World Literature: A Recommended Reading List
The following list was compiled from:
Reading Lists for College-Bound Students
Outstanding Books for the College Bound
American Library Association (ALA), Outstanding Books for the College Bound
The California Department of Education Recommended Literature for Grades 9-12
Note:
1. Titles are listed in italics.
2. Books are arranged by geographical setting, not by the author’s nationality.
EASTERN EUROPE
Chekhov, Cherry Orchard (and other plays)
Ranevskaya, who has returned to her beloved estate several years after her young son drowned there, only to
watch it slip from the family's hands. An unique adaptation of one of the great masterpieces of the theater.
Solzhenitsyn, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
The story of one man's struggle to survive in a Soviet workcamp during the Stalin era. A common carpenter,
Ivan is one of millions viciously imprisoned for years on baseless charges, sentenced to the waking nightmare
of Soviet work camps. This powerful novel based on historical fact is a scathing indictment of Communist
tyranny, and an eloquent affirmation of the human spirit.
Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Realistic novel of a modern social criticism set in 19th century Russia. This is the double drama of Anna and of
Levin. Sensual, rebellious Anna renounces her respectable marriage and fine position for a passionate
involvement which offers a taste of freedom and a trap for destruction. This historical romance is considered the
greatest novel of the 19th century!
Turgenev, Fathers and Sons
Controversial at the time of publication, this Russian novel concerns the inevitable conflict between generations
and between the values of traditionalists and intellectuals. Its hero, Dr. Bazarov, is a new man, a nihilist,
uncouth and forthright in his opinions and at odds with the status quo. This is the moving story of human
relationships.
WESTERN EUROPE
Boyd, Any Human Heart
Told entirely in the form of diary entries, this lavishly imagined novel seeks to explore the complexity of an
individual human life responding to history and change. The journal's author is a cultured, intelligent man
named Logan Mountstuart. Beginning in 1923 with his schoolboy days in England, Mountstuart takes us
through college, experiences in 1930s Paris, adventures as a spy for England during World War II, and, finally,
his golden years and eventual death. This is a masterfully drawn historical novel, utterly convincing in its
depiction of events, but Boyd (Armadillo) also explores the nuances of Mountstuart's complex interior life: his
youthful ambitions, his yearning for love, and the challenges posed by loss and disappointment.
Camus, The Stranger
Here is the story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched
Algerian beach. This haunting novel will have a profound impact.
Cervantes, Miguel de, Don Quixote
This comic satire against chivalric romances describes an elderly knight who, his head bemused by reading
romances, sets out on his old horse Rosinante, with his practical squire Sancho Panza, to seek adventure. In the
process, he also finds love in the person of the peasant Dulcinea.
Dante, Inferno
Dante Alighieri explores the regions of damnation, where the souls suffer eternal punishments appropriate to
their sins. This is the classic journey into the underworld. The nine levels of Hell as well as sinners who are
housed in each are described in unforgettable detail as Dante descends conically into the earth. Filled with
politics and philosophy, this epic poem is at one personal and universal, providing an illuminating view into our
present world as well as Dante's. We recognize the worst in human nature as well as the potential for
redemption.
Dickens, Charles, A Tale of Two Cities
Dickens' novel of the French Revolution. They fled to London seeking safety, and found each other--Dr.
Manette, falsely imprisoned for decades; his daughter, Lucie, whose stunning beauty was matched by her
loyalty and grace; and Charles Darnay, who abandoned a royal title to risk being called a traitor in France, a spy
in England.
Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Here are twelve tales by the father of detective fiction: "A scandal in Bohemia" -- "The Red-headed League" -"A case of identity" -- "The Boscombe Valley mystery" -- "The five orange pips" -- "The man with the twisted
lip" -- "The adventure of the blue carbuncle" -- "The adventure of the speckled band" -- "The adventure of the
engineer's thumb" -- "The adventure of the noble bachelor" -- "The adventure of the beryl coronet" -- "The
adventure of the copper beaches".
Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, The Count of Monte Cristo recounts the
swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantes, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The story of
his long imprisonment, dramatic escape, and carefully wrought revenge offers up a vision of France that has
become immortal. Sentenced to life for a crime he did not commit, the hero escapes determined to exact
revenge from his enemies.
Dumas, The Three Musketeers
Perhaps the greatest "cloak and sword" story ever written, this is a story where the heroic young d'Artagnan and
his compatriots are pitted against the evil Cardinal Richelieu and the equally wicked Lady de Winter.
von Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther
One of the world's first best-sellers, this tragic masterpiece attained an instant and lasting success upon its 1774
publication. A sensitive exploration of the mind of a young artist, the tale addresses age-old questions—the
meaning of love, of death, and the possibility of redemption—in the form of Werther's alternately joyful and
despairing letters about his unrequited love. Goethe's portrayal of a character who struggles to reconcile his
artistic sensibilities with the demands of the world proved tremendously influential to subsequent writers and
continues to speak to modern readers.
Golding, Lord of the Flies
This novel explores the dark side of human nature and stresses the importance of reason and intelligence as
tools for dealing with the chaos of existence. Children are evacuated from Britain because of a nuclear war. One
airplane crashes on an uninhabited island, and all the adults are killed. The boys then fashion their own society.
Grass, Tin Drum
The Tin Drum uses savage comedy and a stiff dose of magical realism to capture not only the madness of war,
but also the black cancer at the heart of humanity that allows such degradations to occur. Meet Oskar Matzerath,
"the eternal three-year-old drummer." On the morning of his third birthday, dressed in a striped pullover and
patent leather shoes, and clutching his drumsticks and his new tin drum, young Oskar makes an irrevocable
decision: "It was then that I declared, resolved, and determined that I would never under any circumstances be a
politician, much less a grocer; that I would stop right there, remain as I was--and so I did; for many years I not
only stayed the same size but clung to the same attire." Here is a Peter Pan story with a vengeance. But instead
of Never-Never Land, Günter Grass gives us Danzig, a contested city on the Polish-German border; instead of
Captain Hook and his pirates, we have the Nazis. And in place of Peter himself is Oskar, a twisted puer aeternis
with a scream that can shatter glass and a drum rather than a shadow. First published in 1959, The Tin Drum's
depiction of the Nazi era created a furor in Germany.
