomanes too. Prospero's Cell, by Lawrence Durrell (1945).Durrell and his family lived in Corfu from 1935 until the onset of World War II. Written in journal entries, this nostalgic account of his time there is steeped in the island's ambience, eccentric characters, mythology, and history.
The Fish Can Sing, by Halldor Laxness (1966). This wistful novel centers on Alfgrimur, an orphan boy being raised by adoptive grandparents in a humble fishing cottage and who might be related to Iceland's celebrity opera singer. Laxness paints a nostalgic picture of early 20th century Iceland (in the years leading up to the nation's independence), an old-fashioned era when farmers burned peat and dung, and Reykjavikresidents heated and cooked with coal and whale oil. Laxness won the 1955 Nobel Prize for literature and is Iceland's most renowned novelist.
Summer at Little Lava: A Season at the Edge of the World,by Charles Fergus (1998). In this memoir, Pennsylvania writer Fergus spends a summer in a farmhouse on the west coast of Iceland to deal with the grief of his mother's murder a few months before. The solitude of the house, dubbed Little Lava, on the edge of a volcanic field suits his melancholic mood, which tempers his closely observed descriptions of Iceland's long summer days, bird life, and dramatic landscape.
Ireland
By the Lake,by John McGahern (2002). The beauty of rural Ireland, its seasonal rhythms, and its tight-knit communities are the ultimate stars in McGahern's lyrical novel about a contemporary Irish couple who leave their jobs in London to live by a lake in the Irish countryside.
Circle of Friends,by Maeve Binchy (1991). In this coming-of-age novel (turned movie), best friends Benny and Eve enroll at a Dublin university, where they evolve from provincial schoolgirls from the small village of Knockglen to big-city university women. Binchy gives a spot-on description of university life, from the Great Hall to the Ladies Reading Room.
The Deportees,by Roddy Doyle (2008). Transformed 21st-century Dublin is the locus and focus of this brilliant collection of stories. Each of the eight tales unfolds from the same plot: A traditional born-in-Ireland protagonist encounters a denizen of the new Ireland, born in Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Russia, or the States, and complications careen ineluctably along.
Dubliners,by James Joyce (1914). This classic collection of short stories about everyday folk in early 20th-century Dublin includes the quietly devastating masterpiece "The Dead." Joyce told a friend, "I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin, I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world."
Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage,by Tim Robinson (1991). A "self-appointed resident scientific busybody," Robinson traverses the coastline of Arainn, the largest of Ireland's three Aran Islands, "at an inquiring, digressive, and wondering pace" and shares an interweaving account of the island's human and natural histories.
The Van,by Roddy Doyle (1992). Two things are big in today's Ireland: football (soccer) and fried foods. The Booker Prize-nominated novel deals with both in a laugh-out-loud story of an unemployed dad and his friend who team up to operate a fish-and-chips van in a working-class North Dublin suburb during the heady days of Ireland's participation in the 1990 World Cup.
Italy
After Hannibal,by Barry Unsworth (1996.) Unsworth lives in Umbria, and his familiarity with the place shines through in this satirical novel in which the land is as much a character as the colorful inhabitants of the Umbrian town he writes about. In fact, a piece of land—a shared neighborhood lane—sets the multi-threaded plot in motion.
Angels and Demons,by Dan Brown (2000). This fast-paced novel by the author of The Da Vinci Code features intrigue at the Vatican and is largely set in the Holy See and Rome. The descriptions and histories of some of Rome's most famous sites—including Piazza Navona—make it worthwhile.
As the Romans Do: An American Family's Italian Odyssey,by Alan Epstein (2000). In 1995 Epstein and his family moved from California to Rome. A European correspondent for American radio programs, Epstein delights in the Romans' dramatic, sensual, and communal approach to everyday life: from the city's labor strikes, business practices, confrontations in the piazza, flair for fashion, and meals in the trattoria.
Eating Up Italy, by Matthew Fort (2006). In this aptly titled adventure, Matthew Fort (food and drink editor for Britain's the Guardian) travels up Italy, from south to north on a Vespa, eating. The mouthwatering bonus: Fort peppers his book, so to speak, with authentic Italian recipes.
