I'm an American, and to broaden my horizons I'm going

British and Russian recommendations are welcome, but not really necessary, because I already read a lot of them.

>>9155965
Gene Wolfe for croatia

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>>9155965
pic related for serbia/croatia depending on how you feel about things

>>9156037
fuck you pinky

>reading Don Quixote without having read Amadis de Gaula or any other spanish chivalric romance
Don't do it, you won't understand the true meaning of the book.

Cheers, but do a bit of research on the monarchy's decline and the effects of the Industrial Revolution in Portugal before reading The Maias, otherwise you'll miss the entire point.

Probably Kazantzakis for Greece.

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Bruno Schulz (everything he wrote) for Poland

>>9155965
>I'm an American
stopped reading there

Anon, you won't understand a shit if you read only one book from each country, because they are built on previous books.
That's like trying to understand Bolaño without reading Borges.

>>9156390
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?

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>>9156462
>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.

>>9156052
Thanks for the suggestion.

>>9156338
Thanks for the advice. Will do.

>>9155965
Scotland: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

>>9156052
Danilo Kis's Enciclopedia of the Dead is better desu
Or dictionary of the khazars

>>9155965
Italy: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
France: Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Germany: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

>>9156601
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.

>>9156713
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.

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>>9156624
>Kafka
>Germany

>>9156825
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.

>>9155965
Zenobia by Gellu Naum.

All you need.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_epic

Denmark: Butterfly Valley: A Requiem.

>>9156624
Manzoni is way more important than The Name of the Rose

>>9156820
Better than Dom Casmurro?

Sweden: Nässlorna blomma by Harry Martinson

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

>>9156371
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

>>9155965
>Italy
>not Divine Comedy
Not only is it the best book in Italian history, it's also the best book ever written.

>>9157099
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.

>>9157129
Thanks for warning me. I'll seriously consider it.

>>9157125
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.

>>9157157
Yeah, it's definitely incomplete. I'm hoping to get recommendations.

>>9157213
France: Les Miserables
Germany: Steppenwolf
Greece: The Iliad
Russia: Brothers Karamazov

>>9156052
OP, if you'll consider Andrić to be a Serbian writer, get Krleža's "Return of Filip Latinovicz" for Croatia.

>>9156624
>>9157227

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 !

>>9157227
>France: Les Miserables

puh, puh, the fucking Charles Dickens of French literature

Proust is the one you want

>>9156960
My friend gave me an english translation of that which is truly beautiful

>>9156037
Wut

https://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.

>>9156491
But he's right tho

>>9157043
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?

>>9159611
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

>>9155965
Pedro Páramo for Mexico. Also, is really short.

>>9156713
Might not be a novel. But isn't Faust a better recommendation for Germany?

>>9155965
>I'm an American

Stopped reading here.

>>9156469
It's to the North of Bongistan.

>>9159631
>How so you know

Wat

Unknown Soldiers by Väinö Linna for Finland.

>>9159647
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

>>9157157
>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.

>>9155965
Netherlands: Karakter by Bordewijk
Belgium: Cheese by Elsschot

>>9155965
Turkey: Madonna in a Fur Coat

>>9159585
Looks great, thanks.