Wakhi Women Of The Hunza...

Gathered Greens

A group of Wakhi women return from a daily excursion across Pakistan’s Hunza riverbed to gather fodder and wood for their cooking fires. Photographer Matthieu Paley has been traveling the world in search of our ancestral ties to the food we eat.

Photograph by Matthieu Paley, National Geographic

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/wakhi-hunza-pakistan/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20150104photo-pod&utm_campaign=Content&sf6679394=1

Bad Muslim...

Do not project your fear

onto my body

I will not hold your hand

and reassure you

I have no intention of killing you

I will not coddle your

fear or accept guilt

by association

I have no interest in

reassuring you

not all of us are like that

I will not apologize

for your parochialism

your provincialism

or your ignorance

for your inability to

perceive

violence unless

a tv box or a hashtag

numbs your mind with it
I will not mourn with you

because you don’t even

know

how to acknowledge

my many deaths

I will not affirm

that your grief

and your loss

is more painful

or more significant

or more terrifying

than the grievances you

have never even heard of

than the grievances you refuse

to recognize as grievances

I will tell you instead

what it feels like

to watch your

Pundits and your Experts

extoll the virtues of

Killing All Muslims

of deporting everyone on

security lists with names

like mine

I will tell you

how much terror

your vaunted fear

births

how it pierces my skin

coils around my cranium

burrows under my parietal

bones makes it difficult

to breathe

to think

to wake up

in the morning

how it grows inside me

this infinite terror

because you think

your fear is

so special

so singular

so unique

it justifies the

rivers of blood

in places

you still don’t know

how to find on a map

I will not apologize

until every single european

apologizes for the massacres

holocausts genocides famines

committed in your names

until you personally apologize

for palestine kashmir algeria the

congo

for drawing lines

in the sand

that still fester

like bloody wounds

will refuse to apologize

until every single american

personally apologizes for discovering

this continent

by washing it in the

blood

of it’s original inhabitants

for slavery the kkk

plantations japanese internment

camps the trail of tears

for the burnings

hangings lynchings

of Black bodies

for policemen

who still don’t know

innocence and Blackness

can exist

in the same body

for rectal feedings and

unaccountable disappearances

abu ghraib and fallujah

for torture that still doesn’t

count

as torture for terror that rises and

rises and rises

infinitely
I will not apologize

because nothing I can say

will ever suffice for you

because you have already

proven your inability

to hear my many

apologies

because even

my 1,600,000,000 deaths

won’t quench your fear

I’m a bad Muslim

and I will never again

apologize

for the bitter taste of

your fear in my mouth

-Asam Ahmad 

Warm Eyes...

Reading The World ...

This contains all the valid recommendations I’ve had of authors and titles. During my year of reading the world, I chose one book for each nation (chosen titles are hyperlinks to posts on each selection), although I have read quite a few more since.

I continue to update the list, so if you have a recommendation (or you know about an English version of one of the books marked ‘translation sought’), leave a comment at the bottom. I also feature one new title a month as my Book of the Month. Links to these reviews are highlighted in orange.

Afghanistan Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner; A Thousand Splendid Suns / Anna Badkhen Waiting for the Taliban / Emmanuel Guibert The Photographer/  (as told to) Batya Swift Yasgur Behind the Burqa / Atiq Rahimi A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear; The Patience Stone

Albania Ismail Kadare The Palace of Dreams; Broken April / Fatos Kongoli The Loser

Algeria Leïla Marouane The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris / Anouar Benmalek Abduction / Assia Djebar So Vast the Prison / Boualem Sansal An Unfinished Business; The German Mujahid / Al-Tahir Wattar The Earthquake / Anouar Benmalek The Lovers of Algeria / Yasmina Khadra The Attack

Andorra Albert Salvadó The Teacher of Cheops

Angola José Eduardo Agualusa My Father’s Wives; Creole / Pepetela The Return of the Water Spirit / Ondjaki Good Morning Comrades; The Whistler / Jose Eduardo Agualusa The Book of Chameleons / Manuel Rui Monteiro Quem me dera ser Onda (translation sought)

Antigua and Barbuda Jamaica Kincaid Lucy; Annie John / Marie-Elena John Unburnable / Althea Prince Loving this Man; Ladies of the Night / Gisele Isaac Considering Venus

Argentina Martin Kohan Seconds Out / César Aira How I Became a Nun; An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter / Ernesto Sábato The Tunnel / Alicia Steimberg Musicians and Watchmakers / Jorges Luis Borges / Tomás Eloy Martínez Purgatory (trans. Frank Wynne) / Matias Nespolo 7 Ways to Kill a Cat (trans. Frank Wynne) / Carlos Gamerro The Islands / Iosi HavilioOpendoor / Luisa Valenzuela / Ricardo Piglia / Guillermo Martínez / Manuel Puig / Adolfo Bioy Casares The Invention of Morel / Julio Cortázar Hopscotch

Armenia Armand Inezian Bringing Ararat / Grigoris Balakian Armenian Golgotha

Australia Tim Winton Cloudstreet / Helen Garner The Children’s Bach / Markus Zusak The Book Thief / Nam Le The Boat / Andrew McGahan The White Earth / Elizabeth Jolley / Alex Miller Lovesong / Jill Ker Conway The Road from Coorain

Austria Elias Canetti The Torch in my Ear / Anna Kim Frozen Time / Thomas Bernhard Extinction / Stefan Zweig / Julya Rabinovich Splithead

Azerbaijan Gioulzar Akhmedova Magnolia / Maksud Ibragimbekov / Anar Razayev / ? Ali and Nino

The Bahamas Ian Strachan God’s Angry Babies / Garth Buckner Thine is the Kingdom

Bahrain Ali Al Saeed Quixotiq / Sarah A Al Sahfei Yummah

Bangladesh Taslima Nasrin Shame / Tahmima Anam The Good Muslim / Humayun Ahmed To the Woods Dark and Deep / Ekhlasuddin Ahmed When the Evening Darkens / Shawkat Osman The Laughter of a Slave / Anwar Pasha Rifles Bread Women

Barbados Karen Lord Redemption in Indigo / Agymah Kamau Flickering Shadows; Pictures of a Dying Man / Glenville Lovell Fire in the Canes; Song of Night; Too Beautiful to Die

Belarus Artur Klinov The Sun City of Dreams / Uladzimir Karatkievich King Stakh’s Wild Hunt / Vasil Bykau Sotnikau or The Ordeal / Viktar Martsinovich Paranoia / Svetlana Alexievich Voices from Chernobyl / Uladzimir Karatkevich The Spikes Under Your Sickle / Ivan MelezhPeople of the Swamp

Belgium Hergé The Adventures of Tintin / Peter Terrin The Guard / Stefan BrijsThe Angel Maker / Francois Emmanuel Invitation to a Voyage / Dimitri Verhulst The Misfortunates / Louis Paul Boon My Little War / Paul Verhaeghen Omega Minor / Amélie Nothomb

