Read a good (foreign) book lately?

In a previous post, I listed foreign films which can be helpful for learning more about a country. This blog will look at novels. Of course, there are a lot of books out there to choose from. This list is very subjective; it is meant to be just a starting place for those looking to learn more about a specific country.

And what does this have to do with international business? The more we know about the culture of the countries where we do business the better.

Wikipedia is once again a good source for more information. Search on “Australian Literature” for example.

Asia Pacific

• China: Both Gao Xingjiang and Jiang Rong are prize-winning Chinese novelists whose works have been translated into English; Amy Tan is an American writer of Chinese decent
• India: Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, Arundhati Roy

Europe

• Denmark: Peter Hoeg: Smila’s Sense of Snow
• France: Douglas Kennedy: The Woman in the Fifth, Peter Mayle (non-fiction books on living in Provence), more…
• Germany: Guenter Grass, Patrick Susskind, Daniel Kehlmann
• Ireland: Frank McCourt: Angela’s Ashes and other novels
• Italy: While Umberto Eco is a classic in Italian literature, his books do not necessarily provide insight into modern Italy as Donna Leon’s mysteries do.
• Sweden: Henning Mankell mysteries
• UK: The Inspector Lynley Mysteries by Elisabeth George, also a BBC series available on DVD

South America

• Chile: Isabelle Allende
• Columbia: Gabriel Garcia Marquez