19 - A book set in a country that begins with "C"

[Sara]

I found this list of countries starting with "C". Give us your best suggestions for books set in any of these!

Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
The central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo
Congo (the Democratic Republic of)
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic

Listopia link: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Monica]

Any of the Anne of Green Gables books would qualify as a book set in Canada.

[Gina]

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
set in Czech Republic.

[Milena]

The House of the Spirits for Chile.

[poshpenny]

Fruit of the Drunken Tree - Columbia
Ten Women - Chile

Canada:
The Darkest Dark
White Fang
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
The Blind Assassin
Station Eleven

[Denise]

Canada:
The Way the Crow Flies

Really good and sad.

[Jenn]

Would One Hundred Years of Solitude work for this one? It’s a fictional setting but largely based on Colombia.

[poshpenny]

Love in the Time of Cholera - Columbia
The House of the Spirits - Chile
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
The Rent Collector - Cambodia
The Good Earth - China
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan- China

[Katy]

Jenn wrote: "Would One Hundred Years of Solitude work for this one? It’s a fictional setting but largely based on Colombia."

Again, it's up to you, but I would say no. Unless the fictional country also begins with C, I can't remember if it does or not, but I don't think it does.

[Michelle]

Monkey Beach set in Canada

[Јована]

The Rape of Nanking
The Devil of Nanking
are both good, set in China

[Jenn]

Wikipedia says the town in One Hundred Years of Solitude is fictional, but that the country is Colombia so I think I may go for it.

[Jennifer W]

Ooh! I highly recommend Three Day Road as a book set in Canada. It was such a powerful book. I may reread it as it's been a few years.

[Sarah]

Anne of Green Gables and The Shipping News both take place in Canada; the former is a childhood favorite of mine, the latter has been on my bookshelf waiting to be read for years.

Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile" also looks super interesting.

[Alexandra]

Two books by Chanel Cleeton:
1. Next Year in Havana
2. When We Left Cuba
Both set in Cuba

[Alex || Cook, Read, Repeat...]

The Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle is also set in Cuba

[Chrissi]

The Glass Room - Czech Republic
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers - Cambodia
Never Fall Down - Cambodia
In the Shadow of the Banyan - Cambodia
Red Scarf Girl - China
Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party - China
Do Not Say We Have Nothing - China
Mao's Last Dancer - China
A Winter in China (about Nanjing, WWII)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - China
Shanghai Girls - China
Next Year in Havana - Cuba
90 Miles to Havana - Cuba
King Leopold's Ghost - Congo & DRC
Heart of Darkness - Congo & DRC?
The Poisonwood Bible - set partially in Congo
The Hired Man - Croatia
Girl at War - Croatia

I may go with Girl at War or King Leopold's Ghost - both are on my TBR & Kindle!

[Lindsay]

Between Extremes is set in Chile and it's a fascinating account of a journey ex hostages Brian Keenan and John McCarthy took together several years after their release. They talked and dreamed of this trip when they were being held captive.

[txncupcake]

The Louise Penny books (Inspector Gamache book series) take place in Canada

[Nancy]

I went through the books I got for free as Kindle First Reads and found Ten Women, which features women in Chile.

[Tori]

Mango Elephants in the Sun by Susana Herrera is a memoir set in Cameroon.

[Mikaela]

I was excited to see this prompt! I'm Canadian and I have a few Canadian books on my shelves so this is a perfect excuse to read a book set here!

Here are the titles I have on my shelf that I'll be choosing from:
February by Lisa Moore
Annabel by Kathleen Winter
Come from Away by Genevieve Graham

[Stephanie]

also Canadian and I have some Canadian book recommendations :) Company Town by Madeline Ashby (set on an oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland)
The Break by Katherine Vermette (set in Manitoba)
Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl who was Saturday Night, and The Lonely hearts hotel by Heather O'Neill (all set in Montreal)

[Rebecka]

I highly recommend The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna. It is set in Croatia. It is one of my favourite books, Aminatta Forna is an absolutely brilliant writer.