Belize Zoila Ellis On Heroes, Lizards and Passion

Benin Gisèle Hountondji / Jean Pliya / Florent Couao-Zotti / Adelaide Fassinou / Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr Stories We Tell Each Other

Bhutan Kunzang Choden The Circle of Karma / Karma Ura The Hero with a Thousand Eyes / T Sangay Wangchuk Seeing with the Third Eye / Dorji PenjoreBomena / Pema Euden Coming Home / Sonam Kinga

Bolivia José Edmundo Paz-Soldán / Víctor Montoya / Renato Prada Oropeza / Giovanna Rivero Sweet Blood / Juan de Recacoechea American Visa

Bosnia and Herzegovina Zlata Filipovic Zlata’s Diary / Saša Stanišić How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone / Aleksandar Hemon The Lazarus Project / Ivo Andric The Bridge on the Drina / Meša Selimović Death and theDervish; Fortress

Botswana Angus, Maisie and Travers McNeice The Lion Children / Bessie Head A Question of Power / Unity Dow

Brazil João Ubaldo Ribeiro House of the Fortunate Buddhas; An Invincible Memory / Clarice Lispector / Rubem Fonseca / Paulo Freire / Clarice Lispector Agua Viva / Jorge Amado Jubiabá; The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray / João Guimarães Rosa / Paulo Coehlo / Machado de Assis Dom Casmurro / Chico Buarque Budapest / Lygia Fagundes Telles The Marble Dance

Brunei Eva Maria Kershaw Dusun Folktales: A Collection of Eighty-eight Folktales in the Dusun Language of Brunei with English Translations / Christopher Sun (aka Sun Tze Yun) Four Kings / Amir Falique The Forlorn Adventure

Bulgaria Elias Canetti The Tongue Set Free / Kalin Terziyski Is there Anybody to Love You? / Georgi Gospodinov Natural Novel / Kapka Kassabova Street Without a Name / Anton Donchev Time of Parting / Milen Ruskov Thrown into Nature / Emiliyan Stanev The Peach Thief / Dimitar Dimov Doomed Souls

Burkina Faso Sarah Bouyain / Frédéric Pacéré Titinga / Nobert Zongo The Parachute Drop

Burundi Marie-Therese Toyi Weep Not, Refugee

Cambodia U Sam Oeur Crossing Three Wildernesses / Alice Pung Unpolished Gem / Vaddey Ratner In the Shadow of the Banyan / Loung Ung / Haing S Ngor / Bree Lafreniere and Daran Kravanh Music Through Dark

Cameroon Mongo Beti La Pauvre Christ de Bomba (The Poor Christ of Bomba); Mission to Kala / Beatrice Fri Bime Mystique: a collection of lake myths

Canada Robertson Davies / Nicole Brossard Mauve Desert / Alice Munro / Lauren B Davis Our Daily Bread / Darcie Friesen Hossack Mennonites Don’t Dance / Anne Michaels Fugitive Pieces / Thomas King Green Grass, Running Water / Elizabeth Hay Late Nights on Air / Michael Ondaatje In the Skin of a Lion / Frances Itani Deafening / Joseph Boyden The Three Day Road / Carol Shields / Donna Morrissey / Timothy Findley Not Wanted on the Voyage / Michael Crummey Galore / Anita Rau Baudami Tamarind Mem; The Hero’s Walk

Cape Verde Germano Almeida The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo

Central African Republic Pierre Makombo Bamboté Dada’s Travels from Ouadda to Bangui / ed. Polly Strong African Tales: Folklore of the Central African Republic / Etienne Goyémidé

Chad Joseph Brahim Seid Told by Starlight in Chad

Chile Roberto Bolano The Savage Detectives / Alejandro Zambra The Private Lives of Trees; Bonsai / Isabel Allende The House of the Spirits (trans. Magda Bodin) / Diamela Eltit / Alberto Fuguet / María Luisa Bombal / Luis Sepúlveda / Antonio Skármeta

China Zhu Wen I Love Dollars / Jian Rong Wolf Totem / Ma Jian Stick Out YourTongue; Red Dust/ Cao Xuequin Dream of the Red Chamber / Wu Cheng’enJourney to the West / Zhang Yueran / Chan Koonchung The Fat Years (trans. Michael Duke) / Yan Lianke Dream of Ding Village / Mo Yan The Garlic Ballads; Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh / Zhu Wen / Zhang Yueran / Han Dong Banished! / Yan Ge / Xialou Guo Village of Stone / Mian Mian Candy / Wang Shuo Playing for Thrills / Chen Xiwo I Love My Mum / Xu Zechen / Xue Xinran The Good Women of China; China Witness; Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother / Hok-Pang Tang & David Coomler A Time of Ghosts / Huo Da Jade King / Wang Xiaobo

Colombia Evelio Rosero The Armies / Pilar Quintana Tickles in the Tongue / Juan Gabriel Vasquez The Informers / Eduardo Garcia Aguilar Boulevard of Heroes / Fernando Vallejo Our Lady of the Assassins / Hector Abad Faciolince / Laura Restrepo Delirium / Fernando Vallejo / Gabriel García Márquez / James Cañón Tales from the Town of Windows / Leila Cobo

Comoros Mohammed Toihiri The Kafir of Karthala

Congo, Democratic Republic of Amba Bongo /  Frederick Yamusangie Full Circle

Congo, Republic of Emmanuel Dongala Johnny Mad Dog; Little Boys Come from the Stars / Sony Lab’ou Tansi The Antipeople

Costa Rica Anacristina Rossi / Carmen Naranjo / Oscar Nunez OlivasCadence of the Moon / Anacristina Rossi The Madwoman of Gandoca / ed Barbara Ras Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion

Côte d’Ivoire Bernard Dadié Climbié / Ahmadou Kourouma Allah is not Obliged

Croatia Miroslav Krleža On the Edge of Reason / Dubravka Ugrĕsic The Ministry of Pain; In the Jaws of Life / Slavenka Drakulic A Guided Tour through the Museum of Communism / Marija Jurić Zagorka Daughter of the Lotrščak; A Stone on the Road; The Witch of Gric / Antun Gustav Matoš / Robert PerišičOur Man in Iraq

Cuba Mayra Montero Dancing to Almendra / Ena Lucia Portela One Hundred Bottles / Alejo Carpentier / Reinaldo Arenas / Antonio José Ponte / Leonardo Padura / Reinaldo Arenas / Leonardo Padura Fuentes / Virgilio Piñera / José Lezama Lima / Severo Sarduy /  Guillermo Cabrera Infante / Lydia CabreraAfro-Cuban Tales

Cyprus Anna Marangou/Andreas Coutas (trans. Xenia Andreou) Famagusta: the Story of the City / Eve Makis / Christy Lefteri A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible / Panos Ioannides Gregory and other stories / Elmos Konis Magnette / Nora Nadjarian Ledra Street

