Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Marques, Isabel Allende, Machado de Assis, Rubem Fonseca, Ana Maria Matute, Mario Vargas Lhosa, Goethe…. and so many others… all most amazing authors I’ve read and that are absolutely worth a look. I feel bad there are so many I left out. 🙂 xxx
@Miguel Yep. I read those too. I am glad to say. It’s a wonderful thing, Miguel. I am Brazilian and read all of those growing up! And now I can read in several languages which is also great, there’s no substitute for reading books in the original language in which they were written. I am glad I was educated in Portuguese….so I could read Camoes and Fernando Pessoa. Florbela Espanca, Machado de Assis. Or in Spanish Cervantes, Eduardo Galeano and Montalban! Where are you from?!
I wish I could tell you. About 40 years ago I read 3 or 4 books in a series about a German spy or secret agent set in the current time. He was also a gourmand. Every other chapter would be about a meal he prepared or ate. The meals were fantastical. I remember the books were translated from German, but can’t remember anything else about them. I wish I could remember the author. I’d love to read them again.
@Uschi You may be right. I just read a blurb about the book It Can’t Always Be Caviar and it sounded right. I will track down a copy and read or re-read it. If this is the author, you have just made my day! Or maybe my month! I’ve always remembered reading these books and loving them. But it was so long ago, I could remember nothing about the author or titles. Thanks!!!
Laura Corogenes I am from Germany and remember reading these books and cooking the recipes when I was really young. “Es muss nicht immer Caviar sein” was the most famous. 🙂 Btw, ist really translates to ” It does not always have to be Caviar”.
So many good ones! House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, The Bat by Jo Nesbø, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
I was going to say The Master And Margarita or The Night Watch trilogy but since both of those are taken I’ll go with Death And The Penguin by Andrey KurKov.
Buddenbrooks.
The Magic Mountain..also by Thomas Mann is my favorite..
I loved MM!
A Man Called Ove.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
I second this
Crime and Punishment.
So so so many. First that pop to mind are: Dr. Zhivago, Death With Interruptions, The Man Who Spoke Snakish.
My Brilliant Friend
The Bridge on the Drina.
100 years of solitude
Isabel Allende-Of Love and Shadows and House of Spirits
I don’t know if Half a Yellow Sun was translated. If so, then that too.
The girl with the dragon tattoo and the preacher
Les Miserables
Palm Trees in the Snow
The Shadow of the Wind
Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Marques, Isabel Allende, Machado de Assis, Rubem Fonseca, Ana Maria Matute, Mario Vargas Lhosa, Goethe…. and so many others… all most amazing authors I’ve read and that are absolutely worth a look. I feel bad there are so many I left out. 🙂 xxx
Wow.. I have read some of these authors’ books indeed. .But, it’s quite a list ..Can I add Camus, Borges and Kundera?
@Miguel Yep. I read those too. I am glad to say. It’s a wonderful thing, Miguel. I am Brazilian and read all of those growing up! And now I can read in several languages which is also great, there’s no substitute for reading books in the original language in which they were written. I am glad I was educated in Portuguese….so I could read Camoes and Fernando Pessoa. Florbela Espanca, Machado de Assis. Or in Spanish Cervantes, Eduardo Galeano and Montalban! Where are you from?!
The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo
The elegance of the hedgehog
I have heard great things about that book.
I liked it until the end. Too sad.
I loved it!
I found it exceptional.
Currently reading The Idiot by Dostoevsky. It is laugh-out-loud funny. ?
I bought a copy ..Russian left side and English on the right.. Very confusing..
I bet it is!
Anna Karenina
Stones From The River. Also, I’m a fan of Fredrick Backman.
Didn’t know Stones from the River was a translation! I love that book! The one I thought of first was A Man Called Ov. Great minds!
@Leah May I commend you on your excellent taste in books? ?
@Jean hahaha right? And clearly you are brilliant. ?
I wish I could tell you. About 40 years ago I read 3 or 4 books in a series about a German spy or secret agent set in the current time. He was also a gourmand. Every other chapter would be about a meal he prepared or ate. The meals were fantastical. I remember the books were translated from German, but can’t remember anything else about them. I wish I could remember the author. I’d love to read them again.
I know exactly what books you are talking about but I can not remember the title. could the author’s name have been Simmel?
I think I found him
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Mario_Simmel
@Uschi You may be right. I just read a blurb about the book It Can’t Always Be Caviar and it sounded right. I will track down a copy and read or re-read it. If this is the author, you have just made my day! Or maybe my month! I’ve always remembered reading these books and loving them. But it was so long ago, I could remember nothing about the author or titles. Thanks!!!
Laura Corogenes I am from Germany and remember reading these books and cooking the recipes when I was really young. “Es muss nicht immer Caviar sein” was the most famous. 🙂 Btw, ist really translates to ” It does not always have to be Caviar”.
OMG Uschi, I used to read him, too. Maybe it’s time to go retro 🙂
So many good ones! House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, The Bat by Jo Nesbø, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
The Name of the Rose also I’ve always loved War and Peace and The Brothers Kamorov
Follow Your Heart –Susanna Tamaro
The neverending story
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Any of Henning Mankell’s Swedish mystery’s. They are excellent!!!
Couldn’t choose which one. But I’ll go with This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. A classic from Indonesia one should read.
One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Me too. It’s one of my favorite books ever. I have read in English and Spanish and just love it.
War and Peace, the Penquin classic edition. A classic but still the best at capturing the spirit of the Russian.
The Shadow of the Wind
Kite Runner
Wait kite runner wasn’t written in English?
Wait kite runner wasn’t written in English? Like Originally?
I think so…
Steppenwolf by Hesse.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Smilla’s Sense of Snow—since it hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Jose Saramago’s “Blindness”
The Makioka Sisters.The Name of the Rose.
Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera translated by Lisa Dillman —- All of Yuri Herrera’s novellas are amazing.
Well, funny you should ask. I am not sure it is the best one…but a good one. Just finished Silence by Shusaku Endo.
My all time favourite book
Love Endo and Silence is in my top ten.
Probably “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Or maybe “Veronika Decides to Die” by Paulo Coelho. Two of my all-time favorites.
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust ?
The Master And Margarita by Bulgakov.
The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko (Russian) is a great series of fantasy books.
The Little Prince
I was going to say The Master And Margarita or The Night Watch trilogy but since both of those are taken I’ll go with Death And The Penguin by Andrey KurKov.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon ranks up there.
The Master and Margarita
Steppenwolf by Hesse! It’s on my re-read list.
The Stranger – Albert Camus. Several translations all good
I have only read one so The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. At least I think that’s the only one I have read that was a translation
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery translated by Alison Anderson
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I definitely agree ♥
Paulo Coelho Veronika decides to die / Aleph ♥♥ Love in the time of cholera by GGM
Someone once told James Thurber that they preferred reading his work in French. He said “yes, it loses something in the original.”
All Quiet on the Western Front.
A Man Called Ov
I’m listening to The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I love it so far!
Striving for the Wind by Meja Mwangi
The Count of Monte Cristo
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron
The Reader
A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Anna Karenina