I'm an American...

It is shit posts like this that generate "what should i read to prepare for this book" threads. Fuck that. Most books can be understood with a general knowledge of world history.

Where's Scotland?

>Most books can be understood with a general knowledge of world history.

Chenobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich, if you want to read something from Belarus famalam. She won the noble prize for it a couple years back.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for the advice. Will do.

Scotland: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

Danilo Kis's Enciclopedia of the Dead is better desu
Or dictionary of the khazars

Italy: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
France: Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Germany: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Do you Encyclopedia of the Dead and Dictionary of the Khazars is better or Encylopedia is better than both? Just not sure what you mean

Switzerland: The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf
Austria: Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
Germany: Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

Albania: Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare

Can't speak Albanian, but it's great even in translation and from what I know he's towering over all other Albania writers.

seconding Joseph Roth, incredibly good writer. The Legend of the Holy Drinker is one of my fav short stories.

Is Hunger better - or more famous - than Growth of the Soil?

What did you think of Eça? I love his works, but haven't actually read Os Maias yet. My favourite book of his is A Relíquia.

Anyway, for Brazil you should read The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, by Machado de Assis.

>Kafka
>Germany

You're right, he asked for European literature and Israel isn't part of Europe.

Coming to think of it, if you want to truly broaden your horizons and learn about other countries, the best Brazilian book for you would be Os Sertões, by Euclides da Cunha, but that's usually considered a difficult read, since the author spends a few hundred pages talking outdated science (geology/climatology/antropology) stuff.

The Devil to Pay in the Backlands is the fictional equivalent, and it's also a very great book.

Machado is very European, so his novels won't be much different from those of Eça, Flaubert, or Balzac.

Zenobia by Gellu Naum.

All you need.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_epic

Denmark: Butterfly Valley: A Requiem.

Manzoni is way more important than The Name of the Rose

Better than Dom Casmurro?

Sweden: Nässlorna blomma by Harry Martinson

Although I don't know if you can find it in English.

he could also try other writers from similiar period. Witkacy (Insatiability), Irzykowski (The Hag, however this one is untranslated). One killed himself because of war, other shot at war. Schulz was killed by nazi soldier while he was coming back home, with bread in his hand

>Italy
>not Divine Comedy
Not only is it the best book in Italian history, it's also the best book ever written.

I was going for novels, but poetry recommendations are welcome. I'm aware of The Divine Comedy, though.

The Betrothed is really quite boring outside of about 3 chapters. Very important for the development of the Italian novel but I really struggled to get through it because it was so dull. It's the sort of thing you read to say you've read it, but that's about it.

I Malavoglia by Verga is pretty good, I'd recommend that.

Thanks for warning me. I'll seriously consider it.

Ah, right. Anyway your list is alright but seemingly incomplete. You should definitely include France, Germany and (ancient) Greece. It's debatable whether Russia is part of Europe, but it never hurts to read some of the great Russian novels. The Brothers Karamazov is one of the best Russian books in my opinion.

Yeah, it's definitely incomplete. I'm hoping to get recommendations.

France: Les Miserables
Germany: Steppenwolf
Greece: The Iliad
Russia: Brothers Karamazov

OP, if you'll consider Andrić to be a Serbian writer, get Krleža's "Return of Filip Latinovicz" for Croatia.

Regarding France : I also heard Les Miserables was really good, never read Hugo though so I can't tell. I would have said something by Flaubert, maybe Madame Bovary or maybe L'éducation sentimentale (which focuses on a young guy's first love and hope of becoming someone). Or even better, Proust. I don't think anyone else surpasses him in French literature. Go for Swann's Way !

>France: Les Miserables

puh, puh, the fucking Charles Dickens of French literature

Proust is the one you want

My friend gave me an english translation of that which is truly beautiful

Wut

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emigrants_(novels)

This series is the best thing I've ever read written in Swedish. I get that it's probably to big of a commitment for you and not quite what you had in mind, but it is truly great. I can't speak for the translation of course, but as an American it might hold more interest to you than for most others, seeing as it is as much about America as it is about Sweden.

>I'm an American
That's the precise moment I stopped reading.

But he's right tho

It's way better.

>Portugal: The Maias by Jose Maria de Eca de Queiros

That's not Humus by Raul Brandão.

You're going to read them in their original languages, right?

How so you know he's not from Canada or Honduras.

The New World is a big place man. It's like the size of five fucking Europs or an Africa and a half or 5/8ths of an Asia.

Netherlands: The DarkRoom of Damocles

Pedro Páramo for Mexico. Also, is really short.

Might not be a novel. But isn't Faust a better recommendation for Germany?

>I'm an American

Stopped reading here.

It's to the North of Bongistan.

>How so you know

Wat

Unknown Soldiers by Väinö Linna for Finland.

Yes but I dont know if you can translate Faust well. But I think you can make an argument for Elective Affinities or Wilhelm Meister.

Russia:
Eugene Onegin
France:
In search of lost time
Italy: Divine Comedy
Spain:
Don Quixote
Greece:
Iliad

>It's debatable whether Russia is part of Europe
it really isn't

Hungary: Egri Csillagok (The stars of Eger

Or

A Pál utcai fiúk (The Boys of Paul Street) This is more of a book for kids but it's still good.

Netherlands: Karakter by Bordewijk
Belgium: Cheese by Elsschot

Turkey: Madonna in a Fur Coat

Looks great, thanks.