Czech Republic Bohumil Hrabal Too Loud a Solitude / Hana Demetz The House on Prague Street / Tomáš Zmeškal Love Letter in Cuneiform Script / Josef Škvorecký The Engineer of Human Souls (trans. Paul Wilson) / Jáchym Topol The Devil’s Workshop

Denmark Jakob Ejersbo Exile: Book One of the African Trilogy / Morten Ramsland Dog Head / Christian Jungersen The Exception / Louise Bugge Laermann Constanze Mozart / Peter Høeg Smilla’s Sense of Snow

Djibouti Abdourahman Waberi In the United States of Africa; Passage of Tears

Dominica Phyllis Shand Allfrey The Orchid House / Elma Napier Black and White Sands / Jean Rhys / Pupils of Atkinson School The Snake King of the Kalinago / Alick Lazare Pharcel / Various Home Again / Christborne Shillingford Most Wanted: street stories from the Caribbean

Dominican Republic Juan Bosch / Arambilet Neguri’s Secret / Junot Diaz The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao / Pedro Mir When they Loved the Communal Land / Julia Alvarez 

East Timor Luis Cardoso The Crossing

Ecuador Jorge Icaza Huasipungo 

Egypt Ahdaf Soueif The Map of Love; Cairo: My City, Our Revolution / Sonallah Ibrahim Stealth / Mohamed Mansi Qandil Moon Over Samarqand / Waguih Ghali Beer in the Snooker Club / Naguib Mahfouz Midaq Alley; The Thief and the Dogs; Miramar; The Final Hour/ Alaa Al Aswany The Yacoubian Building / Radwa Ashour / Nawal El Saadawi / May Telmissany Dunyazad / Salwa Bakr / ed. Marilyn Booth My Grandmother’s Cactus / Gamal al-Ghitani Zayni Barakat / Yusef Zeidan Azazil / Radwa Ashour Granada; Spectres / Ibrahim Abdel Meguid No One Sleeps in Alexandria / Bahar Tahir / Muhammad Bisati

El Salvador Horacio Castellanos Moya Senselessness

Equatorial Guinea Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel By Night the Mountain Burns /Donato Ndongo Shadows of your Black Memory / Maria Nsue AngueEkomo (translation sought)

Eritrea Senait Mehari Heart of Fire / Sulaiman Addonia The Consequences of Love

Estonia Jaan Kross Professor Martens’ Departure; Treading Air / Viivi Luik The Beauty of History

Ethiopia Maaza Mengiste Beneath the Lion’s Gaze / Dinaw Mengestu Children of the Revolution / Abraham Verghese Cutting for Stone

Fiji Peter Thomson Kava in the Blood / Epeli Hau’ofa Kisses in the Nederends;Tales of the Tikongs / Mikaele M.K. Yasa Of Baluka and Nibong Palm

Finland Arto Paasilinna The Year of the Hare / Mika Waltari The Egyptian / Johanna Sinisalo Troll: A Love Story / Sofi Oksanen Purge / Emmi Itäranta Memory of Water

France Alain-Fournier The Wanderer / Marie NDiaye Rosie Carpe / Marie Darrieussecq My Phantom Husband / Colette Chéri / Faiza Guene Dreams from the Endz / Raymond Queneau Exercises in Style (trans. Barbara Wright) / Georges Perec Life:a User’s Manual (trans. David Bellos) / Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio Wandering Star / Jean Echenoz Lightning / Delphine de Vigan Underground Time / Faïza Guène Just Like Tomorrow / Alexis Jenni The French Art of War / Laurence Cossé A Novel Bookstore / Hélène Grémillon The Confidant / Jérôme Ferrari Where I Left My Soul / Marguerite Yourcenar / Michel Houellebecq / André Schwarz-Bart A Woman Named Solitude (trans. Ralph Manheim)

Gabon Daniel Mengara Mema

The Gambia Dayo Forster Reading the Ceiling / Dembo Fanta Bojang & Sukai Mbye Bojang Folk Tales and Fables from The Gambia 

Georgia Sana Krasikov One More Year / ed Elizabeth HeighwayContemporary Georgian Fiction / Cabua Amirejibi Data Tutashkhia / Mikheil Javakhishvili Kvachi / Otar Chiladze A Man Was Going Down the Road

Germany Jenny Erpenbeck Visitation; The End of Days / Günter Grass The Tin Drum / Christa Wolf / Heinrich Böll The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum / Emine Sevgi Özdamar Bridge of the Golden Horn / Walter BenjaminIlluminations (trans. Harry Zohn) / Clemens Meyer All the Lights / Christa WolfMedea / Franz Fühmann / Inka Parei The Shadow-Boxing Girl / Hans Fallada Alone in Berlin / Jurek Becker Jacob the Liar / Herman HesseSiddhartha / Thomas Mann

Ghana Ayi Kwei Armah The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born / Isaac Neequaye / Ama Ata Aidoo / Jo de Graft Hanson Amanfi’s Gold / Gheysika Adombire Agambila Journey / Various Anansi Stories

Greece Kostas Hatziantoniou The Black Book of Bile; Agrigento / Margarita Karapanou Kassandra and the Wolf / Panos Karnezis / Nikos Kazantzakis Freedom or Death; The Last Temptation

Grenada Tobias Buckell / Merle Collins The Ladies are Upstairs

Guatemala Miguel Angel Asturias The President / Rodrigo Rey Rosa / Rigoberta Menchú I, Rigoberta Menchú / Augusto Monterroso

Guinea Camara Laye The Radiance of the King; The Guardian of the Word

Guinea-Bissau Amilcar Cabral Unity and Struggle

Guyana Oonya Kempadoo Buxton Spice

Haiti Marvin Victor / Lyonel Trouillot Children of Heroes / Dany Laferriere How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired; I am a Japanese Writer / Louis-Philppe Dalembert / Edwidge Danticat The Farming of the Bones / Franketienne / Gary Klang / Josaphat-Robert Large

Honduras Guillermo Yuscaran Points of Light / Ramón Amaya Amador

Hungary Sándor Márai Embers / Dezső Kosztolányi Skylark / Zsigmond Móricz Be Faithful Unto Death / Antal Szerb Journey by Moonlight / Peter Esterharzy Not Art / Tibor Fischer Under the Frog / Antal Szerb The Pendragon Legend / László Krasznahorkai War and War (trans. George Szirtes) / Ferenc Karinthy Metropole /  Imre Kertész Fatelessness / Albert Wass / Rejtő Jenő / Péter Nádas A Book of Memories; Parallel Stories / Iván Mándy On the Balcony / Ferenc Molnár The Paul Street Boys

Iceland Arnaldur Indridason Jar City / Halldór Laxness The Atom Station / Ófeigur Sigurðsson / Gyrðir Eliasson Stone Tree / Auður A Ólafsdóttir The Greenhouse

