Come travel with me as I read a book in each country I visit! Here is the tentative list of books I plan to read! I will be making a blog post at the end of each country where I discuss the book, and how I found it connected with my travels in that country!
(January 1 – January 22)
Colombia – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A fan of magical realism, I immediately gravitated towards 100 Years of Solitude, which tells the story of the >>fictional<< Buendía family through multiple generations from the postcolonial 1820’s to the 1920’s. Born in Aracataca, Colombia, Gabriel García Márquez is one of the best-known Latin American writers. He won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
(January 22 – February 8)
Chile – The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The House of Spirits details the life of the >>Trueba<< family, spanning four generations, and tracing the post-colonial social and political upheavals of Chile. It is the debut novel of Isabel Allende and was rejected by several Spanish-language publishers before being published in Buenos Aires in 1982. Isabel Allende Llona is a Chilean-American novelist who writes in the “magic realism” tradition, and is considered one of the first successful women novelists in Latin America. She has written novels based in part on her own experiences, often focusing on the experiences of women, weaving myth and realism together.
(February 8 – February 27)
Argentina – The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara
The Motorcycle Diaries is a posthumously published memoir of the Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. It traces his early travels, as a 23-year-old medical student, with his friend Alberto Granado, a 29-year-old biochemist. “Che” Guevara, commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was a Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, since his death Guevara’s stylized visage has become an ubiquitous countercultural symbol and global icon within popular culture.
(March 3 – March 13)
India – The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy’s debut novel, The God of Small Things is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the “Love Laws” prevalent in 1960s Kerala, India. Roy is an Indian writer who is also an activist who focuses on issues related to social justice and economic inequality. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for The God of Small Things.
(March 13 – March 31)
Nepal – Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay
Upadhyay was born and raised in Kathmandu and one of the first Nepali authors to write in English and be published in the West. His collection of nine short stories, published in 2001, offers an insight into the domesticity of Nepali life – depicting where personal experience, desire, and spirituality define identity.
(April 1 – April 24)
Vietnam – The Sorrow of War by Bảo Ninh
The Sorrow of War is a 1991 novel by the Vietnamese writer Bảo Ninh. Ninh, a former North Vietnamese soldier, provides a strikingly honest look at how the Vietnam War forever changed his life, his country, and the people who live there.
(April 20 – April 27)
Laos – The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill
The Coroner’s Lunch is a crime novel by British author Colin Cotterill first published in 2004. It is the first instalment in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series, set in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic during the 1970s.
(April 27 – May 7)
Thailand – Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
Sightseeing is a debut written by a young, award-winning Thai-American writer. Set in contemporary Thailand, these stories are generous, radiant tales of family bonds, youthful romance, generational conflicts, and cultural shiftings beneath the glossy surface of a warm, Edenic setting. The stories in Sightseeing present a nation far removed from its exoticized stereotypes. Rattawut Lapcharoensap was born in Chicago in 1979 and raised in Bangkok.
(May 7 – May 12)
Cambodia – They Killed my Father by Loung Ung
First They Killed my Father is a 2000 non-fiction book written by Loung Ung, a Cambodian-American author and childhood survivor of Democratic Kampuchea. It is her personal account of her experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime. An author, lecturer, and activist, Loung Ung has advocated for equality, human rights, and justice in her native land and worldwide for more than fifteen years.
(May 12 – May 22)
Japan – Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Norwegian Wood is a 1987 novel with a nostalgic story of loss and burgeoning sexuality. It is told from the first-person perspective of Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his days as a college student living in Tokyo. Haruki Murakami is a popular contemporary Japanese writer and translator.
BONUS BOOKS
Please find some books I have read/plan to read on my travels but will not have the chance to write about. Enjoy!
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
This book tells the tale of English journalist, Bruce Chatwin, as he travels through the Southern part of South America in 1977.
The Ministry of Panic by Lee Koe – Singapore
In Amanda Lee Koe’s debut collection from, The ministry of Panic, she navigates the depths of Singaporean memory to present stories about sex, morality and human connection. Amanda Lee Koe is the winner of the 2014 Singapore Literature Prize for English Fiction, and the 2016 Singapore Book Award for Best Fiction Title, for her debut short story collection Ministry of Moral Panic
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen – Nepali Himalayas
This book tells the journey of writer and naturalist Gorge Scaller, who came to Nepal to study Himalayan blue sheep and snow leopards in the Dolpo region. They travel on foot from Pokhara to Shen Gompa.
The Plotters by Un-Su Kim – South Korea
The Plotters is a fantastical crime novel set in an alternate Seoul where assassination guilds compete for market dominance. Un-su Kim was born in 1972 in Busan and is the author of several highly praised novels. He has won the Munhakdongne Novel Prize, Korea’s most prestigious literary prize, and was nominated for the 2016 Grand Prix de la Littéraire Policière. He lives in Jinhae-gu, South Korea.
Sam on Sabbatical 
Sam,
You will be both well traveled and well read. But leave plenty of time for sight seeing!
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