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia,by Elizabeth Gilbert (2006). The first third of this nonfiction book celebrates Gilbert's love affair with Roman food and restaurants; a funny and poignant portrait of the city's vaunted gastronomy.
Four Seasons in Rome,by Anthony Doerr (2007). Doerr recounts how he whisked his wife and newborn twins from their home in Boise, Idaho, to spend a year in Rome. Part parenting memoir, part love letter to the Eternal City, his memoir is set against an Italian background of piazzas, temples, and churches, and during the city's vigil for a dying Pope John Paul II.
*In Tuscany,by Frances Mayes and photographer Bob Krist (2000). As those who've read Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany know, Mayes can't seem to get enough of the feasts and fields of Italy. This book perfectly pairs her evocative writing (and recipes) with Krist's sensual photographs.
The Italians,by Luigi Barzini (1964). The veteran Italian journalist's essayistic interpretation of Italy and its people is very useful in deciphering Italians from an American perspective; in his youth he worked for two American newspapers. A still relevant primer to the Italian mind and a particular resource for a visit to Italy's capital.
La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind, by Beppe Severgini (2006). Along the same lines as The Italians by Luigi Barzini, this recently published book illuminates the many paradoxes that animate the Italian way of thinking. Italians "think it's an insult to our intelligence to comply with a regulation. Obedience is boring. We want to think about it."
The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria, by Marlena de Blasi (2007). Fans of Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun will like this memoir of chef and author de Blasi's move to Orvieto, Umbria, with her new Italian husband. Their plans to renovate a palazzo—surprise—don't go quite as expected. In the meantime, de Blasi learns the rhythms of Umbrian life, getting to know her neighbors and other Italians over delicious talk of food and wine. Regional recipes included.
My House in Umbria, by William Trevor (1991). In this closely observed novella, an English ex-prostitute/romance novelist invites an eclectic group of people back to her green-shuttered villa in Umbria after they survive a terrorist attack on a train. Maggie Smith stars in the 2003 film version.
No Vulgar Hotel: The Desire and Pursuit of Venice, by Judith Martin (2007). An acknowledged Venetophile, Martin (otherwise known as Miss Manners) dives with wit into the culture and obsessions of her favorite city. As she jaunts from posh palazzos to chic cafés, she can't help dispensing tips on how to comport yourself like a local.
On The Road With Francis of Assisi, A Timeless Journey Through Umbria and Tuscany, and Beyond, by Linda Bird Francke (2005). Francke packs this biography/travelogue with lots of colorful anecdotes past and present as she follows in the footsteps of St. Francis, using medieval texts as a guide. Her journey takes her from the saint's hometown of Assisi in Umbria to well-known cities like Siena, Bologna, Venice, and Rome—but also to lesser known spots such as Franciscan sanctuary La Verna in eastern Tuscany and Francis's beloved Rieti Valley.
Ratking,by Michael Dibin (1988). A Perugian industrialist is kidnapped and Venetian policeman Aurelio Zen is sent to investigate. This award-winning crime thriller is the first in a series set in various locales in Italy and featuring Zen. British writer Dibdin, who taught English in Perugia for several years, studs his taut narrative with asides about Italian history and mentality.
Roman Fever, by Edith Wharton (1934). In this gripping novella, two Manhattan widows meet in Rome and discover that their pasts are intertwined; the title refers to the malaria that affected Rome in the early 20th century.
*Sea and Sardinia,by D.H. Lawrence (1921). Nine days on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, west of the Italian mainland, was all it took to enchant Lawrence into writing this stylish and mesmerizing examination.
A Traveler in Rome,by H.V. Morton (1957). This acclaimed work of historical nonfiction visits important landmarks in Rome. A charming artifact from the 1950s, the author's impressions as a traveler to Rome illustrates how the city essentially hasn't changed in centuries.
A Valley in Italy: The Many Seasons of a Villa in Umbria,by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran (1995). Joining the subgenre of travel books devoted to fixing up decrepit villas in gorgeous settings, this memoir recounts de Teran's year-long renovation of her "dream house" in the small Umbrian village of San Orsola. The book revels in descriptions of gardens, wine-making, and friendly neighbors, and culminates in the arrival of a new baby for Teran's own bohemian family.
