I’m especially excited to read literature by native authors or other writers about each place that I’m visiting. Below is a snapshot of an ambitious list with special focus on Asia and Africa. I don’t expect to finish reading them all, but I at least hope to be inspired by a few. The main criterion I asked of my friends for recommendations was, what book will break my heart and put it back together again?
Here’s the full reading list on the itinerary and other books I’ve read over the last year.
*means I’ve read it
Asia and Africa
Southeast Asia:
The Singapore Grip, J.G. Farrell
Disneyland with the Death Penalty, William Gibson (Singapore)
The Singapore Story, Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore)
The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma, Thant Myint-U
The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen (Vietnam)*
The Quiet American, Graham Greene (Vietnam)
Other Asia:
This Divided Island: Life, Death and the Sri Lankan War, Samanth Subramanian
The Seasons of Trouble: Life Amid the Ruins of Sri Lanka’s Civil War, Rohini Mohan
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse (Nepal)
Western Africa:
So Long a Letter, Mariana Ba (Senegal)
The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene (Sierra Leone)
Journey Without Maps, Graham Greene (Liberia)
Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor (Nigeria)
Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
Homegoing: A Novel, Yaa Gyasi (Ghana)
South Africa:
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Too Late the Phalarope, Alan Paton
Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful, Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Born a Crime, Trevor Noah*
Other Africa:
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, MG Vassaji (Kenya)
Beyond the Rice Fields, Naivo (Madagascar)
The Stories of the Sahara, San Mao
