For Angola, I read The Return of the Water Spirit by Pepetela, which is the nom de plume of Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana. Pepetela was born in Angola in 1941, left for Portugal in 1958 to study engineering, spent time in France and then Algeria, and returned to Angola at the end of its war for independence in the 1970s.

The Return of the Water Spirit is a novella that takes place in Luanda, the capital of Angola in the late 1980s as the newly independent country abandoned socialism in favor of capitalism. Buildings in the city have mysteriously begun to crumble and fall, but anyone inside floats safely to the ground.

The story is a scathing critique of capitalism that draws upon African mythology. It was a quick enjoyable read that gave me a lot of insights into life in Angola in the 1980s, and I’d recommend it to anyone on a Read Around the World quest or any bookworm interested in a modern-day fable that might challenge their preconceived notions about the world.

For Andorra, I read The Teacher of Cheops by Albert Salvadó. Andorra is a tiny landlocked country located between France and Spain. As of 2023, its population was about 85,000 souls–that’s 50,000 fewer people than the city of Pasadena, California, where I live. Still, I hoped I could find a book that gave me a glimpse into life in Andorra from the perspective of an Andorran-born writer.

Spoiler alert: I could not.

I found one Andorran-born writer whose works have been translated into English, but he writes historical fiction. I read through the descriptions of his available works, and it didn’t seem like any of them were located in Andorra.

I did find plenty of books written by English speakers who had traveled to Andorra or even lived there, but none of them were from Andorra. For example, the chef Eric Ripert has a memoir, 32 Yolks, and he lived in Andorra for several years during his childhood. Could I read that instead? I considered this option for several days, but in the end, it just didn’t feel right for my quest. Eric Ripert is FRENCH, not Andorran, and I’ve already read several books by French authors. I am trying to break away from my tendency to read books written by authors from a limited part of the globe, and choosing 32 Yolks for Andorra felt like cheating.

Look. I’m not saying I’m entirely above cheating during this project. But cheating when I’m only on the As? Maybe when I get to the Qs, but Andorra is way too early to cheat with a French chef’s memoir.

I then briefly wondered if I could read something in Catalan? Like something really short? Hey, I took Spanish for four years in high school, and yes, one of those teachers is from Lithuania and the other is a nice Jewish girl from Ohio, but yo hablo un pocito de nevermind. If I want to finish this quest in my lifetime, I have to stick to books written in or translated into English.

I resolved to read something by Albert Salvadó and chose The Teacher of Cheops because I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Egypt, and the book was…

well…

It wasn’t my favorite.

It’s about an accountant in ancient Egypt, and I didn’t think it was possible to write a boring story about ancient Egypt, but apparently there is at least one way.

The translation is also appalling. A translator is credited, and it’s highly possible he let Google do the work. On the bright side, I now have a deep appreciation for the skill, time and talent involved in translating works into English. (Alberto, if you are reading this, please hire a different translator for your next book.)

There are some terrible sex scenes (to the point of at least being humorous) and some cringey misogny, but hey, at least I read a book by an Andorran author. Right?

For Belarus, I picked Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich AND I CANNOT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT ABOUT THIS BOOK, GAH! IT WAS SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!

I picked Svetlana Alexievich as my author for Belarus because (1) although she was born in Ukraine, she spent most of her life in the Soviet Union and Belarus and she is a citizen of Belarus and (2) she won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for “her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” She was the first author to win the Nobel Prize for non-fiction in a half-century! The New Yorker has a great article about her work.

Secondhand Time is an oral history and unlike anything I’ve ever read. It feels like Alexievich has invented a new genre. I majored in history in college, and I loved my history classes at Dartmouth, but while reading Secondhand Time, I kept wishing my classes had included more of this sort of history. The history I studied in college was the stuff of dates and documents, battles and elections, and the men (and occasional woman) in charge. This book presented the stories of regular people struggling to live in the former Soviet Union. Instead of learning about the weapons used at a battle, I learned about how the battles affected those living in war-torn countries. Instead of reading treaties, I learned about the artists and engineer who gathered around kitchen tables to about Stalin. Instead of memorizing dates, I absorbed emotions. And finally, instead of walking away with one central thesis, I came away with a kaleidoscope of experiences that showed the vastness of Soviet life and the complexity of responses to its demise.

Secondhand Time weighs in at 470 pages, and since it’s nonfiction, I guessed it would take me a month to read. I also thought it would be too difficult to read at night, so I would read it in tandem with some lighthearted fiction.

NOPE.

I could not stop reading this book. I read it every moment possible, including while lounging at an indoor water park with my kids, and I was sad when it was done.