India Suketu Mehta Maximum City / Rohinton Mistry Family Matters; A Fine Balance / Premchand / Rahul Bhattacharya The Sly Company of People who Care / Amitav Ghosh River of Smoke / Tabish Khair The Thing about Thugs / Aman Sathi A Free Man / Sunetra Gupta / Omair Ahmad Jimmy the Terrorist / UR Ananthamurthy Bharathipura / Chandrakanta A Street in Srinagar / Siddharth Chowdhury Day Scholar / Kishwar Desai Witness the Night / Namita Devidayal Aftertaste / Manu Joseph Serious Men / Kavery Nambisan: The Story that Must Not Be Told / Kalpish Ratna The Quarantine Papers / Uppamanyu Chattergee Way to go / Chandrahas Choudhury Arzee the Dwarf / Manju Kapur The Immigrant / Neel Mukherjee The Immigrant / Mani Sankar Mukherji The Middleman / I. Allan Sealy The Trotter Nama / Shashi Warrier / Aniruddha Bahal /  Vikram Chandra /  M T Vasudevan Nair Mist; The Legacy; The Demon Seed; Second Turn; Kaalam / Asha Poorna Devi / Ruskin Bond / Gurcharan Das India Unbound / Mark Tully / Shashi Tharoor The Great Indian Novel / Mahasweta Devi  Imaginary Maps; Bitter Soil; Hajar Churashir Maa / RK Narayan Malgudi Days / Jhaverchand Meghani / Kushwant Singh Train to Pakistan; The Portrait of a Lady / ed Rakesh Khanna The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction / Shivaji Sawant Mrityunjay / OV Vijayan / Govardhanram TripathiSaraswatichandra / Satyajit Ray Feluda series / Sunil Gangopadhyay Those Days / Rabindranath Tagore / Sashi Deshpande / Kiran Nagarkar Cuckold; Seven Sixes are Forty-Three / Charu Nivedita Zero Degree / Tarun Tejpal Alchemy of Desire / Manoshi Bhattacharya Chittagong Summer of 1930 / Sankar Chowringhee / Shanta Gokhale Crowfall / Maitreyi Devi Na Hanyate / Aruna Chakrabarti Srikanta / Ruskin Bond / Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai Chemmeen / Mulk Raj Anand Untouchable / Vikram Seth A Suitable Boy

Indonesia Yusuf Bilyarta Mangunwijaya (Romo Mangun) Burung-Burung Manyar; Rara Mendut; Durga/Umayi / Ayu Utami / Mochtar Lubis / Pramoedya Ananta Toer This Earth of Mankind / Dewi Lestari Supernova / Agustinus Wibowo Blanket of Dust (translation sought) / Andrea Hirata The Rainbow Troops

Iran Akbar Golrang Parpin Flowers /Nasrin Alavi We are Iran / Shahrnush Parsipur Touba and the Meaning of Night / Mahmoud Dowlatabadi The Colonel(trans. Tom Patterdale) / Adnan-Ahmed

Iraq Samuel Shimon An Iraqi in Paris / Ali Bader The Tobacco Keeper / Hassan Blasim The Madman of Freedom Square / Rodaan Al Galidi Thirsty River / Samira Al-Mana / Wafaa Abed Al Razzaq / A Alwan The Sheikh’s Detective / Fuad al-Takarli The Long Way Back

Ireland James Joyce Ulysses / Maria Edgeworth Castle Rackrent / William Trevor / Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture / Flann O’Brien The Third Policeman; At Swim-Two-Birds

Israel David Grossman Falling Out of Time; To the End of the Land; Be My Knife/ Amos Oz A Tale of Love and Darkness (trans. Nicholas de Lange) / Savyon Liebrecht / AB Yehoshua / Ronit Matalon / Alex Epstein / Aharon AppelfeldBlooms of Darkness  / Sara Shilo The Falafel King is Dead / Etgar Keret / Yehoshua Kenaz

Italy Roberto Saviano Zero Zero Zero; Gomorrah /  Leonardo Sciascia The Day of the Owl (trans. Archibald Colquhoun) / Fabio Geda In the Sea there are Crocodiles (trans. Howard Curtis) / Elena Ferrante The Lost Daughter; The Days of Abandonment; My Brilliant Friend / Antonio Tabucchi Pereira Maintains / Diego Marani New Finnish Grammar / Alessandro Baricco Ocean Sea; Mr Gwyn / Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa The Leopard / Alessandro Manzoni / Luigi Pirandello / Primo Levi / Italo Svevo / Dino Buzzati The Tartar Steppe

Jamaica Kei Miller / Lindsay Barrett / Margaret Cezair-Thompson The Pirate’s Daughter / Colin Channer / Brian Meeks Paint the Town Red / Patricia Powell / Victor Stafford Reid / Vanessa Spence / Marlon James The Book of Night Women; John Crow’s Devil

Japan Haruki Murakami Kafka on the Shore; 1Q84 / Natsume Sōseki TheMiner; I am a Cat/ Michitsuna no Haha (Michitsuna’s mother) The Kagero Diary (trans. Sonja Arntzen) / Yukio Mishima Death in Midsummer (trans. Seidensticker, Keene, Morris, Sargent) / Hiromi Kawakami Manazuru / Shiba Ryotaro / Yoko Ogawa / Yoriko Shono / Yumiko Kurahashi / Yoko Tawada / Yasunari Kawabata Snow Country

Jordan Ibrahim Nasrallah Time of White Horses / Abdulrahman Munif Cities of Salt

Kazakhstan Rollan Seisenbayev The Day the World Collapsed / Mukhamet Shayakhmetov The Silent Steppe: The Story of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin / Nursultan Nazarbayev My Life, My Times and the Future / Ilyas Esenberlin Nomads / Mukhtar Auezov Abai (translation sought)

Kenya Binyavanga Wainaina One Day I Will Write About This Place / Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o A Grain of Wheat; Wizard of the Crow / Philo Ikonya Kenya, Will You Marry Me? / NK Read Children of Saba

Kiribati Teweiariki Teaero Waa in Storms

Kuwait Saif Marzooq al-Shamlan Pearling in the Arabian Gulf / Jehan S Rajab Invasion Kuwait / Haya al-Mughni Women in Kuwait / Danderma The Chronicles of Dathra, a Dowdy Girl from Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan Chinghiz Aitmatov Jamilia; The Place of the Skull; Farewell Gul’sary; The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years; Short Novels; White Steamship; Tales of the Mountains and Steppes; Cranes Fly Early;Time to Speak; Mother Earth and Other Stories

Laos Outhine Bounyavong Mother’s Beloved

Latvia David Bezmozgis The Free World / Agate Nesaule A Woman in Amber / Inga Zolude A Solace for Adam’s Tree / Sandra Kalniete With Dance Shoes in Siberian Snows / Janis Klidzejs The Child of Man (translation sought)