Green (ed), King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
The immortal tales of King Arthur are full of mystery and wonder. From the magical moment when Arthur
releases the sword in the stone to the quest for the Holy Grail and the final tragedy of the Last Battle, this
retelling brings alive the enchanting world of King Arthur.
Hugo, Les Miserables
Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions,
Les Miserables is not only superb adventure but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict JeanValjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance,
became the gospel of the poor and the oppressed.
Ibsen, Henrik, Hedda Gabler
Drama in which a 19th century Norwegian woman pays the consequences of her powerful but ruthless
personality. One of the most widely studied and performed works in the theatrical repertoire, this dark
psychological drama, first produced in Norway in 1890, depicts the evil machinations of a ruthless, nihilistic
heroine. Readers will discover in the shocking events Hedda Gabler precipitates a masterly exploration of the
nature of evil and the potential for tragedy that lies in human frailty.
Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
Novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, published in Greek in 1946 as Vios kai politia tou Alexi Zormpa. The unnamed
narrator is a scholarly, introspective writer who opens a coal mine on the fertile island of Crete. He is gradually
drawn out of his ascetic shell by an elderly employee named Zorba, an ebullient man who revels in the social
pleasures of eating, drinking, and dancing. The narrator's reentry into a life of experience is completed when his
newfound lover, the village widow, is ritually murdered by a jealous mob.
Keneally, Schindler's List
Here is the stunning novel based on the true story of how German war profiteer and prison camp Director Oskar
Schindler came to save more Jews from the gas chambers than any other single person during World War II. In
this milestone of Holocaust literature, the author uses the actual testimony of Schindler's Jews to brilliantly
portray the courage and cunning of a good man in the midst of unspeakable evil.
Lewis, C.S., Out of the Silent Planet (and the rest of the trilogy)
On a walking trip, Dr. Ransom, Cambridge philologist, encounters two old school friends by whom he is, quite
unexpectedly, abducted and drugged. Waking from this bad treatment, Ransom finds himself en route to a
distant planet, Mars- or Malacandra, as its inhabitants call it. Accompany Dr. Ransom through the unknown
onto the weird planet Malacandra, and revel in the voyage and in the strange beauty and the strange horror
which await him.
Machiavelli, The Prince
For over 400 years, this has been the basic handbook of politics, statemanship and power. Written by an Italian
nobleman whose name became a synonym for crafty plotting, this fascinating document sets down the rules and
moves in the ageless game of politics. The result is this highly readable, witty and shrewd formula that is
required reading for anyone interested in politics and power.
Malory, Morte d'Arthur
The rousing epic of King Arthur and his court has had a lasting effect on the traditions and literature of the
English-speaking peoples. These well-known tales represent the bridge between pagan and Christian, Druid and
Roman. Arthur emerges at the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of a British nation.
More, Sir Thomas, Utopia
Thomas More's description of Utopia, an island supporting a perfectly organized and happy people. Book I is a
dialogue which presents a perceptive analysis of contemporary social, economic, punitive, and moral problems
in England; the second book is a narrative describing Utopia, a country run according to the ideals of the
English humanists, where poverty, crime, injustice, and other ills do not exist.
Ondaatje, The English Patient
A poetic novel of four damaged lives in an Italian monastery as World War II ends. The exhausted nurse, Hana;
the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the
nameless, burn victim who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue
illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning.
Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
"I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair..." This is the testament of Paul
Baumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army of World War I. They become soldiers with
enthusiasm, but everything they have been taught breaks into pieces when they experience the horror of war.
Renault, The King Must Die
The story of the mythical hero Theseus, slayer of monsters, abductor of princesses and king of Athens. He
emerges from these pages as a clearly defined personality; brave, aggressive and quick. The core of the story is
Theseus' adventure in Crete.
Rose, Twelve Angry Men
Could you sit with eleven other people and decide someone's fate? This short play in three acts studies the
interaction between jury members. A great look at stereotyping, justice, and fairness.
Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac
Does she fall in love with his looks or with his words? This is an immortal play in which chivalry and wit,
bravery and love are forever captured in the timeless spirit of romance. Set in Louis XIII's reign, it is the
moving and exciting drama of one of the finest swordsmen in France, gallant soldier, brilliant wit, and tragic
lover with a big nose.
Sartre, Jean-Paul, No Exit and Three Other Plays
Existential drama portrays the alienation of modern man. No Exit is the unforgettable portrayal of hell, The
Flies is a modern reworking of the Electra-Orestes story, Dirty Hands is about a young intellectual torn between
theory and praxis, and The Respectful Prostitute is a scathing attack on American racism.
Scott, Ivanhoe
In the twelfth century, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns home to England from the Third Crusade to claim his
inheritance and the love of the lady Rowena. The heroic adventures of this noble Saxon knight involve him in
the struggle between Richard the Lion-Hearted and his malignant brother John: a conflict that brings Ivanhoe
into alliance with the mysterious outlaw Robin Hood and his legendary fight for the forces of good. It is a story
of the crusades, chivalry and courtly love.
Stevenson, Kidnapped
The story of young David Balfour, an orphan, whose miserly uncle cheats him out of his inheritance and
schemes to have him kidnapped, shanghaied, and sold into slavery.
Stevenson, Treasure Island
Treasure Island is one of the most famous books in English. A young boy, Jim Hawkins, lives quietly by the sea
with mother and father. One day, Billy Bones comes to live with them and from that day everything is different.
Jim meets Long John Silver, a man with one leg, and Jim and Long John Silver go far across the sea in a ship
called the Hispaniola to Treasure Island.
Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels describes the four fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a kindly ship's surgeon. Swift
portrays him as an observer, a reporter, and a victim of circumstances. His travels take him to Lilliput where he
is a giant observing tiny, petty people. In Brobdingnag, the tables are reversed and he is the tiny person in a land
of crude giants where he is exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. The flying island of Laputa is the scene
of his next voyage. The people plan and plot as their country lies in ruins. It is a world of illusion and distorted
values. The fourth and final voyage takes him to the home of the Houynhnms, gentle philosophical horses who
rule the land. He also encounters Yahoos, filthy bestial creatures who resemble humans. These journeys give
him new, bitter insights into human behavior. Swift's fantastic and subversive book remains supremely relevant
in our own age of distortion, hypocrisy, and irony.
Tolkien, J.R.R., The Hobbit
Enjoy this 60th anniversary edition of a great modern classic! Written for his own children, The Hobbit is the
story of Bilbo Baggins who finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the
Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.
Tolkien, J.R.R., Return of the King (begin with The Fellowship of the Ring)
As the Shadow of Mordor grows across the land, the Companions of the Ring have become involved in separate
adventures. Aragorn, revealed as the hidden heir of the ancient Kings of the West, has joined with the Riders of
Rohan against the force of Isengard, and takes part in the desperate victory of the Hornburg. Merry and Pippin,
captured by Orcs, escape into Fangorn Forest and there encounter to Ents. Gandalf has miraculously returned
and defeated the evil wizard, Saruman. Sam has left his master for dead after a battle with the giant spider,
Shelop - but Frodo is still alive, now in the foul hands of the Orcs. And all the while, the armies of the Dark
Lord are massing as the One Ring draws ever nearer to the Cracks of Doom.
Trevor, The Story of Lucy Gault
In 1920s Ireland, a family's privileged status is threatened, and like others before them, they must decide
whether to remain or leave their cherished home. Lucy is nine years old when her father, a wealthy Irish army
captain married to an Englishwoman, shoots at and wounds one of a trio of locals trying to set his Irish country
house, Lahardane, afire. Captain Gault and his wife, Heloise, decide they must leave for England and safety, but
Lucy, who has known no other home but Lahardane, flees into the woods on the eve of their departure and
cannot be found. Eventually convinced she has drowned at a nearby beach, her parents leave for a life of
wandering and grieving exile in Europe, utterly out of touch with their old life. Lucy, however, is discovered,
starved but alive, days later by two faithful retainers, who with the aid of a family lawyer keep the house open
as Lucy grows into womanhood. The possibility of love enters her life, but her passionate attachment to the
remote place repels her potential suitor and she lives on alone. Eventually, after the death of her mother, her
father returns to live with her for a while. She even gets to know the wounded youth who once tried to burn
down the house, now an elderly man in a mental institution. Lucy ends her days at Lahardane, out of touch with
the modern world, but still in thrall to the past.
Wells, H.G., The Time Machine
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a scientist builds a machine that takes him into the future where he
encounters two very different civilizations.
Wells, H.G., War of the Worlds
In this book, H. G. Wells invented the myth of invasion from outer space. Martians land near London,
conquering all before them, and ruin the metropolis; the fate of civilization and even of the human race remains
in doubt until the very last. The book is disturbingly realistic both because of its setting and because of its
characters.
Wiesel, Elie, Dawn
Elisha is a young Jewish man, a Holocaust survivor, and an Israeli freedom fighter in British-controlled
Palestine; John Dawson is the captured English officer he will murder at dawn in retribution for the British
execution of a fellow freedom fighter. The night-long wait for morning and death provides Dawn, Elie Wiesel’s
ever more timely novel, with its harrowingly taut, hour-by-hour narrative. Caught between the manifold horrors
of the past and the troubling dilemmas of the present, Elisha wrestles with guilt, ghosts, and ultimately God as
he waits for the appointed hour and his act of assassination. Dawn is an eloquent meditation on the
compromises, justifications, and sacrifices that human beings make when they murder other human beings.
White, T.H., The Once and Future King
Based on medieval Arthurian legends, The Once and Future King is a twentieth-century version of young
Arthur's quest for the sword Excalibur and his claim to the throne of England. Including many well-known and
much-loved episodes with Merlyn, the sorcerer; Morgan La Fay, the witch; and knights jousting and hounds
engaged in the hunt, White's novel adds to the lore surrounding the person of King Arthur.
Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days
Around the World in Eighty Days is one of the most exciting tales of adventure ever written. Accompanied by
his faithful valet, Phileas Fogg has vowed to make his way across the globe in a mere 80 days. A breathless
series of triumphs, mishaps, and near disasters strike the daring duo as they make use of every form of
transportation to bring them closer to their travel goal.
Vreeland, Susan, Girl in Hyacinth Blue
A professor reveals to a collegue a painting he has kept secret for years, which he believes is a Vermeer, and
which has a history from the time of inception through World War II. The story of the painting begins to unfold
in a series of events as it moves through each owner's hands and the secrets quietly surfaces, illumintaing
poignant moments in multiple lives.
ASIA AND AFRICA
Achebe, Things Fall Apart
This novel chronicles the life of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo community, from the events leading up to his
banishment from the community for accidentally killing a clansman, through the seven years of his exile, to his
return. The novel addresses the problem of the intrusion in the 1890s of white missionaries and colonial
government into tribal society; it helped create the Nigerian literary renaissance of the 1960s.
Achebe, Anthills of Savannah
The novel takes place in the fictional West African country of Kangan, where a coup has toppled the former
dictator. Three men, friends since childhood, have all attained positions of prominence in the new government.
Sam is Kangan's president; Chris Oriko, a former journalist, is Commissioner for Information; and Ikem Osodi,
a journalist and poet, is now editor of the National Gazette newspaper. Chris's lover is Beatrice Okoh, a highly
educated civil servant; Ikem's girlfriend is the semiliterate shopgirl Ewele. When the novel begins, Chris and
Ikem both realize that their old friend Sam is not the kind of president they had hoped he would be. Sam is
insecure in his position and intoxicated with power, and he has grown increasingly imperious and paranoid. A
recent referendum to make Sam "President for Life" failed when one region of the country, Abazon, refused to
vote. To punish the people of Abazon, Sam has denied them access to water despite conditions of drought in
their dry savannah land....
Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War
Kien, an ex-soldier and struggling writer, tries to come to grips with his painful youth, shattered love, and the
horrors of the Vietnam conflict. Kien, the protagonist of this rambling and sometimes nearly incoherent but
emotionally gripping account of the Vietnam war, is a 10-year veteran whose experiences bear a striking
similarity to those of the author, a Hanoi writer who fought with the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade. The novel
opens just after the war, with Kien working in a unit that recovers soldiers' corpses. Revisiting the sites of
battles raises emotional ghosts for him, "a parade of horrific memories" that threatens his sanity, and he finds
that writing about those years is the only way to purge them. Juxtaposing battle scenes with dreams and
childhood remembrances as well as events in Kien's postwar life, the book builds to a climax of brutality. A trip
to the front with Kien's childhood sweetheart ends with her noble act of sacrifice.
Bosse, Malcolm, The Examination
Fifteen-year-old Hong and his older brother Chen face famine, flood, pirates, and jealous rivals on their journey
through fifteenth century China as Chen pursues his calling as a scholar and Hong becomes involved with a
secret society known as the White Lotus.
Buck, The Good Earth
The novel, about peasant life in China in the 1920s, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1932. The
Good Earth follows the life of Wang Lung, from his beginnings as an impoverished peasant to his eventual
position as a prosperous landowner. He is aided immeasurably by his equally humble wife, O-Lan, with whom
he shares a devotion to the land, to duty, and to survival. Buck combines descriptions of marriage, parenthood,
and complex human emotions with depictions of Chinese reverence for the land and for a specific way of life.
Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamtress
This beautifully presented novella tracks the lives of two teens, childhood friends who have been sent to a small
Chinese village for "re-education" during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Sons of doctors and dentists, their days
are now spent muscling buckets of excrement up the mountainside and mining coal. But the boys-Luo and the
unnamed narrator-receive a bit of a reprieve when the villagers discover their talents as storytellers; they are
sent on monthly treks to town, tasked with watching a movie and relating it in detail on their return. It is here
that they encounter the little seamstress of the title, whom Luo falls for instantly. When, through a series of
comic and clever tricks and favors, the boys acquire a suitcase full of forbidden Western literature, Luo decides
to "re-educate" the ignorant girl whom he hopes will become his intellectual match. That a bit of Balzac can
have an aphrodisiac effect is a happy bonus. Ultimately, the book is a simple, lovely telling of a classic boymeets-girl scenario with a folktale's smart, surprising bite at the finish.
Gordimer, Nadine, July's People
When war break out in South Africa, a fugitive white family takes refuge with their black servant, July. So
imagine their quandary when the blacks stage a full-scale revolution that sends the Smaleses scampering into
isolation. The premise of the book is expertly crafted; it speaks much about the confusing state of affairs of
South Africa and serves as the backbone for a terrific adventure.
Golden, Arthur, Memoirs of a Geisha
Nitta Sayuri, a young Japanese woman who was taken from her home at the age of nine and sold into slavery as
a geisha, discovers a rare opportunity for freedom when the outbreak of World War II forces an end to the only
life she has ever known.
Gordimer, Nadine, The Pickup
While Nobel Prize-winner Gordimer's trenchant fiction has always achieved universal relevance in capturing
apartheid and its lingering effects in South Africa, this new work attains still broader impact as she explores the
condition of the world's desperate dispossessed. To Julie Summer, rebellious daughter of a rich white
investment banker, the black mechanic she meets at a garage is initially merely an interesting person to add to
her circle of bohemian friends. But as their relationship swiftly escalates, Julie comes to understand her lover's
perilous tightrope attempts to find a country that will shelter him. Abdu, as he calls himself (it's not his real
name), is an illegal immigrant from an abysmally poor Arab country. Now on the verge of deportation from
South Africa, he's forced to return to his ancestral village. Julie insists on marrying him and going with him,
despite his fears that she does not understand how primitive conditions are in the desert town where his strict
Muslim family lives. Abdu (now Ibrahim) is astonished when she willingly does manual labor to earn his
family's respect. They clash, however, over his decision to try once again to gain entry into a country that
discriminates against immigrants from his part of the world. Gradually realizing that she has finally found a
center to her heretofore aimless life, Julie matures; in many ways, she has become more cognizant of reality
than her frantically hopeful husband.
Gordimer, Nadine, My Son's Story
The story of a man's evolution as a political activist and the toll it takes on his family and on him. As a
schoolboy playing truant bumps into his revered father coming out of a cinema with a woman which set against
a backdrop of daily life in segregated South Africa. It shows what it really was like to live a life determined by
the struggle to be free.
Hazzard, The Great Fire
The time is 1947-48, and the place is, primarily, East Asia. Obviously, then, this is a locale much altered--by the
events of World War II, of course, and, as we see, physical destruction and psychological wariness and
weariness lay over the land. Our hero, and indeed he fills the requirements to be called one, is Aldred Leith,
who is English and part of the occupation forces in Japan; his particular military task is damage survey. He has
an interesting past, including, most recently, a two-year walk across civil-war-torn China to write a book. In the
present, which readers will feel they inhabit right along with Leith, by way of Hazzard's beautifully atmospheric
prose, he meets the teenage daughter and younger son of a local Australian commander. And, as Helen is
growing headlong into womanhood, this novel of war's aftermath becomes a story of love--or more to the point,
of the restoration of the capacity for love once global and personal trauma have been shed.
Hesse, Siddhartha
As a youth, the young Indian Siddhartha meets the Buddha but cannot be content with a disciple's role; he must
work out his own destiny and solve his own doubt--a tortuous road that carries him through the sensuality of a
love affair with a beautiful courtesan, the temptation of success and riches, the heartache of a struggle with his
own son, to final self-knowledge.
Hilton, Lost Horizon
Here is an adventure of the mind and the spirit as well as of the body. It is a strange tale about a man who found
himself completely removed not only from the life he'd been living, but from all that we call the civilized world.
In a remote part of Tibet, Hugh Conway's companions in this story are an American financier, an English
missionary, and a young Englishman in the consular service.
Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father's servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul
as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing Hassan's son
from a life of slavery to a Taliban official.