Watermark,by Joseph Brodsky (1993). After 17 years of yearly pilgrimages, the Nobel-laureate poet pays homage to the beauty of Venice. He writes that Venetian sunlight "runs ahead of you, strumming its lengthy rays—like a hot-footed schoolboy running his stick along the iron grate of a park or garden—along arcades, colonnades, red-brick chimneys, saints, and lions."
*Amsterdam, by Geert Mak, translation by Philipp Blom (1999). The city is much more than a charming backdrop for a Rembrandt or a safe haven for oldest-profession debauchery. Dutch journalist Mak tells the 800-year story of the city in a manner that's less history tome and more soap opera—in an erudite kind of way.
Amsterdam: A Traveler's Literary Companion,edited by Manfred Wolf (2001). This collection of 17 short stories by contemporary Dutch writers invites readers to explore Amsterdam from an insider's perspective. Arranged by the area of Amsterdam they depict—such as "Jewish Amsterdam," "Canals," and "Red-light District"—the stories offer quick tastes of the city's distinct neighborhoods.
Norway
The Fellowship of Ghosts,by Paul Watkins (2004). Trekking on foot solo through Norway's mountainous region, Watkins discovers the stark spirit and wild landscape of Scandinavia—expansive countryside, thousand-foot (305-meter) cliffs, shining fjords, harsh terrain, and "well-built" natives—in this lively and evocative memoir. Mysteries,by Knut Hamsun, translation by Sverre Lyngstad (2001; originally published in 1892). Hamsun, acclaimed and controversial author and winner of the Nobel Prize, tells the story of a peculiar stranger's entry into a small Norwegian village. As Hamsun exposes the protagonist's complicated psyche, he raises issues of existentialism and Christian piety triggered by life in Norwegian society.
Out Stealing Horses,by Per Petterson, translation by Anne Born (2006). Vivid descriptions of the rural Norwegian landscape highlight Norway's dark history, as an old man's search for refuge in remote eastern Norway only reminds him of his haunting childhood and the German occupation. Petterson reveals the upsetting and unremitting effects of death and delusion that linger in Norway long after the end of the German occupation.
Portugal
Baltasar and Blimunda,by Jose Saramago (1987). The Inquisition, empire-building, aviation exploration—Saramago's Portugal of the 18th century is an epic canvas for big ideas. But at the heart of this rich novel is a transcendent love story between a soldier and a clairvoyant. Saramago masterfully combines actual historical figures and events with magical fiction.
Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture,by Jose Saramago, translation by Amanda Hopkinson and Nick Caistor (2000). With the goal "to write a book on Portugal that [would be] capable of offering a fresh way of looking, a new way of feeling about the country's history and culture," Saramago traveled through his native country in 1979. The product of his journey appears in this blend of historical reference and perception of local life, as Saramago shares the trauma of a St. George statue shattered during a procession and his dreams of flying over the Estrela Mountains.
Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis,by Jose Saramago (1984). Ricardo Reis returns home to drizzly Lisbon (where "the sea ends and the earth begins") in 1936 after a 16-year stint in Brazil. The middle-aged doctor and poet ambles through the city'sgray streets and gets paid a visit by the ghost of celebrated Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, all while the beginnings of World War II and the Spanish Civil War brew around him in this nuanced Portuguese novel.
Spain
Barcelona, by Robert Hughes (1992). The eminent Australian art critic here writes the best book in English on the history of the city, its art and architecture, and the origins and unfolding of the Catalan identity. Encyclopedic, witty, gracefully written: essential background for everything in Barcelona a visitor is likely to see.
City of Marvels,by Eduardo Mendoza (1988). This picaresque historical novel (a bestseller in Spain) set in the years 1888-1927 brackets the two World's Fairs that put boomtown Barcelona on the map of Europe. Around the central character swirls a cast of cheats, anarchists, and visionary urban promoters.
Homage to Barcelona,by Colm Toibin (1990). This leading Irish novelist's personal collection of essays on Barcelona's art and architecture, history, cafés, and street life is inspired by his time living and teaching in Barcelona after graduating from university.
