| Title | Description | Author | Category |
|
| | | |
| Alchemist, The | Constanza: . | Paulo Coelho | World Literature(Latin America) |
| Autumn of the Patriarch, The | Kris: The seemingly incessant stream of events, thoughts and remarks stated aloud, all bundled together, which forms this magnificent book, tells a story of loneliness. A remarkable book - I would go as far as to say the best that Gabriel Garcia Marquez has written so far. | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | World Literature(Latin America) |
| Bliss | Hil: . | Peter Carey | World Literature(Australia) |
| Buddenbrooks : The Decline of a Family | Liesbeth: The story of three generations of an upper class German family. The first generation is self made, rich, prosperous in every way. Both following generations are far less successful than the one before, with the older generations still alive to witness this decay. All this sounds rather dramatic and awful, but Mann tells the story in a unique and appealing way. | Thomas Mann | World Literature(Germany) |
| Chronicle of a Death Foretold | Constanza: One of his best short novels or long stories. I knew from the beginning how it was to end and yet could not bring myself to believe it would actually happen that way. | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | World Literature(Latin America) |
| Cloud Street | Hil: . | Tim Winton | World Literature(Australia) |
| Doll, The | This book describes Polish romanticism and what it leads to. Fantastic insights on Polish history and culture. | Boleslaw Prus | World Literature(Poland) |
| Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandschaften) | Surprisingly timeless. | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | World Literature(Germany) |
| Follow Your Heart | Constanza: Letters a dying old woman writes to her granddaughter ... [about] what her life was, about her parents, her education, her marriage. But in doing so, she tells her how she managed to find a center, and analyze relationships between people: mother/daughter/grandaughter/husband-wife, etc. About God, and love, and freedom. | Susanna Tamaro | World Literature(Italy) |
| History of Danish Dreams, The | It is much better than his much more publicised Smilla's Sense of Snow. | Peter Hoeg | World Literature(Denmark) |
| House of Spirits, The | Constanza: . | Isabelle Allende | World Literature(Latin America) |
| Idea of Perfection, The | Kate: A great and thought provoking read about what it means to be 'perfect', why perfection is both unattainable and dangerous, and how the imperfections in us can be what we love in each other (and in our landscapes). | Kate Grenville | World Literature(Australia) |
| Kite Runner, The | OliviaG, Kathleen(elder): The author evokes the time (1970's/80's) and place so well that I felt as if I were watching the two boys at the center of the story: Amir (the narrator), the son of a wealthy businessman, and Hassan, the son of their servant. The backdrop to the story is the Soviet Union's invasion and then the Taliban's takeover of the government, and the story is an often wrenching exploration of friendship and betrayal. | Khaled Hosseini | World Literature(Afghanistan) |
| Leopard, The | This is a book of grand scope dealing intelligently with big themes: passion, jealousy, unrequited love, marriage, death, war, and the fall of an ancient order. The characters are well-drawn, individual, and life-like enough to command our concern. Yet for all that, it's not a long or particularly difficult book. | Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa | World Literature(Italy) |
| Les Miserables | JeanB: This is an aptly named story which explores the notion of good and evil and the shades that exist in each. This is a long, sometimes difficult work and you will need to decide if it is worth the time and effort – I thought it was. | Victor Hugo | World Literature(France) |
| Like Water for Chocolate | Constanza: . | Laura Esquivel | World Literature(Latin America) |
| Love in the Time of Cholera | . | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | World Literature(Latin America) |
| Madame Bovary | . | Gustave Flaubert | World Literature(France) |
| Magic Mountain, The | The novel portrays the dichotomy between the forces in human nature; the aesthetic, idealistic forces of poets, artists, and abstract thinkers, and the forces of the very real world where the daily responsibilities are achieved. | Thomas Mann | World Literature(Germany) |
| Marquise of O, The | . | Heinrich Von Kleist, | World Literature(Germany) |
| My Brilliant Career | . | Miles Franklin | World Literature(Australia) |
| Of Love and Other Demons | Kris: One of his latest books. A unique story heard by the author on the occasion of unearthing an old cemetery had been the source of inspiration for this genius account of a deadly love affair. A book one can't put down until one is through with it. | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | World Literature(Latin America) |
| One Hundred Years of Solitude | Constanza: . | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | World Literature(Latin America) |
| Oscar and Lucinda | . | Peter Carey | World Literature(Australia) |
| Pelle the Conqueror | IMO both these books are not only very good literature, but they also say more about Denmark than does anything Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen or Hans Christian Andersen (of the fairy-tales) ever wrote, but they are very, very different from her in style and in choice of themes/plots. | Martin Andersen Nexo | World Literature(Denmark) |
| Quo Vadis | Set in the Ancient Rome in the times of Nero. Marcus Vinicius, a handsome, young aristocrat, who has recently returned from a victorious war campaign and is proclaimed a hero, falls in love with a beautiful POW, Ligia, who believes that there is only one true God. This is just a beginning of the difficult path, Marcus has to go through to understand what is really important in life. | Henry K. Sienkiewicz | World Literature(Poland) |
| Shadow Of the Wind, The | SereneClare: This book is a bit of a cross between The Club Dumas and the books written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It has the thrill of a mystery surrounding a book and the romanticism that you usually associate with Latin American writers. Zafon may not be as deep or philosophical but he writes like he's Marquez in training. | Carlos Ruiz Zafon | World Literature(Spain) |
| Sophie's World | It's a history of philosophy/mystery/fantasy mixed up into one. Very enjoyable. The idea of explaining the history of western philosophy to a couple of bright fifteen year olds is an excellent device. | Jostein Gaarder | World Literature(Norway) |
| With Fire and Sword | This powerful novel, "a Polish Gone with the Wind" (New York Times Book Review), is set in the 17th century and follows the struggle of the kingdom of Poland to maintain its unity in the face of the Cossack-led peasant rebellion. | Henryk Sienkiewicz | World Literature(Poland) |