Ibuse, Black Rain
Black Rain is centered around the story of a young woman who was caught in the radioactive "black rain" that
fell after the bombing of Hiroshima. lbuse bases his tale on real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the
holocaust; the result is a book that is free from sentimentality yet manages to reveal the magnitude of the human
suffering caused by the atom bomb. The life of Yasuko, on whom the black rain fell, is changed forever by
periodic bouts of radiation sickness and the suspicion that her future children, too, may be affected. lbuse
tempers the horror of his subject with the gentle humor for which he is famous. His sensitivity to the complex
web of emotions in a traditional community torn asunder by this historical event has made Black Rain one of
the most acclaimed treatments of the Hiroshima story.
Ishiguro, Artist of the Floating World
In An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro offers readers of the English language an authentic look at
postwar Japan, "a floating world" of changing cultural behaviors, shifting societal patterns and troubling
questions. Ishiguro, who was born in Nagasaki in 1954 but moved to England in 1960, writes the story of
Masuji Ono, a bohemian artist and purveyor of the night life who became a propagandist for Japanese
imperialism during the war. But the war is over. Japan lost, Ono's wife and son have been killed, and many
young people blame the imperialists for leading the country to disaster. What's left for Ono? Ishiguro's
treatment of this story earned a 1986 Whitbread Prize.
Jin, Waiting
Lin Kong struggles to balance his life between the two women he loves and the country that is trying to rule his
life. This novel captures the poignant dilemma of an ordinary man who misses the best opportunities in his life
simply by trying to do his duty as defined first by his traditional Chinese parents and later by the Communist
Party. Reflecting the changes in Chinese communism from the '60s to the '80s, the novel focuses on Lin Kong, a
military doctor who agrees, as his mother is dying, to an arranged marriage. His bride, Shuyu, turns out to be a
country woman who looks far older than her 26 years and who has, to Lin's great embarrassment, lotus (bound)
feet. While Shuyu remains at Lin's family home in Goose Village, nursing first his mother and then his ailing
father, and bearing Lin a daughter, Lin lives far away in an army hospital compound, visiting only once a year.
Caught in a loveless marriage, Lin is attracted to a nurse, Manna Wu, an attachment forbidden by communist
strictures. According to local Party rules, Lin cannot divorce his wife without her permission until they have
been separated for 18 years. Though inaction is a risky subject and the thoughts of a cautious man make for a
rather deliberate prose style (the first two sections describe the moments the characters choose not to act), the
final chapters are moving and deeply ironic, proving again that this poet and award-winning short story writer
can deliver powerful long fiction about a world alien to most Western readers.
Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
Novel about a troubled white American family in Africa is narrated by a missionary's four funny, smart, brave
daughters, who are caught up in the political upheaval of what was called the Congo in 1961.
Kipling, Rudyard, Kim
One of the great adventure books of all time, Kim is the story of the orphaned son of an Irish soldier. A secret
mission for the British and a bond with a Tibetan lama in search of a sacred river soon lead Kim into a life of
spies and secrets, danger and high excitement. It is also a profound look at the differences between the East and
West.
Markandaya, Nectar in a Sieve
Married as a child bride to a tenant farmer, Rukmani had never seen, she worked side by side in the field with
her husband to scrap a living out of the land. With courage she met the changing times and fight poverty and
disaster. She saw one of her infants die of starvation, her daughter become a prostitute, and her sons leave the
land for jobs which she distrusted. Here is an Indian novel comparable in many ways to Cry, the Beloved
Country -- a novel that will capture your heart.
Martel, Yann, The Life of Pi
Pi Patel, having spent an idyllic childhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper, sets off with his
family at the age of sixteen to start anew in Canada, but his life takes a marvelous turn when their ship sinks in
the Pacific, leaving him adrift on a raft with a 450-pound Bengal tiger for company.
Mishima, Yukio, Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea
English translation of a Japanese novel tells of Noboru, a thirteen-year-old boy who becomes involved with a
gang of savage youths who turn their deadly attentions on Noboru's prospective stepfather.
Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country
Novel about a black man's country under white man's law. When this novel first appeared, it was compared
favorably with Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and praised for its lack of bias in presenting "a calm
and clear statement, in human terms, of South Africa." The author wrote about his own observations of the
social and moral disintegration of South Africa, the drift of young men to Johannesburg and the consequent
problem of urbanization and growing frustration and crime within the townships, above all the crime of man's
inhumanity to man.
Rushdie, Midnight's Children
In this 1980 Booker Prize-winning novel, two children born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947--the
moment at which India became an independent nation--are switched in the hospital. The infant scion of a
wealthy Muslim family is sent to be raised in a Hindu tenement, while the legitimate heir to such squalor ends
up establishing squatters' rights to his unlucky hospital mate's luxurious bassinet. Switched babies are standard
fare for a Hindi film, and one can't help but feel that Rushdie's world-view--and certainly his sense of the
fantastical--has been shaped by the films of his childhood. But whereas the movies, while entertaining, are
markedly mediocre, Midnight's Children is a masterpiece, brilliant written, wildly unpredictable, hilarious and
heartbreaking in equal measure.
Tsukiyama, Women of the Silk
When Pei Chung is eight years old, her father leaves her at the house of Auntie Yee so that she can work in the
silk factory. Her grief at the unexplained abandonment is softened by the kindness of Yee and the other girls,
and slowly she begins to thrive in her new independence. The friendship between Pei and Lin, who is the
support of her once wealthy and powerful family, is forged with the lives of the silk workers who begin to
demand better conditions. The China of 1919-1938, when the Japanese threat became a reality, is woven into
the threads of factory life and that of families faced with ruin. The characters are drawn with fine detail. Small
village life contrasts vividly with an exciting visit to Canton, and ceremonies are exquisitely described. This
fascinating story is beautifully written and slightly reminiscent of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth .
Wilentz, Martyr's Crossing
An ill Palestinian child dies at an Israeli-border checkpoint while the young post commander is pressing
headquarters for permission to allow the boy and his mother to cross into Israel for medical care. The
Palestinian political leaders proclaim the boy a martyr, rallying crowds with a cry for vengeance: "Find the
soldier." The Israeli military's doctor fashions a version of the event to shield the army from blame. From this
realistic beginning, Martyrs' Crossing dramatizes how easily tragic events escalate into violence. The mother of
the dead boy is American-born Marina Hajimi, who married Hassan, a Palestinian. A Hamas activist, he is
imprisoned in Israel. Marina's father is an eminent American cardiologist, an intellectual who fled Palestine
with his family in 1948 and who is critical of a Palestinian authority he believes is corrupt. Lieutenant Ari
Doron, empathetic and "unassailably honest," finds himself affected by the pain and the beauty of this woman
whose son is dead because he refused to disobey orders. The major characters are principled people, torn by
grief and guilt but unwilling to be manipulated for political purposes. Some of the other characters are less
nobly motivated. Teens who are interested in the Middle East will come away from the novel with a better
understanding of why the conflict so defies resolution.
THE AMERICAS
Allende, The House of the Spirits
The novel follows three generations of three families, each of which represents a social class with its particular
culture and political outlook. This historical fiction is based on Isabel Allende's own childhood growing up in
Chile, her family and relatives, and her experiences as a journalist covering her country's political turmoil. The
story is narrated by Clara's granddaughter, Alba, who is piecing together her family's past using notebooks and
diaries.
Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
From "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury's stories of the colonization of Mars form
an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere--shady
porches with tinkling pitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas. But longing for this
comfortable past proves dangerous in every way to Bradbury's characters--the golden-eyed Martians as well as
the humans. Starting in the far-flung future of 1999, expedition after expedition leaves Earth to investigate
Mars. The Martians guard their mysteries well, but they are decimated by the diseases that arrive with the
rockets. Colonists appear, most with ideas no more lofty than starting a hot-dog stand, and with no respect for
the culture they've displaced.
Bradbury's quiet exploration of a future that looks so much like the past is sprinkled with lighter material. In
"The Silent Towns," the last man on Mars hears the phone ring and ends up on a comical blind date. But in most
of these stories, Bradbury holds up a mirror to humanity that reflects a shameful treatment of "the other,"
yielding, time after time, a harvest of loneliness and isolation. Yet the collection ends with hope for renewal, as
a colonist family turns away from the demise of the Earth towards a new future on Mars. Bradbury is a master
fantasist and The Martian Chronicles are an unforgettable work of art.
Borland, When the Legends Die
Here is an extraordinary novel about man, nature, and courage; if you liked "The Call of the Wild" or "The
Light in the Forest", try this story. Thomas Black Bull's family returned to the old Indian ways when they went
into hiding after his father killed another brave, but soon his parents die and he is left to get by on his own.
Crichton, Andromeda Strain
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current
sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated reentry to the atmosphere. Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to "collect
organisms and dust for study." One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona. Twelve miles
from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the
dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.
Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
This personal narrative highlights a year of explorations in the author's own neighborhood. Captured in prose
are both beauty and terror in the world of nature. Open your eyes to the detail in ordinary life!
Dreiser, An American Tragedy
Corruption and destruction of one man who forfeits his life in desperate pursuit of success. The author based his
realistic and vivid study on the actual case of Chester Gilette, who murdered Grace Brown at the Big Moose
Lake in the Adirondacks in July 1906.
Dreiser, Sister Carrie
Sister Carrie tells the story of a rudderless but pretty small-town girl who comes to the big city filled with vague
ambitions. She is used by men and uses them in turn to become a successful Broadway actress, while George
Hurstwood, the married man who has run away with her, loses his grip on life and descends into beggary and
suicide. Sister Carrie was the first masterpiece of the American naturalistic movement in its grittily factual
presentation of the vagaries of urban life and in its ingenuous heroine, who goes unpunished for her
transgressions against conventional sexual morality. The book's strengths include a brooding but compassionate
view of humanity, a memorable cast of characters, and a compelling narrative storyline.
Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Faulkner's distinctive narrative structures--the uses of multiple points of view and the inner psychological
voices of the characters--in one of its most successful incarnations here in As I Lay Dying. In the story, the
members of the Bundren family must take the body of Addie, matriarch of the family, to the town where Addie
wanted to be buried. Along the way, we listen to each of the members on the macabre pilgrimage, while
Faulkner heaps upon them various flavors of disaster.
Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
The novel is set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, in the early 20th century. It
describes the decay and fall of the aristocratic Compson family, and implicitly, of the entire social order. The
first three sections are presented from the perspective of the three Compson sons -- Benjy, an "idiot"; Quentin, a
suicidal Harvard freshman; and Jason, the eldest. This stream-of-consciousness tale of the Compson family of
Jefferson is also the tale of the South.
Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying
A young black named Jefferson is a reluctant party in a shoot-out in a liquor store in which three other men
involved are killed, including the white store owner. Jefferson, the only survivor, is accused of murder. At the
trial, the essence of the defense is that the accused, a lowly form of existence lacking even a modicum of
intelligence, is incapable of premeditated murder. But Jefferson is condemned to death. Jefferson's godmother
persuade Grant Wiggins, a school teacher, to impart something of himself, of his learning and pride, to
Jefferson before his death--to prove the lawyer wrong. This is the story of two men who, through no choice of
their own, come together and form a bond in the realization that sometimes simply choosing to resist the
expected is an act of heroism.
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold
A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place 27 years earlier, determined to get to the bottom
of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman
returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her
twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister. Yet if everyone
knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it? The more that is learned, the less is
understood, and as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion, an entire society--not just a pair of
murderers—is put on trial. A spectacular wedding, a sudden scandal, and a murder to which an entire town
appears to be an accessory are the elements of this extraordinary short novel.
