Last year my book group did a Classics Challenge. We selected 5 classics and read them over the year. This year we have decided to do a continental challenge. We will each select 7 books (1 per continent) either by an author from that continent or based in that continent (well I’ve heard those Emperor Penguins aren’t great authors).
Part of my list shall be generated by books already on my shelf. They are as follows:
North America – Stoner by John Williams
Asia – Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Africa – Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
That leaves me with South America, Europe, Australasia/Oceania, and the Antarctic to identify books for. I have absolutely no idea for any of these.
For Europe I don’t want to read an Irish or British writer as I read them all the time. I have been meaning to explore the Russian and French classics, so they may be an option. However I am at least aware of the Russian and French classics. It would maybe be more interesting to use this challenge as an opportunity to explore contemporary European literature of which I’m far less aware. For South America and Australasia I haven’t any ideas. I’m very much open to suggestions.
Adventures of a Dublin Bookworm 
That sounds like an awesome challenge to be a part of! I suppose reading Victor Hugo or Alexandre Dumas would be cliche, but they’re classic French authors. I’m not sure if you’ve read these books yet, but doing a quick search I found out that “The Book Thief” and “The Rosie Project” were both written by Australian authors. Also, I read a quick synopsis of “Burial Rites” by Hannah Kent, which sounds pretty interesting. Hope that helps! 🙂
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Thanks for the suggestion but yes I’ve already read all three of those Australian books.
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This is an interesting idea. I wonder if I could find horror writers from every continent. Well, I mean, I’m sure I could, but the digging might be a challenge. Oooh, maybe ghost stories from every continent? /ponder/
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You probably could. Ghosts stories are a feature of many cultures. Antarctica may pose a bit of an issue (its hard to find much for it) but you never know.
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One read I’d suggest, if you can find it, is The Conformist by Alberto Moravia. It’s Italian so out of the ordinary European reading group you’ve listed. Also, for South America, you could always read something by Paolo Coelho, if you’ve never done so before. Him, or Borges. Borges is awesome…but short stories.
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