*Homage to Catalonia,by George Orwell (1938). Orwell joined the militia in the Republican Army as a private in 1937, but his book—an account of the Spanish Civil War—is more than a soldier's story; it's a remarkable portrait of a nation in the revolutionary throes of growth and self-definition.
Iberia, by James A. Michener (1968). Michener, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Tales of the South Pacific, evokes the visceral and sensory experience of the Spain he loves. Join him as he relishes fresh seafood, rests in the paradores, and wanders among cathedrals and statues that tell the history of Spain.
The Shadow of the Wind,by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2001). In the Franco years, a young bibliophile comes into possession of a mysterious book that leads him on a journey through the narrow streets of Barcelona's Gothic Quarter. This historical thriller weaves together narrative threads of passion, downfall, and revenge in the tradition of magical realism.
Spain in Mind,edited by Alice Leccese Powers (2007). Read Barbara Kingsolver's portrait of the Canary Islands, a poem about Picasso by e.e. cummings, and Langston Hughes's take on the Spanish Civil War—all in one book. This classy collection of short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry features three centuries worth of great writers celebrating Spain. The contents page looks like a great college reading list: Ernest Hemingway, W. H. Auden, Billy Collins, Richard Ford, George Orwell, Washington Irving, and more—the perfect read for the traveler interested in classic literature and Spain.
The Sun Also Rises,by Ernest Hemingway (1926). Weary ex-pats in Paris during the 1920s bemoan the state of their post-World War I lives while knocking back aperitifs, Pernods, and countless bottles of vin in cafés set in Montparnasse and along the cobblestones of the Rue Mouffetard. Their pilgrimage to Pamplona for the bullfights and encierro (a three-minute running of the bulls) immortalized that annual Spanish fiesta.
The Time of the Doves, by Merce Rodoreda (1980). Written in exile, when it was still forbidden to publish in Catalan, this epic tear-jerker of love gone wrong is set in the Barcelona of the 1920s-40s. Gabriel Garcia Marques called it "the most beautiful novel published in Spain since the Civil War."
Travels With My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago, by Tim Moore (2004). Take an ass named Shinto, a clueless traveler named Tim, and a country named Spain, and what do you get? Tim Moore's hilarious account of his 500-mile (805-kilometer) pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Tim is Britain's Bill Bryson—irreverent, funny, and surprisingly insightful and inspiring.
Blackwater,by Kerstin Ekman, translation by Joan Tate (1993). When a crime unfolds in the remote wilderness near the Norwegian border, it reveals the deception and secrecy of a northern Sweden small town. In this thrilling mystery, Ekman captures the "eerie atmosphere of the North, where it's either always dark or light but never truly warm."
Switzerland
Heidi,by Johanna Spyri (1880). This enduring tale of an orphan who is sent to live with her cranky grandfather in a Swiss mountain village continues to capture kids and adults with its spunky heroine and idyllic details of Alpine farms, fir trees, and flower-blanketed slopes.
Killing Dragons: The Conquest of the Alps, by Fergus Fleming (2000). With dry humor and deep research, Fleming sketches the often eccentric personalities driven to climb the Alps, from a 16th-century naturalist to Edward Whymper, the first person to scale the Matterhorn. This is also a portrait of "Europe's most majestic mountain range"—a place that up until the 18th century some people considered the domain of dragons.
La Nouvelle Héloïse: Julie, or the New Eloise: Letters of Two Lovers, Inhabitants of a Small Town at the Foot of the Alps, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated and abridged by Judith H. McDowell (1761). This lyrical novel played a crucial role in dismantling the image of Switzerland as a threatening, untamed territory. Rousseau's portrait of the romantic landscape and simple peasantry inspired flocks of Europeans to visit the Swiss countryside in the late 18th century. Discover for yourself why La NouvelleHéloïse was one of the most popular romance novels of its day.
La Place de la Concorde Suisse,by John McPhee (1984). Switzerland's famous neutrality is backed by one of the world's largest armies, per capita. McPhee delves into the Swiss army system with his characteristic knack for making the esoteric and mundane absolutely fascinating. From Geneva's neat-as-a-pin banking halls to the high ridges of the Alps on maneuver with a mountain patrol, he shows that Switzerland is anything but boring.