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, One Hundred Years of Solitude
The story follows 100 years in the life of Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by
descendants all sporting variations on their progenitor's name: his sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, and
grandsons, Aureliano José, Aureliano Segundo, and José Arcadio Segundo. Then there are the women--the two
Úrsulas, a handful of Remedios, Fernanda, and Pilar--who struggle to remain grounded even as their menfolk
build castles in the air. If it is possible for a novel to be highly comic and deeply tragic at the same time, then
One Hundred Years of Solitude does the trick. Civil war rages throughout, hearts break, dreams shatter, and
lives are lost, yet the effect is literary pentimento, with sorrow's outlines bleeding through the vibrant colors of
García Márquez's magical realism.
Haley, Roots
After Haley grew up and became a writer, he began to search for documentation that might authenticate the
stories of his family he'd heard as a child. It took ten years and a half million miles of travel but finally he traced
his genealogical line. As the first black American writer to trace his origins back to their roots, Alex Haley has
told the story of 25,000,000 Americans of African descent. Roots speaks to people everywhere because it tells
the story of the human spirit.
Heller, Catch 22
In this satirical novel, antihero Captain John Yossarian is stationed on an airstrip on a Mediterranean island in
World War II and is desperate to stay alive. The "catch" involves a mysterious Air Force regulation which states
that a man is considered insane if he requests to be relieved of his missions.
Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
An unforgettable story of love and war on the Italian front during World War I. The love between Lieutenant
Henry and Catherine Barley glows with intensity unrivaled in modern literature.
Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
Timeless epic of Spanish Civil War portraying every facet of human emotions. This is the story of Robert
Jordan, a young American attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain. It tells of loyalty
and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.
Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
The story of a group of American and English patriots living in Paris and their excursion to Pampalona. It
captures the angst of the post-World War I generation, known as the Lost Generation, and centers around the
flamboyant Lady Brett Ashley and the hapless Jake Barnes. In an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution,
unrealized love and vanishing illusions, this is the Lost Generation.
Heyerdahl, Kon Tiki
This is the record of an astonishing adventure -- a journey 4300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft.
Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled
by an ancient race from thousand of miles to the east. Here is the experiment that proved it was possible!.
Hickam, October Sky
It was 1957, the year Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky, and the small town of Coalwood, West
Virginia, was slowly dying. Faced with an uncertain future, Homer Hickam nurtured a dream: to send rockets
into outer space. The introspective son of the mine’s superintendent and a mother determined to get him out of
Coalwood forever, Homer fell in with a group of misfits who learned not only how to turn scraps of metal into
sophisticated rockets but how to sustain their hope in a town that swallowed its men alive. As the boys began to
light up the tarry skies with their flaming projectiles and dreams of glory, Coalwood, and the Hickams, would
never be the same.
Johnson, Charles R., Middle Passages
In this savage parable of the African American experience, Rutherford Calhoun, a newly freed slave eking out a
living in New Orleans in 1830, hops aboard a square rigger to evade the prim Boston schoolteacher who wants
to marry him. But the Republic turns out to be a slave clipper bound for Africa. Calhoun, whose master
educated him as a humanist, becomes the captain's cabin boy, and though he hates himself for acting as a
lackey, he's able to help the African slaves recently taken aboard to stage a revolt before the rowdy, drunken
crew can spring a mutiny.
Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon is the journal of Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded adult who becomes a genius after
undergoing a brain operation. Keyes gives Charlie Gordon a voice that conveys the full range of emotions
Charlie experiences before and after the operation. Keyes conveys the drama with such intensity that it becomes
almost painful to listen: the yearning of an amiable adult who longs to be as smart as those around him, the pain
of the transformed man who must live with the newfound memories of cruel childhood rejection, and finally the
horror of his diminishing intellectual capacity.
Kingsolver, Pigs in Heaven
When a young Cherokee tribal lawyer comes to the door to claim Taylor's illegally adopted Indian daughter, the
white woman must face the fact that her stable life is about to be torn apart. The story follows her and six-yearold Turtle across the West as they flee from the threat of separation and exist on minimum-wage earnings.
Meanwhile, Taylor's mother, Alice, leaves her second husband and goes to stay with her cousin in Heaven,
Oklahoma. There she meets Cash, a full-blooded Cherokee, who has been living outside the reservation, but
yearns to return to his roots. The richness of Indian tribal life is seen through the eyes of Cash, Alice, and
Annawake Fourkiller, the lawyer. There are some wonderful scenes revealing Cherokee customs and lifestyles.
The stories of the different characters are woven together with humor and sensitivity. When Taylor and Turtle
come to the reservation to face their future, readers will feel the adoptive mother's helplessness as she admits
that she, too, might have let the child down. The characters are ordinary, yet noble and memorable, and the
ending is just and gratifying. The issue of Indian children being adopted outside the tribe is addressed with
respect from all sides.
Lee, G., China Boy
The story of Kai Ting's coming of age in the San Francisco slums could be the story of any sensitive young boy
struggling to overcome the bullies on the mean streets of a big city. Change the Chinese to Yiddish or Italian
and the tale would be the same. Brutalized by a stepmother determined to expunge all traces of his Chinese
mother from the home, Kai finds himself the punching bag for every bully in the neighborhood. His salvation is
the YMCA; his mentors, a group of retired boxers. China Boy resonates with strong characterizations, evocative
descriptions of San Francisco in the 1950s, and the righteous indignation of abused innocence.
Le Guin, Ursula, The Left Hand of Darkness
Genly Ai is an emissary from the human galaxy to Winter, a lost, stray world. His mission is to bring the planet
back into the fold of an evolving galactic civilization, but to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own
culture and prejudices and those that he encounters. On a planet where people are of no gender--or both--this is
a broad gulf indeed. The inventiveness and delicacy with which Le Guin portrays her alien world are not only
unusual and inspiring. In the end, this individual attempts to bring the peoples of Grthen into the Ekumen.
London, The Call of the Wild
Kidnapped form his safe California home. Thrown into a life-and-death struggle on the frozen Artic wilderness.
Half St. Bernard, half shepherd, Buck learns many hard lessons as a sled dog: the lesson of the leash, of the
cold, of near-starvation and cruelty. And the greatest lesson he learns from his last owner, John Thornton: the
power of love and loyalty. Yet always, even at the side of the human he loves, Buck feels the pull in his bones,
an urge to answer his wolf ancestors as they howl to him. Will he return to the call of the wild?.