Lebanon Joumana Haddad I Killed Scheherazade  / Elias Khoury Yalo; Gate of the Sun / Hanan al-Shaykh One Thousand and One Nights; The Locust and the Bird / Jabbour Douhaiy June Rain / Alexandra Chreiteh Always Coca-Cola / Iman Humaydan Wild Mulberries / Amin Maalouf Samarkand; Leo the African / Rashid al-Daif Dear Mr Kawabata / Amin al Rihani / Gibran Khalil Gibran

Lesotho Thomas Mofolo Chaka / AS Mopeli-Paulus Blanket Boy’s Moon; The World and the Cattle / Morabo Morojele How We Buried Puso / Various Basali! Stories by and about women in Lesotho

Liberia Helene Cooper The House at Sugar Beach / Ellen Johnson Sirleaf This Child Will Be Great / Mardia Stone Konkai: Living Between Two Worlds

Libya Hisham Matar In the Country of Men; Anatomy of a Disappearance / Ibrahim Al-Khoni Anubis: A Desert Novel; Gold Dust; The Animists; The Bleeding of the Stone; The Puppet; The Seven Veils of Seth / Ahmed Fagi Homeless Rats; 30 Short Stories

Liechtenstein Iren Nigg / Stefan Sprenger / Heinrich Harrer Seven Years in Tibet / CC Bergius The Noble Forger

Lithuania Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė / Various No Men, No Cry / Ricardas Gavelis Vilnius Poker / Jonas Mekas / Juozas Baltusis / Andrius Tapinas Hour of the Wolf / Balys Sruoga Forest of the Gods / Antanas Škėma The White Shroud / Laimonas Briedis Vilnius: City of Strangers

Luxembourg Jean Back Amateur / Robi Gottlieb-Cahen Minute Stories

Macedonia Rumena Bužarovska Scribbles; Wisdom Tooth / Goce SmilevskiSigmund Freud’s Sister; Conversation with Spinoza / Elizabeta Bakovska On the way to Damascus

Madagascar ed. Jacques Bourgeacq and Liliane Ramarosoa Voices from Madagascar

Malawi Samson Kambalu The Jive Talker / Aubrey Kachingwe No Easy Task

Malaysia Shih-Li Kow Ripples and Other Stories / A Samad Said / Adibah Amin This End of The Rainbow / Dina Zaman King of the Sea

Maldives Abdullah Sadiq Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu

Mali Amadou Hampâté Bâ The Strange Destiny of Wangrin / Yambo Ouloguem Bound to Violence

Malta Immanuel Mifsud Happy Weekend / Pierre Mejlak / Simon Bartolo / Oliver Friggieri / Herbert Ganado My Century / Trevor Zahra / Kilin (Mikiel Spiteri)

Marshall Islands Ed Daniel Kelin Marshall Islands Legends and Stories / Marshallese school students (the Unbound Bookmaker Project) The Important Book about Majuro / Jack Niedenthal For the Good of Mankind / Bob Barclay In Melal: A Novel of the Pacific / Dirk R Spennemann Bwebwenatoon etto: a collection of Marshallese legends and traditions

Mauritania Mohamed Bouya Bamba Angels of Mauritania and the Curse of the Language

Mauritius Anand Mulloo Watch Them Go Down / Barlen Pyamootoo Benares 

Mexico Juan Pablo Villalobos Down the Rabbit Hole / Octavio Paz The Labyrinth of Solitude (trans. Lysander Kemp) / Laura Esquivel Like Water for Chocolate (trans. Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen) / Martín Solares The Black Minutes / Carlos Fuentes / Jorge Volpi / Rosario Castellanos / Carmen Boullosa / Mario Bellatín / Elena Garro / Juan Rulfo / Elena Poniatowska / Sergio Pitol / Juan Rulfo Pedro Paramo

Micronesia, Federated States of Luelen Bernart The Book of Luelen

Moldova Ion Drutse Moldavian Autumn; The Story of an Ant / Vladimir Lorchenkov The Good Life Elsewhere

Monaco ed. Richard and Danae Projetti Grace Kelly: Princesse du Cinema

Mongolia Galsan Tschinag The Blue Sky

Montenegro Petar II Petrović-Njegoš The Mountain Wreath / Andrej Nikolaidis / Xenia Popovich A Lullaby for No Man’s Wolf 

Morocco Diss Chraïbi Heirs to the Past; Le Passé Simple (The Simple Past) / Tahar Ben Jelloun The Sacred Night; The Sand Child; This Blinding Absence of Light (trans. Linda Coverdale); A Palace in the Old Village (trans. Linda Coverdale) / Bensalem Himmich The Polymath / Mohammed Achaari The Arch and the Butterfly / Fatima Mernissi / Muhammad Shukri For Bread Alone / Muhammad Barrada The Game of Forgetting 

Mozambique Mia Couto The Sleepwalking Land; Under the Frangipani / Paulina Chiziane Niketche / Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa Ualalapi / Luis Bernardo Honwana We Killed Mangy Dog

Myanmar Cho Tu Zaw / Ma Thida / Nu Nu Yi Inwa Smile as they Bow

Namibia Joseph Diescho Troubled Waters / Neshani Andreas The Purple Violet of Oshaantu

Nauru Timothy Detudamo Legends, Traditions and Tales of Nauru / Ben Bam Solomon et al Stories from Nauru

Nepal Samrat Upadhyay Buddha’s Orphans / Ajit Baral The Lazy Conman and Other Stories / Parijat Blue Mimosa / Jagadish Ghimire Antarman ko yatra

Netherlands Harry Mulisch The Discovery of Heaven / Cees Noteboom LostParadise; All Souls’ Day; Rituals / Tessa de Loo / Gerbrand Bakker The Twin / Kader Abdolah The House of the Mosque / Abdelkader Benali / Jan van Mersbergen Tomorrow Pamplona / Arthur Japin The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi / Tommy Wieringa Little Caesar / Bernlef Out of Mind / Jan Wolkers Turkish Delight / WF Hermans The Darkroom of Damocles / Arnon Grunberg Tirza; Skin and Hair / Nescio Amsterdam Stories / Gerard Reve De avonden (translation sought)

New Zealand Charlotte Grimshaw Singularity / Maurice Shadbolt Season of the Jew / Keri Hulme The Bone People / Lloyd Jones Mr Pip / Alan Duff Once Were Warriors / Witi Ihimaera Tangi / Janet Frame / Patricia Grace Potiki / Eleanor Catton The Luminaries

Nicaragua Gioconda Belli Infinity in the Palm of her Hand 

Niger recounted by Nouhou Malio The Epic of Askia Mohammed

Nigeria Wole Soyinka The Interpreters; Season of Anomy / Toyin Falola A Mouth Sweeter than Salt / Lola Shoneyin The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Americanah; Half of a Yellow Sun / Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart

