Lead Review
- Book: Read the World: A Country-By-Country Guide to the Best Books on Africa, Asia and Latin America
- Location: World
- Author: Pushpinder Khaneka
This book, stuffed full of top titles, really does what it says on the tin (as it were). The author has curated fabulous books, both classic and modern, to cover more than 50 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.
This project originally started as a feature on The Guardian website and has been revised and expanded, but the ethos remains the same. This is a literary tour encouraging readers to embark on a journey into new worlds and experiences, opening minds to encounter different peoples and places. “And what could be better than to be guided by smart, erudite and often eminent novelists, historians and journalists“. Indeed.
Travelling the world through books has become particularly pertinent in these times of Coronavirus, when travel is non-existent but so many of us still have a deep longing to connect with different cultures and lands.
The author has chosen some wonderful titles, certainly some new ones for us at TripFiction and some lovely favourites like In The Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner for Cambodia. Further titles are included that will entertain, educate and inform, a superb and eclectic mix. I was delighted to see a listing for Lawrence Osborne, whose books have a terrific sense of place (Hunters in the Dark) – Osborne has been called ‘the bastard child of Patricia Highsmith and Graham Greene‘ and I can think of no finer a heritage for a writer than that.
The variety and quality of the titles he has chosen are wonderfully impressive. He certainly knows his books and is incredibly well travelled. We were simply delighted to discover that other people, too, have a passion for learning about countries, culture and people through books – see a location through the eyes of an author. In this curated collection you will find some terrific reads chosen by someone who himself has erudition, culture and expertise in the subject of literary wanderlust. A pleasure.
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