Scrambles Amongst the Alps In the Years 1860-69,by Edward Whymper (1871). This adventure classic is Whymper's own account of his dogged attempts to be the first to summit the Matterhorn—a feat he accomplished in 1865 and which quickly turned tragic as he lost four of his seven-man climbing team on the descent. A gifted draughtsman, he salts his narrative with many of his own illustrations.
United Kingdom
The Collected Stories, by Dylan Thomas (1984). This keepsake anthology gathers all of Welsh literary heavyweight Dylan Thomas's prose in one volume, including "A Child's Christmas in Wales" (set in his hometown of Swansea in South Wales, "at the rim of the carol-singing sea") and "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog."
The Crofter and the Laird,by John McPhee (1969). McPhee returns to the island of Colonsay in the Scottish Hebrides to write this account of his ancestral land. The stark, sparsely-populated region fills with history, legend, and personality, as McPhee describes the still-sacred relationship of crofter and laird.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, by Samuel Pepys (1660). The witty diarist provides candid insights into Restoration London—rich in indiscretions and infidelities, plus firsthand descriptions of historic milestones like the Great Fire and Great Plague.
Isolarion,by James Attlee (2007). Attlee grabs our hand and drags us down Cowley Road in Oxford, determined to prove that it is not a stuffy, medieval, Masterpiece Theatre town. All the messy glories of Cowley Road—pubs and porn shops alike—come to life in this work, which becomes a meditation on home and the nature of pilgrimage.
Liverpool Annie, by Maureen Lee (1998). Liverpudlian author Maureen Lee brings 20th-century Liverpool to life in her many novels, some based on memories of her own childhood. Liverpool Annie follows the ups and downs of life for Annie Harrison—from childhood, living happily in her aunt's crowded terrace house in Bootle, to teenage years hearing the Beatles play live at the Cavern Club, to running a successful clothing business as an adult.
London Fields,by Martin Amis (1989). This novel by one of Britain's most formidable literary talents is a visceral dissection of late 20th-century London. Amis's tale recounts the death foretold of Nicola Six. Is her killer dart-playing thug Keith Talent, or suave but sleazy banker Guy Clinch?
*London: The Biography,by Peter Ackroyd (2000). Ackroyd lights up nearly 800 pages of historical dissection (Druids to the present) with felicitous tales underscoring the city's raucous side.
The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country(1984) and A Writer's House in Wales (2002), by Jan Morris. These ideal introductions to Wales showcase Morris's skill at weaving telling details with sweeping historical themes. Each page illuminates her big-hearted affection for her home country.
On the Black Hill,by Bruce Chatwin (1982). Capturing the details and rhythms of life in rural Wales, Chatwin examines the impact of a modernizing world on a pair of insular Welsh twins living on a family farm along the English border.
Put Out More Flags, by Evelyn Waugh (1942). As World War II looms, socialite Basil Seal misbehaves in Mayfair and plays dirty tricks at the Ministry of Information. A biting satire of English upper classes.
The Secret Agent,by Joseph Conrad (1907). This dark, compulsive novel details the history of an anarchist bomb maker in London.
Wales Half Welsh,edited by John Williams (2004). This excellent anthology gathers 18 contemporary Welsh short stories by 11 of Wales's writers-to-watch, from Niall Griffiths to Trezza Azzopardi.
The Welsh Girl,by Peter Ho Davies (2007). In the last months of World War II, a quiet village in northern Wales is changed by the arrival of German prisoners of war to a camp set up by the British. In this compelling novel, Welsh antagonism to the English guards adds to the mix as a bittersweet romance develops between the daughter of a sheep farmer and a young German POW.
White Teeth,by Zadie Smith (2000). Smith's hilarious and popular debut novel connects multiple races, cultures, and historical periods, as two multiracial families, first joined by friendships formed during WWII, experience the idiosyncrasies of daily life and the challenges of the immigrant experience in contemporary London. The diversity and complexity of the London residents reflect the character of the city itself: eccentric and humorous, yet confronting serious challenges of race and class.