North Korea Ri In Mo My Life and Faith / Kye Wol Hyang

Norway Karl Ove Knausgaard My Struggle / Per Petterson To Siberia; Out Stealing Horses (trans. Ann Born) / Knut Hamsun Hunger / Lars Saabye Christensen The Half Brother / Jan Wiese The Naked Madonna / Linn Ullmann Before You Sleep / Agnar Mykle Lasso Round the Moon / Gerd Brantenberg Egalia’s Daughters / Sigrid Undset Kristin Lavransdatter (trans. Tiina Nunnally)

Oman Ibrahim Farghali Smiles of Saints / Khadija bint Alawi Al-Dhahab My Grandmother’s Stories / Unni Wikan Behind the Veil in Arabia: Women in Oman / Abdulaziz Al Farsi Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs

Pakistan Mohsin Hamid Moth Smoke; The Reluctant Fundamentalist / Sara Suleri Meatless Days / Bapsi Sidhwa Ice Candy Man; An American Brat; The Pakistani Bride/ Bina Shah A Season for Martyrs; Slum Child / Jamil Ahmad The Wandering Falcon / Daniyal Mueenuddin In Other Rooms, Other Wonders / HM Naqvi Home Boy / Uzma Aslam Khan / Musharraf Ali Farooqi The Story of aWidow; Between Clay and Dust / Ali Sethi The Wish Maker / Kamila Shamsie Kartography; Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows / Mohammed Hanif

Palau Susan Kloulechad Spirits’ Tides

Palestine Ibtisam Barakat Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood / Sahar Khalifeh Wild Thorns / Susan Abulhawa Mornings in Jenin / Mahmoud ShukairMordechai’s Moustache and his Wife’s Cats, and Other Stories

Panama Juan David Morgan The Golden Horse / Carlos Russell

Papua New Guinea Russell Soaba Maiba / Regis Stella Gutsini Posa; Mata Sara / Russell Soaba Maiba / Bernard Narokobi Two Seasons / Vincent Eri The Crocodile / Nash Sorariba / Michael Somare Sana /

Paraguay  Augusto Roa Bastos The Prosecutor 

Peru Mario Vargas Llosa Death in the Andes; Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter(trans. Ursule Molinaro, Hedwig Rappolt); The Storyteller (trans. Helen Lane) / Jaime Bayly / José María Arguedas / Santiago Roncagliolo

Philippines Charlson Ong / Joel Toledo / Miguel Syjuco Illustrado / F Sionil José / Jessica Hagedorn Dogeaters / Bino Realuyo The Umbrella Country / Ninotchka Rosca State of War  / Azucena Grajo Uranza Bamboo in the Wind / Marivi Soliven The Mango Bride

Poland Stanislaw Lem / Olga Tokarczuk Primeval and Other Times; House of Day, House of Night / Pawel Huelle Cold Sea Tales; Castorp; The Last Supper;Mercedes Benz/ Zygmunt Miloszewski Entanglement; A Grain of Truth/ Witold Gombrowicz Pornografia / Wiesław Myśliwski Stone upon Stone / Magdalena Tulli In Red / Dorota Maslowska Snow White and Russian Red / Marek Krajewski The Eberhard Mock books / Grazyna Plebanek Illegal Liaisons / Antoni Libera Madame / Andrzej Stasiuk On the Road to Babadag; Dukla;Fado; Nine; White Raven / Stefan Chwin Death in Danzig / Michal WitkowskiLovetown / Jacek Hugo-Bader White Fever / Wojciech Jagielski The Night Wanderers / Kazimierz Moczarski Conversations with an Executioner /Wojciech Tochman Like Eating a Stone

Portugal Eca de Queiroz The Mandarin and Other Stories / José SaramagoBlindness; The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis; The Gospel According to Jesus Christ / Fernando Pessoa / Pero Vaz de Caminha Carta de Pêro Vaz de Caminha / Agustina Bessa-Luís

Qatar Mohammed Ali Victory over Abu Derya: The Quest for Pearls in the Arabian Gulf / Abdul Aziz Al Mahmoud The Corsair

Romania Herta Müller The Passport / Filip and Matei Florian The Baiut Alley Lads / Mircea Cartarescu / Mircea Eliade

Russia Alina Bronsky The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine / Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (trans. Ralph Parker) / Vladimir Sorokin Day of the Oprichnik / Mikhail Lermontov A Hero of Our Time/ Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and Margarita (trans. Michael Glenny) / Roman Senchin MINUS / Alan Cherchesov Requiem for the Living /Off the Beaten Tracks: Stories by Russian Hitchhikers / Oleg Zaionchkovski Happiness is Possible / PD Ouspensky Strange Life of Ivan Osokin / Alan Cherchesov Requiem for the Living / Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina

Rwanda Philip Gourevitch We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families / Jean Hatzfeld Into the Quick of Life / Barassa Teta / John Rusimbi By the Time She Returned / Gilbert Gatore The Past Ahead

Saint Kitts and Nevis Caryl Phillips / Bertram Roach Only God Can Make a Tree

Saint Lucia Derek Walcott Omeros / Garth St Omer A Room on the Hill; Shades of Grey; Nor Any Country; J-, Black Bam and the Masqueraders / Dr Earl Long Consolation; Voices from a Drum / McDonald Dixon Season of Mist / Michael Aubertin Neg Maron

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines H Nigel Thomas Spirits in the Dark; Behind the Face of Winter; Return to Arcadia / George Thomas Ruler in Hairoona / Cecil Browne The Moon is Following Me / Richard Byron-Cox Were Mama’s Tears in Vain? / Marcia King-Gamble / Trish St Hill /  Nickie Williams /

Samoa Misa Telefoni Retzlaff Love and Money / Lani Wendt Young Telesa: The Covenant Keeper / Albert Wendt The Adventures of Vela; Sons for the Return Home; Pouliuli / Sia Figiel Where We Once Belonged; The Girl in the Moon Circle; They Who do not Grieve

San Marino Giuseppe Rossi The Republic of San Marino

Sao Tome and Principe Olinda Beja The Shepherd’s House 

Saudi Arabia Rajaa Al-Sanea Girls of Riyadh / Raja Alem My Thousand and One Nights: A Novel of Mecca / Abdul Rahman Munif Endings; Cities of Salt; The Trench; Variations on Night and Day / ed. Abubaker Bagader Voices of Change / Ghazi Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi

Senegal Mariama Bâ So Long a Letter / Ken Bugul Riwan ou Le Chemin de Sable (Riwan or The Path of Sand)

Serbia Milos Crnjanski A Novel About London; Migrations / Danilo Kiš / David Albahari Bait / Milorad Pavic Dictionary of the Khazars / Srdjan Valjarevic Lake Como / Zoran Živković

Seychelles Glynn Burridge Voices / William Travis Beyond the Reefs; Shark for Sale

Sierra Leone Aminatta Forna The Memory of Love / Ishmael Beah A Long Way Gone

Singapore Su-Chen Christine Lim Fistful of Colours 

Slovakia Pavol Rankov / Peter Pišťanek Rivers of Babylon / Daniela Kapitánová Samko Tale’s Cemetery Book

