My Name is Red, by Orhan Pamuk – Turkey

Cities of Salt, by Abdelrahman Munif – Saudi Arabia

Like Water for Chocolate, by laura esquivel – Mexico

Wild Swans, by Jung Chang – China

Seasons of Migration to the North , By Tayeb Salih – Sudan

Unless by Carol Shields – Canada

God of Small Things Arundhati Roy – India

House of Spirits by Isabel Allende – Chile

The Famished Road by Ben Okri Nigeria

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi – UK

All the Names by Jose Saramago – Portugal

Roots by Haley Alex – USA

The Alchemist Paolo Coelho – Brazil

Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Russia

There are all these lists of essential books kicking around, 100 novels you must read before you die or best novels …etc. In all these lists, I have noticed, certain continents are usually missing. So here is my best effort to put forward a list of brilliant novels from all around the world.

You can travel all over the globe to sample food, smell and sights. Yet to really understand a place you need to settle down and live there for several years. Great novels afford you the same understanding without the hard work. I would say that if you read all the books on this list you be able to grasp the world.

Would love to hear what you would add or subtract from this list.