Making progress on my Read the World Challenge, where you read a book by an author from each country in the world. I’m going alphabetical by country, limiting myself to the 193 member states of the UN, and including a mix of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Next four books finished:
Bolivia – Our Dead World by Liliana Colanzi
Story collection that blends literary fiction with horror, the fantastic, and speculative fiction, exploring themes like tradition vs. modernity, marginalized peoples, and the porous boundary between the living and the dead. Rating: 4/5
Bosnia and Herzegovina – Anomaly by Andrej Nikolaidis
A dark, satirical novel about the last day of humanity, where a cataclysmic event causes time and space to collide, forcing characters like a corrupt minister, a dying necrophile, and a traumatized nurse to confront their moral failings as the world ends in a surreal, bloody spectacle. Rating: 4/5
Botswana – Go Tell the Sun by Wame Molefhe
Set in Botswana, the stories trace the lives of characters whose paths cross and re-cross each other’s, sometimes in and through love, at other times through tragedy. And through them the author brings to bear a woman’s perspective on the societal mores in which sexual abuse, homophobia and AIDS, among others, flourish and spread. Rating: 4/5
Brazil – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
An allegorical novel about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of treasure, learning to follow his dreams, listen to his heart, and recognize omens along the way. Rating: 3/5
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