Slovenia Slavoj Žižek / Nataša Kramberger Heaven in a Blackberry Bush, a Novel in Stories / Andrej Blatnik You do Understand / Andrej Skubic Fužine Blues / Miha Mazzini The German Lottery / Vladimir Bartol Alamut / Luka Novak The Golden Shower or What Men Want

Solomon Islands John Saunana The Alternative / ed. Alice Aruhe’eta Pollard and Marilyn J. Waring Being the First: Storis Blong Oloketa Mere lo Solomon Aelan / Celo Kulagoe

Somalia Nuruddin Farah Secrets; Sweet and Sour Milk

South Africa Gavin Evans Dancing Shoes is Dead / Ingrid Winterbach The Book of Happenstance / Damon Galgut The Quarry / Kgebetli Moele The Book of the Dead / Diane Awerbuck Cabin Fever / Siphiwo Mahala African Delights / Henrietta Rose-Innes Nineveh / Ivan Vladislavic The Loss Library / Nelson Mandela The Long Walk to Freedom / Alan Paton Cry, the Beloved Country / Bryce Courtenay The Power of One / Dalene Matthee Fiela’s Child; Circles in the Forest

South Korea Hwang Sok-yong The Guest; The Old Garden / Lee Hye-KyungA House on the Road / Shin Kyung-Sook Please Look After Mom

South Sudan Julia Duany ‘To Forgive is Divine Not Human’ 

Spain Miguel Delibes Five Hours with Mario / Javier Cercas Soldiers of Salamis; The Anatomy of a Moment (trans. Anne McClean) / Alberto MendezThe Blind Sunflowers / Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote (trans. Edith Grossman) / Carlos Ruiz Zafón The Shadow of the Wind /  Enrique Vila-Matas Dublinesque / Juan Goytisolo Exiled from Almost Everywhere / Antonio Muñoz Molina Sefarad / Javier Marías The Infatuations

Sri Lanka Romesh Gunesekera Reef / Carl Muller The Jam Fruit Tree / Shehan Karunatilaka Chinaman / Ru Freeman A Disobedient Girl / Siri Gunasinghe The Shadow / Kathleen Jayawardena Circles of Fire / S Ponnuthurai Ritual / Sunethra Rajakarunanayake Metta / Keerthi Welisarage The Doomed / Martin Wickramasinghe

Sudan Amir Tag Elsir The Grub Hunter / Tarek Eltayeb The Palm House / Tayeb Salih Season of Migration to the North / Leila Aboulela Minaret

Suriname Cynthia Mcleod The Cost of Sugar; The Free Negress

Swaziland  Sarah Mkhonza Weeding the Flowerbeds

Sweden Henning Mankell Chronicler of the Winds / Per Olov Enquist The March of the Musicians (trans. Joan Tate); The Story of Blanche and Marie / Jens Lapidus Easy Money / Karin Altenberg Island of Wings / Jonas Hassen Khemiri Montecore / Hjalmar Soderberg Doctor Glas / Lotta Lotass / Amelie Posse / John Ajvide Lindqvist Let the Right One In / Jonas Jonasson The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Switzerland Friedrich Dürrenmatt The Pledge / Hansjörg Schertenlieb A Happy Man / Gottfried Keller A Village Romeo and Juliet / Annemarie Schwarzenbach / Friedrich Glauser In Matto’s Realm / Peter Bichsel Children’s Stories / Aglaja Veteranyi Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta / Hugo Loetscher Noah / Gerhard Meier Isle of the Dead 

Syria Fadi Azzam Sarmada / Zakaria Tamer Breaking Knees / Ghadda Samman / Rafik Schami Damascus Nights / Hassan Bahri / Hanna Mina Sun on a Cloudy Day / Khaled Khalifa In Praise of Hatred

Taiwan Su Wei-chen / Pai Hsien-yung Crystal Boys

Tajikistan Andrei Volos Hurramabad / Sadriddin Aini The Sands of Oxus: Boyhood Reminiscences of Sadriddin Aini

Tanzania Muhammed Said Abdulla / Abdulrazak Gurnah Desertion / Edwin Semzaba / Ismael Mbise Blood on Our Land / Agoro Anduru / Adam Shafi / Bethsaida Orphan Girls’ Secondary School Their Voices, Their Stories / Sophia Mustafa Broken Reed / Tengio Urrio The Girl from Uganda / S Ndunguru The Lion of Yola / Ronny Mintjens More Than a Game

Thailand Chart Korbjitti The Judgement; No Way Out; Time; Mad Dogs & Co / Kukrit Pramoj / Kampoon Boontawee A Child of the Northeast

Togo Jeanette D Ahonsou / Pyabelo Chaold Kouly / Tété-Michel KpomassieAn African in Greenland

Tonga Joshua Taumoefolau A Providence of War / Epeli Hau’ofa Tales of the Tikongs

Trinidad and Tobago VS Naipaul A House for Mr Biswas; In a Free State / Monique Roffey The White Woman on the Green Bicycle / Robert Antoni / Keith Jardim Near Open Water / Earl Lovelace Is Just a Movie / Vahni CapildeoOne Scattered Skeleton / Errol John Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

Tunisia Habib Selmi The Scents of Marie-Claire / Abdelwahab MeddebTalismano / Hassouna Mosbahi A Tunisian Tale / Ali Douagi / Mahmoud Messadi

Turkey Orhan Pamuk Snow / Latife Tekin Dear Shameless Death / Elif ShafakThe Forty Rules of Love / Erendiz Atasu The Other Side of the Mountain / Murathan Mungan / Orhan Kemal / Halide Edip Adıvar / Reşat Nuri Güntekin / Refik Halit Karay / Sabahattin Ali / Yaşar Kemal / Kemal Tahir / Fakir Baykurt / Sait Faik Abasıyanık / Güneli Gün On the Road to Baghdad / Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar The Time Regulation Institute

Turkmenistan John Kropf Unknown Sands / Ak Welsapar The Tale of Aypi;Cobra

Tuvalu Various Tuvalu: A history

Uganda Okot p’Bitek Song of Lawino / Moses Isegawa Abyssinian Chronicles;Snakepit / Doreen Baingan Tropical Fish: Stories Out Of Entebbe / Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi Kintu / Timothy Wangusa Upon This Mountain / Julius Ocwinyo Fate of the Banished; The Unfulilled Dream; Footprints of the Outsider / Goretti Kyomuhendo The First Daughter; Waiting; Secrets No More/ Glaydah Namukasa Voice of Dream

Ukraine Andrey Kurkov Death and the Penguin / Theodore Odrach Wave of Terror  / Nikolai  Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka

United Arab Emirates Qais Sedki Gold Ring / Maha Gargash The Sand Fish / Ameera Al Hakawati Desperate in Dubai / Mohammad Al Murr The Wink of the Mona Lisa; Dubai Tales

