Hi! I'm doing the storygraph reads around the world. I am looking for suggestions on books set in the following places or written by authors from those places. I read all sorts of books but particularly like scifi, fantasy, ya. Thank you!
Belgium
Iceland
Phillipines
The Netherlands
Mexico
Malaysia
Kenya
China
by skepticbrain87
6 Comments
Yes at I recommend Burial Rites by Hannah Kent for the Icelandic one.
Lisa See for all things China.
Ann Bennett for her Penang series.
Malaysia and China: here’s just a few more if needed:
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
The Library of Legends by Janie Chang
The Concubines Child by Carol Jones
The scent of Frangipani by Chaudhuri
Where the sunrise is red by Ling Yap
Circumstance by Rosie Milne
Ooh, if you’re doing the Netherlands, Johanna Van Veen’s “My Darling Dreadful Thing” is a modern gothic horror novel that uses its postwar Netherlands setting to play with a lot of gothic horror conventions. It draws on layers of horror-history, and presents those ideas in a way that’s specific to post-WWII Dutch girls/women but that the reader can still relate to.
Anyways, the plot starts off in the aftermath of WWII. The protagonist runs a spiritualist/medium scam that’s clearly from an older generation and no longer too successful. But the catch is that she has (or at least believes she has) a REAL ghost companion, that the reader can recognize as a bog-body (the archeology+geography of the Netherlands is plot-relevant). The plot is set off when she gets a position living in a big ol’ decaying mansion with depressed/crazy aristocrats. Postwar Dutch-Indonesia politics give the author a chance to play with the gothic themes of fascination with the exotic AND how that ties into the themes of alienation/isolation. And the timing makes for a good place to explore the tension over whether the characters are being haunted, or if they need medical help.
For Netherlands, I read The Safekeep.
For Iceland, I’m using Burial Rites. Working my way through it.
For Malaysia, I’m reading The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. I’ve read another of their novels, The House or Doors, which I’ve also highly recommend if you’re keen on the summary/cover synopsis.
For Belgium, I highly recommend Jacqueline Harpman. I’ve been reading her work since grad school.