I really can’t do justice to this book in a blog post. A lot of stories took place in Russia, but there were stories throughout the former Soviet Union, including Azerbaijan and Belarus and even some ex-pats living in the United States. Alexievich unflinchingly gathered the stories of prisoners, diehard Communists, refugees, orphans, and victims of domestic violence. There were people hoping for a new Stalin and people who told of the horrors they endured under Stalin’s regime. There were elderly folks left destitute when communism fell, and people who felt liberated by its end.

Here are a few impressions from Secondhand Time:

For members of the former Soviet Union, salami means something I can’t comprehend, but I quickly noticed how often references to salami came up in the stories. It’s like a national obsession!

They bought us with candy wrappers, display cases full of salami, colorful packing.

Secondhand Time, pg. 111 (on the betrayal of communism).

We believed that salami was spontaneously generated by freedom.

Secondhand time, pg. 287 (about the past).

Even today, many people want to go back to the Soviet Union, except with tons of salami.

secondhand time, pg. 463.

There was a lot of nostalgia for the “kitchen generation” when folks in the Soviet Union gathered in their kitchens and discussed politics, communism, books, philosophy and art.

There were train stations, bitter winters, and refugees with nowhere to go as their homelands are torn apart by war in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s end. I don’t often cry while reading*, but I teared up many times while reading Secondhand Time. I cried for the suicide stories. The orphans. The people living in poverty I can’t imagine. I’m so grateful that Alexievich gathered these stories and wove them together so I could bring this world into my heart.

I cannot say enough good things about Secondhand Time. I will definitely be reading everything Alexievich has written and seeking out more books of this kind. And though its early days in my Read Around the World quest, this very well might be the book that leaves the deepest impression on my soul.

*It’s how I’m wired. I just don’t cry that often. I wish I cried more often because when I do cry, it’s such a cathartic release of pent up emotions. Perhaps there’s a seminar I can take…

For Algeria, I read Fantasia: An Algerian Calvacade by Assia Djebar, and I adored this pick.

The book starts with a helpful glossary, and then an even more helpful timeline that starts in 1510 (the beginning of Turkish rule in Algeria) and ends in 1968 (six years after Algeria granted independence from France). I consulted the glossary and timeline at least a hundred times each while reading the book, and both deepened my reading experience.

Djebar described this work as “a preparation for an autobiography” and the book explores a lot of fascinating themes: the differences between writing in Arabic (her mother tongue) and French (both father tongue and step-mother tongue); growing up in a progressive home in a traditional society that has been colonized; love and marriage; and the complicated feelings that arise while living abroad.

The book alternated between autobiographical fiction and historical non-fiction, the latter chapters delving into Algeria’s history of conquest and colonization. It was unlike anything I’ve ever read. I’m a writer myself, and I’ve read so much about the hero’s journey, I’ve come to believe that it’s the spine for any good story. NOPE! This book did not follow any traditional Western storytelling conventions, and yet I was dazzled by how this book defied the expectations of the hero’s journey while still delivering a beautiful and moving book.

(Note to self: keep an open mind about storytelling conventions!!! Remember that the convention serves the story, not the other way around.)

Fantasia is the first book in a quartet. When I finished it, I really wanted to dive into the next installment, but in the interest of maintaining momentum on my Read Around the World quest, I continued on to Andorra.

For Albania, I read The Doll by Ismail Kadare, who was the winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005. This was actually my first stop on My Read Around the World quest because I had already read The Kite Runner for Afghanistan and I thought “hey, that counts” but The Doll was so interesting, I realized I wanted to read a book for every country in the world in order, regardless of whether I had previously read a book for that country. If I’m going to expand my mind, I might as well expand it as much as possible, right?

The Doll is an autobiographical novel, the titular doll being the author’s mother. As I started the book, I resented the author’s depiction of his mother. It struck me as misogynistic and cruel. Maybe I was a bit sensitive because I’m a mother and I see things from the mom’s perspective these days? But about midway through the book, it occurred to me that Kadare’s depiction of his “mother” was actually an analogy for Albania, the author’s motherland. Once I had that epiphany, I was able to enjoy The Doll much more and by the time I finished, I wanted to read more of Kadare’s works.

This was such an interesting book to start my Around the World journey because the author writes about becoming a writer in a communist country. He attended a writer’s school in Moscow, where they were lectured against “the Joyce-Kafka-Proust trio” and “learned that we must not write like them; while at nights, tortured by doubt, we could hardly resist the temptation of writing precisely in their manner.” Kadare, The Doll, pg. 85-86.