United Kingdom Angus MacLellan Stories from South Uist / Christina Hall To the Edge of the Sea / Deborah Levy Swimming Home / Siân Melangell DafyddY Trydydd Peth / Vanessa Gebbie / Caryl Lewis Martha, Jack and Shanco / Virginia Woolf / Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day / JK Rowling

United States of America Neil Gaiman American Gods / Sean Murphy The Time of New Weather / Norton Juster The Phantom Tollbooth / Michael Shaara The Killer Angels / Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible / Cormac Mccarthy All the Pretty Horses / Eliot Weinberger / Jhumpa Lahiri / Amy Tan / Sandra Cisneros / Tomas Pynchon/ Hunter S Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas / Harriette Arnow The Dollmaker

Uruguay Juan Carlos Onetti The Shipyard; The Pit and Tonight / Felisberto Hernández Lands of Memory / Rafael Courtoisie / Cristina Peri Rossi /Eduardo Galeano / Mario Benedetti / Horacio Quiroga The Decapitated Chicken

Uzbekistan Sabit Madaliev / Hamid Ismailov The Railway / Bibish The Dancer from Khiva: One Muslim Woman’s Quest for Freedom

Vanuatu Sethy Regenvau Laef Blong Mi: From Village to Nation

Vatican City Luigi Marinello & The Millenari Shroud of Secrecy of Gone with the Wind in the Vatican 

Venezuela Francisco Suniaga / Alberto Barrera Tyszka The Sickness / Ana Teresa Torres / Romulo Gallegos / Federico Vegas Falke

Vietnam Phan Hon Nhien The Joker; Cold Eyes; Left Wing / Bao Ninh The Sorrow of War (trans. Frank Palmos, Phan Thanh Hao) / Nguyen Nhat Anh / Nguyen Ngoc Thuan Open the Window, Eyes Closed

Yemen Wajdi al-Ahdal A Land without Jasmine / Zayd Mutee’ Dammaj The Hostage 

Zambia Gaile Parkin Baking Cakes in Kigali / Field Ruwe / Binwell SinyangweA Cowrie of Hope

Zimbabwe Petinah Gappah An Elegy for Easterly / Tsitsi DangarembgaNervous Conditions / Brian Chikwava Harare North / Tendai Huchu The Hairdresser of Harare / Shimmer Chinodya Chioniso and Other Stories / Stephen Lungu Out of the Black Shadows / Christopher Mlalazi They are Coming; Running with Mother

http://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/thelist/

A Kyrgyz Girl Of The Pamir Mountains...

The Kyrgyz of the Pamir Mountains in northern Afghanistan live at a high altitude where no crops grow. Survival depends on the animals that they milk, butcher, and barter.

Here, Ayeem Khan wears boots borrowed from her father and the red veil of an unmarried Kyrgyz girl, to be traded for a white one when she weds. Twice a day she milks the family’s yaks; some milk curd will be dried for use in winter, when yaks give less.

Photograph by Matthieu Paley, National Geographic

West Should Own Up To Its Mistakes Amid Charlie Hebdo Aftermath...

The Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris was an act of cold blooded butchery that has been met with revulsion around the world.

However, it should not blind us to the hypocrisy of those voices in the West who have been fanning the flames of this barbarism in Libya, Syria, and Iraq in recent years, and are screaming loudest now that it has erupted in their own backyard.

When will they ever learn? That extremism begets extremism is a simple and empirical truth that runs like a thread throughout human history. Breaking this cycle of extremism requires that we oppose it – whether it comes in the name of Islam, or whether it is carried out under the guise of Western democracy.

What the usual chorus of anti-Muslim Western ideologues and liberal supporters of the Western hegemony conveniently forget to mention, as they vent their collective outrage over this barbaric mass murder in Paris, is that the vast majority of victims of Islamic extremism are Muslims. They also elide to mention that Muslims constitute the majority of victims of Western extremism, as well as the West's funding and support for the same barbarism in Libya and Syria, where such massacres have now been a daily occurrence for over three years. Should not the Western governments apologize for the carnage and chaos precipitated over the past decade and more – in a never-ending series of wars, occupations, and military interventions?

The French government has played an onerous role in facilitating the descent of Libya into the abyss of violence and extremism it is now drowning in. Likewise, it has been a key agent in prolonging the misery being suffered by the Syrian people, as they desperately resist the invasion of their country by thousands of extremists who are intent on turning it into a graveyard.

The British government has been guilty of the same perfidious policy, while claiming the legitimacy of democracy and civilization. But what they call democracy has long been exposed as organized hypocrisy. As Malcolm X said, “You can’t understand what’s going on in Mississippi if you don’t understand what’s going on in the Congo.”

There is an unbreakable circular relationship between Western fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism. What took place in Paris is being claimed as an attack on free speech. But free speech can also be used as a weapon, deployed as a key aspect of an ideological assault on those deemed 'the other.'

Make no mistake, nothing but condemnation should be heaped on those responsible for this vile attack in Paris. The sooner they are brought to justice the better. Indeed, only those who have had their humanity surgically removed could have failed to be moved by the sight of the wounded police officer lying on the ground begging for his life before being brutally executed by one of the terrorists involved. 

But beyond the immediate need to apprehend these mindless killers has to be recognition that the current policy vis-à-vis the Middle East being followed by the West and Western governments, with the eruption of barbarism we have seen take place, is a disastrous one. 

In France it is inevitable that the Muslim community and immigrants in general will come under attack over the following weeks and months. Support will solidify and increase for the continuing rise of the far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, with its anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim focus. 

In fact, not only in France but all across Western Europe, the far-right is in the ascendant. Recent anti-Muslim mass demonstrations in Germany already reflected a worrying trend prior to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and now it will only get worse, acting as a diversion away from the culpability of Western governments when it comes to creating conditions for the growth and spread of Islamophobia. 

Amid the hysteria that has now been unleashed, it should not be forgotten that terrorism does not carry a passport. It is not the preserve of one nationality or religion. The best and most effective resistance to it at home is to stop supporting it overseas.

http://rt.com/op-edge/220987-charlie-hebdo-west-muslims/

Ugly...

“Your daughter is ugly.
She knows loss intimately,
carries whole cities in her belly.

As a child, relatives wouldn’t hold her.
She was splintered wood and sea water.
They said she reminded them of the war.

On her fifteenth birthday you taught her
how to tie her hair like rope 
and smoke it over burning frankincense.

You made her gargle rosewater
and while she coughed, said
macaanto girls like you shouldn’t smell
of lonely or empty.

You are her mother.
Why did you not warn her,
hold her like a rotting boat
and tell her that men will not love her
if she is covered in continents,
if her teeth are small colonies,
if her stomach is an island
if her thighs are borders?

What man wants to lay down 
and watch the world burn 
in his bedroom? 

Your daughter’s face is a small riot,
her hands are a civil war,
a refugee camp behind each ear,
a body littered with ugly things

but God, 
doesn’t she wear
the world well.” 

― Warsan Shire