London, The Sea Wolf
The story concerns Humphrey Van Weyden, a refined castaway who is put to work on the motley schooner
Ghost. The ship is run by brutal Wolf Larsen, who, despite his intelligence and strength, is antisocial and selfdestructive. Hardened by his arduous experiences at sea, Humphrey develops strength of both body and will,
protecting another castaway, Maud Brewster, and facing down the increasingly deranged Larsen.
Patchett, Bel Canto
In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a
visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their
Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag
band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the
president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning,
things go awry. Among the hostages are not only Hosokawa and Roxane Coss, the American soprano, but an
assortment of Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. Reuben Iglesias, the diminutive and gracious vice
president, quickly gets sideways of the kidnappers, who have no interest in him whatsoever. Meanwhile, a
Swiss Red Cross negotiator names Joachim Messner is roped into service while vacationing. He comes and
goes, wrangling over terms and demands, and the days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months. The author
flits in and out of the hearts and psyches of hostage and terrorist alike, and in doing so reveals a profound,
shared humanity.
Rawlings, The Yearling
Fighting off a pack of starving wolves, wrestling alligators in the swamp, romping with bear cubs, drawing off
the venom of a giant rattlesnake bite with the heart of a fresh-killed deer--it's all in a day's work for the Baxter
family of the Florida scrublands. But young Jody Baxter is not content with these electrifying escapades, or
even with the cozy comfort of home with Pa and Ma. He wants a pet, a friend with whom he can share his quiet
cogitations and his corn pone. Jody gets his pet, a frisky fawn he calls Flag, but that's not all. With Flag comes a
year of life lessons, frolicking times, and achingly hard decisions. This powerful book is as compelling now as
when it was written over 60 years ago. Read simply as a naturalist study of the Florida interior, it fascinates and
entices. Add the heart-stopping adventure and heart-wrenching human elements, and this is a classic well worth
its Pulitzer Prize.
Schaefer, Jack, Shane
A mysterious stranger rode into the small Wyoming valley in the summer of 1889. His name was Shane and he
became a friend and guardian to the Starrett family at a time when people on the frontier battled for survival.
The story of this quiet gunfighter is told through the eyes of a young boy.
Silko, Ceremony
Follows Tayo, a young Native American, after his release from a veteran's hospital following World War II as
he searches for meaning and sanity in his life. Tayo discovers his connection to the land and to ancient rituals
with the help of a medicine man, and comes to understand the need to create ceremonies, to grow and change,
in order to survive. He finds peace by "finally seeing the pattern, the way all the stories fit together -- the old
stories, the war stories, their stories -- to become the story that was still being told.".
Stegner, Wallace, Angle of Repose
Story of four generations in the life of the Ward family, from America's western frontier to today. This
thoughtful novel about a retired historian who researches and writes about his pioneer grandparents garnered
Stegner a Pulitzer Prize.
Steinbeck, Cup of Gold
In the 1670s Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged
the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. Morgan was obsessive. He had two driving
ambitions: one to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja, the other, to conquer Panama, the "cup of
gold.".
Steinbeck, The Pearl
Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the Gulf beds and getting
by. Then he emerges from a dive with a pearl as large as a sea gull's egg, and with the pearl comes hope, the
promise of comfort and a better life. This is a story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folktale. It
explores the secrets of man's nature, the depths of evil, and the possibilities of love.
Tan, The Joy Luck Club
This novel is structured around the stories of four pairs of Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born
daughters. The first and last segments tell the mother's stories in China and in America. The middle cradles the
daughter's experiences as children and as Chinese American women. The author uses this structure to
communicate a sense of mother and daughter connectedness that eventually resolves generational differences
and conflicts.
Twain, Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The story of a young boy's adventures in a nineteenth-century Mississippi River town. Schoolboy, prankster,
lover, con artist, adventurer, pirate, dreamer, hero--Tom Sawyer is all of these and much more.
Uchida, Picture Bride
Carrying a photograph of the man she is to marry but has yet to meet, young Hana Omiya arrives in San
Francisco in 1917. She is one of several hundred Japanese "picture brides" whose arranged marriages brought
them to America in the early 1900s. Her story is connected with others who are caught up in the cruel turmoil of
World War II, when West Coast Japanese Americans are uprooted from their homes and imprisoned in desert
detention camps. Enjoy this historical novel and discover Hana's strength to survive.
Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Reconstruction of five lives lost when the finest bridge in all Peru collapses. "On Friday noon, July the
twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this
celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of the towering achievements in
American fiction and a novel read throughout the world. By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother
Juniper then embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths
of those who perished in the tragedy. His search leads to his own death -- and to the author's timeless
investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition.
Source for the above list:
“Suggestions for Students in English 2.” Oxnard High School Library. 22 May 2008
<www.ouhsd.k12.ca.us/lmc/ohs/read/Engl2.htm>.
Also consider works from the following authors (may repeat some of the above):
Chinua Achebe
Isak Dinesen
Alberto Moravia
S. Y. Agnon
E. M. Forster
Mordechi Richler
Ilse Aichinger
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Alice Munro
Isabel Allende
Nikolai Gogol
Vladimir Nabokov
Jerzy Andrzejewski
William Golding
V. S. Naipaul
Margaret Atwood
Robert Graves
Alan Paton
Isaac Babel
Hermann Hesse
Cesar Pavese
James Berry
Wolfgang Hildesheimer
Santha Rama Rau
Heinrich Boll
Aldous Huxley
Rainer Maria Rilke
Jorge Luis Borges
Kazuo Ishiguro
Ignazio Silone
Mikhail Bulgakov
Yuri Kazakov
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Dino Buzzati
Milan Kundera
Alexander Solshenitsyn
S. Byatt Stanislaw
Lem Niccolo Tucci
Italo Calvino
Primo Levi
Mario Vargas-Llosa
Karl Capek
Jacov Lind
Elie Wiesel
Carlo Cassola
Clarice Lispector
Emile Zola
Camillo Jose Cela
Naguib Mahfouz
Julio Cortazar
Thomas Mann