Although the book is a fleeting 175 pages, it really brought me into the world of communist Albania. I felt like I was inside the author’s childhood home in a town with steep hills and hostile mother-in-laws, and the passages about learning to write under a communist regime really got my neurons firing.

When I ordered this book, I felt very uncertain about my Read Around the World Quest. It seemed too bold, too big, too self-indulgent. But The Doll expanded my horizons so much that by the time I reached its end, I was fully committed to read a book by an author from every country in the world.

The world is vast and full of so many different experiences. I loved experiencing it from Kadare’s perspective for 175 pages, and I plan to read more of his books when I finish this challenge.

April 5, 2024 – Picking The Book: My kids and I spent the past two days at Great Wolf Lodge in Anaheim. It’s a hotel with a massive indoor water park and we had a blast. (Nathan joined us on day one but then went home because 1) he prefers sleeping at home and 2) he has that pesky job thing.) Today the kids and I have been recovering at home. They rotted in front of the t.v. with mindless YouTube videos whileI mostly lounged on an armchair, reading Secondhand Time, my pick for Belarus. While reading, I made a decision: ‘Tis Time To Gather The C Books!

First up: Cabo Verde. BookTok recommended two books: Chiquinho: A Novel of Cabo Verde, by Baltazar Lopes and The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo by Germano Almeida. Goodreads also pointed me to The Madwoman of Serrano by Dina Salústio. All three were available on Amazon! Not bad for a country with a population of approximately 600k.

Ordinarily, I gravitate toward books written by female authors, but this time, after reading the books descriptions and dipping into the reviews, I felt drawn to Chiquinho: A Novel of Cabo Verde. I ordered Chinquinho from Amazon today, and my inner book dragon has officially been released on the C’s.

When I decided to embark on a quest to read a book written by an author from every country in the world, I assumed there would be an undisputed list of countries in the world and no one would question the countries I am reading.

[cue hysterical laughter]

Turns out there are different opinions about what constitutes a country, and the definition of country is very political and personal, but I’m (currently) following this definition:

The independent country is not only a self-governed nation with its own authorities, but this status needs the international diplomatic recognition of sovereignty.

Thereby, we can say that the total number of independent states in the world today is 197, including 193 fully recognized members of the United Nations and 2 countries, Vatican City and Palestine, have the status of permanent observers in the UN. The other 2 states we include in the list are Kosovo (recognized by 101 UN members) and Taiwan (recognized by 12 UN members and one UN observer).

https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com/all-countries.html

According to this definition, Aruba is not a country. (This has made a lot of people deeply unhappy on TikTok.) It also means that England, Scotland, and Wales are folded together into the single country called the United Kingdom, and places like Puerto Rico are considered territories of the United States, and therefore not official countries.

I find myself torn by some competing thoughts: (1) I’m striving to expand my horizons, so why should I skip countries like Aruba and Wales? but (2) I don’t know how many “countries” miss my current list of 197 countries is already a HUGE undertaking, and (3) if the project gets too big and there end up being 500+ countries, I might hit the panic button and abandon it altogether.

Whew. Deep breaths, Courtney, deep breaths.

For now, to keep this project manageable, I am following this list of 197 countries because I know I can read 197 books in four years. Maybe five years. (Okay, eight years TOPS if I end up reading really long books.) (But I’m trying to avoid books like War and Peace because I would like to finish this project before I die!)

Yet while I want to keep my project “manageable,” my goal is also to expand my horizons. And as I’m writing this on 4/5/2024, I’m only on Belarus, but damn, my soul already feels deeply and profoundly enriched. I AM SO GLAD I PULLED THE TRIGGER ON THIS PROJECT.

Part of me keeps thinking, Fuck it, I’ll just include Wales and Scotland during my first pass. But then part of me thinks, There I go, prioritizing Anglophilic bookworm tendencies. For me, it feels better to stick with the list of 197 countries while recognizing that the definition of country is HIGHLY POLITICAL and places that “feel” like a country are not officially recognized as such for various reasons.

(It should probably be noted that I did not take a single Government/Political Science class in college. I’m a bookworm, not a politician!)

Below, I’m going to keep track of all the “countries” that do not make the list that I’m following, so at some point, I can go back and read authors from those countries as well.

Countries That Do Not Make The List I’m Following*:

1. Aruba
2. American Samoa
3. Bermuda
4. England
5. Guam
6. Northern Ireland
7. Northern Mariana Islands
8. Puerto Rico
9. Scotland
10. U.S. Virgin Islands
11. Wales

*Many thanks to all the folks on TikTok who are pointing out the countries I have missed! This list is a work-in-progress.

For Bahrain, I read Yummah by Sarah A. Al Shafei, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone doing a Read Around the World project.