[Linda]

Jillian wrote: "I was thinking of reading The Poisonwood Bible for this. It's set in the Belgian Congo, which is of course now The Democratic Republic of Congo, do you think that would be cheating?"

And between those two names it was Zaire! But, yes I'd count it.

[Linda]

Stephanie wrote: "also Canadian and I have some Canadian book recommendations :) Company Town by Madeline Ashby (set on an oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland)
The Break by Katherine Vermette (set in Manitoba)
Lullabies for Little Criminals..."

I loved Lullabies for Little Criminals!

[Darja]

I love this prompt! I´m from Czech republic. :-)

[Jai]

I'll probably read either Station Eleven set in Canada or Shanghai Girls set in China

[Lauren]

I was scrolling through my Reading Around the World spreadsheet and noticed that most of my C's were filled in. Here's what I've read (* for my favorites).

Cambodia: Alive in the Killing Fields by Nawuth Keat
Cameroon: Behold the Dreamers* by Imbolo Mbue
Canada: One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul
Chile: In the Midst of Winter (and many others) by Isabel Allende*
China: Red Azalea by Anchee Min
Colombia: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Congo, Democratic Republic of the: How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
Congo, Republic of the: The Poisonwood Bible* by Barbara Kingsolver
Côte d’Ivoire: The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullican
Croatia: Girl at War* by Sara Novic
Cuba: Dreaming in Cuban* by Cristina Garcia
Cyprus: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
Czech Republic: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

[Gina]

Lauren wrote: "I was scrolling through my Reading Around the World spreadsheet and noticed that most of my C's were filled in. Here's what I've read (* for my favorites).

Cambodia: Alive in the Killing Fields by..."

Thanks for sharing this list, Lauren! especially for the Cameroon recommendation.

[writer...]

Offering some Canadian settings fav recs ~

Rachel McMillan:
Herringford and Watts Mysteries

C.C. Benison:
Death at Buckingham Palace• Death at Windsor Castle• Death at Sandringham House•
Paul is Dead• Death in Cold Type

Laurie Wood:
Northern Deception

Steve Burrows:
A Dance of Cranes

Genevieve Graham:
Come from Away•Tides of Honour

Iona Whishaw:
Several in series~
A Killer in King's Cove•It Begins In Betrayal•
A Deceptive Devotion latest

Murray Pura
Majestic and Wild: True Stories of Faith and Adventure in the Great Outdoors

Susan Anne Mason:
Canadian Crossings series

Louise Penny:
A Better Man latest in series

Miriam Toews:
All My Puny Sorrows + +

L.M. Montgomery:
Rainbow Valley•Kilmeny of the Orchard / The Story Girl •
L. M. MONTGOMERY – Ultimate Collection: 20 Novels & 170+ Short Stories, Poetry, Letters and Autobiography (Including The Complete Anne of Green Gables ... Kilmeny of the Orchard and many more

[writer...]

A Cuba setting from Noel Hynd
Hostage in Havana

[Agnieszka]

Fire of the Raging Dragon China

[Darci]

Time to finally read the Armand Gamache books! I'm going with Still Life for this one.

[writer...]

Darci wrote: "Time to finally read the Armand Gamache books! I'm going with Still Life for this one."

Great French Canadian series .. enjoy!

[Karin]

Linda wrote: "Jillian wrote: "I was thinking of reading The Poisonwood Bible for this. It's set in the Belgian Congo, which is of course now The Democratic Republic of Congo, do you think that would ..."

Wikipedia is WRONG :)!!!!
Zaire and Congo are not the same country and never have been. Congo is pink on the map below :)

Congo is a small country just to the north of the western part of the Democractic republic of the Congo. Before i was born it was The Belgian Congo, but then Zaire and then Democratic Republic of the Congo.


image:

https://templesinaivt.org/wp-content/...

[Johanne]

This is one of the prompts my brain started overthinking. I mainly read in Danish and English and the countries are not always spelt the same... China is Kina, Czech Repuplic is Tjekkiet, Croatia is Kroatien, so I would feel like cheating if I read a Danish set in China. Then I checked my book shelves and found an Isabel Allende book (Love and darkness/shadow) that I haven't read. Chile is spelt the same in Danish (my book's language) English and in Chile itself, so I am all set.

[SibylM]

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd (one of my favorite authors) is largely set in the Central African Republic (formerly Congo).

[Susanne]

Johanne wrote: "This is one of the prompts my brain started overthinking. I mainly read in Danish and English and the countries are not always spelt the same... China is Kina, Czech Repuplic is Tjekkiet, Croatia i..."

Haha, I know the feeling, Johanne!

I was actually happy about this prompt at first, because it fits nicely into my plan to read more books from countries I haven't read anything from yet. And that's the case for most countries starting with "C" in English! Yay!

Well, usually I read books written in other languages but English in German. And then I thought about the names of these countries in German, and they are all like

Kambodscha, Kamerun, Kanada, Kap Verde, Zentralafrikanische Republik, Tschad, Kolumbien, Komoren, Kongo, Kroatien, Kuba, Zypern, Tschechien

So I guess China, Chile and Costa Rica are the only ones left if I want to read in German. ^^ (Or I could read a Canadian book in English)

I'm still unsure if I want to be so strict about this, though. It also wouldn't work in languages with different alphabets, or languages that don't have any countries starting with "C", if those exist?

[Johanne]

Hahaha Susanne, that's it exactly! But I don't think we need to be so strict. I am still glad I found a Chile book though...

[Hannah]

Johanne wrote: "This is one of the prompts my brain started overthinking. I mainly read in Danish and English and the countries are not always spelt the same... China is Kina, Czech Repuplic is Tjekkiet, Croatia i..."

I’ve read a few books by Isabel Allende, and I’ve got a couple more I want to read to finish off my challenges for this year. I really like her books, so I’m probably either going to read something by her or Lisa See.

[Olga]

Being Colombian, I would recommend:

[Chelsea]

I've been meaning to read The Boat People!

[Karin]

SibylM wrote: "Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd (one of my favorite authors) is largely set in the Central African Republic (formerly Congo)."

Actually, it is formerly French Equatorial Africa--it's so easy to mix these up!!!

Congo is still Congo, but the Democractic Republic of Congo has has a few name changes (formerly Zaire, and before that the Belgian Congo).

I just learned that it was Zaire all of my life until this latest change and that the maps we had when I was growing up were out dated, but it was the Belgian Congo until 1960--not sure what it was called prior to the Belgians taking over.

[Rachel]

This one had me hooked from the description saying it was like The Night Circus so this is going to be the one I read.
The Lonely Hearts Hotel

[Alison]

Јована wrote: "The Rape of Nanking
The Devil of Nanking
are both good, set in China"

I thought The Devil of Nanking was set in Tokyo? I know Nanking itself is in China, but I thought the book takes place in Tokyo?

[Skandia]

Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors and she also happens to be Canadian.

I probably end up reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood or some other book by her.

Alias Grace was great, set in Toronto, Canada

[Brandon]

Skandia wrote: "Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors and she also happens to be Canadian.

I probably end up reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood or some other book by ..."

Very cool. Alias Grace is on my TBR.

I tried The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, and it was not for me, even before the endless descriptions of tea that some Amazon reviewers have mentioned.

[Ira]

Susanne wrote: "Johanne wrote: "This is one of the prompts my brain started overthinking. I mainly read in Danish and English and the countries are not always spelt the same... China is Kina, Czech Repuplic is Tje..."

I'm half Greek, half Norwegian and the greek alphabet doesn't have a C at all, so that may potentially be a problem... But I have always felt that a lot of those prompts are very American centric. I just have to translate them to my country the best way that I can.

[Tanu]

You could just go with K, the ‘ch’ sound (if that exists), or S, since those sounds all map to the letter C.