The heroine of this book is Khadeeja, and Yummah is the nickname given to Khadeeja by her grandchildren. This book appears to be the fictionalized story of Khadeeja’s life, as written by one of her grandchildren.

The story begins with Khadeeja’s arranged marriage at the age of 12 and presents her marriage as a fairytale love story. Khadeeja falls in love with her husband the first time she looks at him and continues to adore and cherish him as the best of men, even when he ditches her and moves to Dubai when she is pregnant with their ninth child. If Bahrain has a Hallmark channel, I imagine this is the sort of story it would feature.

I have really struggled to compose my thoughts about Yummah, and have left this post in drafts for a week now, because my opinions about this book are a bit contradictory.

On the one hand, I feel like I should be critical of this book because it romanticizes the story of a child bride. Khadeeja marries at the age of twelve! That is ABUSE. I have been thinking about this for days, worrying that I am not being sensitive to a different culture with different social and cultural norms. But, just because something is the social norm within a culture does not mean it is right. I believe in my core that subjecting a girl to marriage at the age of twelve is abuse.

But I’m still glad that my Read Around the World quest brought me to Yummah. Even though it made my inner feminist cringe, it also gave me a wonderful glimpse into life in Bahrain. Was it a romanticized glimpse? Yes! But even though Yummah was presented as a fairytale, it inadvertently shined a light on the problems with societies, cultures and religions that teach women to be subservient to men.

This novel touched me deeply. Not, I believe, in the way the author intended, but it reminded me that so many women in the world do not yet understand that their worth does not hinge on their subservience to a man. I am so privileged to be living in the United States in the twenty-first century, and I am even more privileged to have a husband who encourages me to dream big and not worry so much about the housework. Sometimes, from my privileged perspective, it seems like feminism has done its work.

But there is work still to be done.

I am on an epic journey to read a book by an author from every country in the world in alphabetical order. When I finish a book, I often think, Damn, I want to read everything this author has written, but if I do that, I’ll never finish this quest. I’m going to keep track of my favorite authors here for future reading ambitions.

1. Ismail Kadare (Albania)
2. Assia Djebar (Algeria): I definitely want to finish her Algerian Calvacade. The book I read, Fantasia, was so lush, I could see someone using this book as an amazing starting point for a college thesis. (And if you write that thesis, send it to me!)
3. Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua and Barbuda):
4. Narine Abgaryan (Armenia): I’ll read anything she writes. Even a shopping list.
5. Kate Grenville (Australia)
6. Ella Leya (Azerbaijan): but Leya is primarily a jazz musician, so not sure if she has more novels she wants to write.
7. Janice Lynn Mather (The Bahamas)
8. Taslima Nasrin (Bangladesh)
9. Cherie Jones (Barbados). She’s also an attorney and the book I read was her debut, so I really hope she writes more. LOTS MORE.
10. Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus). 4/5/24 – I’m not quite halfway done with Secondhand Time but already this feels like one of the best books I’ve ever read, and damn, I want to inhale to everything she’s written. 4/11/24 – I finished the book yesterday and Alexievich is now one of my favorite authors of all time. Absolutely incredible.
11. Jacqueline Harpman (Belgium). Hopefully more of her books are translated into English though honestly, I will be happy to reread I Who Have Never Known Men every few years for the rest of my life.

I am attempting to read a book by an author from every country in the world in alphabetical order! Is this a slightly crazy project? Hell, yes! But I felt called to do it, and the call kept nagging, and so here I am. Embarking on an epic reading project.

I have a backlog of books that I’ve read since October 2023, so I need to play catchup with some blog posts. Because if you are going to read a book from every freaking country, then you better document that shit, right?

Up first: Afghanistan.

Full disclosure: I actually started with Albania because I had already read The Kite Runner by Afghan author Khaled Hosseini, but then I decided I want to read a book from every country in order, without skipping any countries. So I hunted around for another Afghan author and stumbled upon My Pen is the Wing of a Bird, a collection of short stories by Afghan women.

This book was heartbreakingly wonderful. So much anguish but also hope, perseverance, and resistance. I’ve seen so many stories about Afghanistan in the news, but these stories profoundly depend my understanding of the tribulations Afghans face, giving me glimpses into their domestic lives.

This book was developed through Untold Narrative’s Write Afghanistan project and I’m so grateful they translated these stories into English and gave me a window into this world. As I writer, I was reminded of how blessed I am to live in the United States, where I don’t have to censor my stories and can write freely about subjects taboo in other parts of the world, like mental health and peri menopause.

It’s books like My Pen is the Wing of a Bird that remind me of how important stories are.