Literary Guide to the World

  • I'm addicted to Harry Potter fan fiction!

    Every moment I'm alone, I'm secretly reading the stories, the forums, the recommendations. I can't stop!
  • Destination: Brazil

    After Carnival, soccer and samba, go deeper into this South American nation via its seductive novels and gritty true-life stories.
  • Destination: Colombia

    There's more than magical realism in the literature of this beautiful and still very dangerous country.
  • Destination: Gypsy Europe

    Despite their historical distrust of the written word, Europe's Gypsies have a growing -- and captivating -- literary tradition.
  • Destination: The Netherlands

    Delve into Lowlands literature and discover there's much more to this prosperous nation than wooden clogs, tulips and -- of course -- weed.
  • Destination: Alaska

    Put aside stories of a freezing, exotic locale full of igloos and kooks in favor of these portraits of the hardscrabble -- and magical -- Northern state.
  • Destination: Russia

    Alienation, the struggle for a decent life, really bad weather -- the universal themes of this vast nation's literature make us all feel Russian at one point or another.
  • Destination: Vancouver

    This livable, futuristic, far West outpost of our continent has been a home for writers from Alice Munro to Douglas Coupland.
  • Destination: Baltimore

    If you like "The Wire," delve into books by Robert Ward, John Waters and William Manchester to experience more avenues of Charm City.
  • Destination: Argentina

    From Borges to Bruce Chatwin, the rich and moody literature of South America's most European nation reflects its homeland's squandered potential.
  • Destination: Southern Italy

    The grit -- and beauty -- of this land of Mafioso is captured in the mysteries of Leonardo Sciascia and the expat writings of Mary Taylor Simeti.
  • Destination: Louisiana

    John Kennedy Toole, Ernest Gaines and the recipes of Enola Prudhomme will instruct you in the sorrows and joys of the Bayou State.
  • Destination: The Alps

    More than an Alpine playground, Europe's most beloved mountain range has provided the dramatic backdrop in novels by Hemingway, Greene and Salter.
  • Destination: Australia

    Forget Paul Hogan and Foster's-drinking loudmouths. Bill Bryson and Peter Carey introduce you to real, fiercely proud Australians.
  • Destination: Norway

    The Eddas -- epic sagas that form the core of Norse religion -- are best read under the ash trees in this Land of the Midnight Sun.
  • Destination: Turkey

    This endlessly fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking puzzle of a country that's fraught with religious and political conflict is brilliantly captured in the novels of Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak.
  • Destination: North and South Korea

    The "black hole" of Asia and its estranged brother to the south are revealed in books from a political refugee, an American mountain man and a war veteran.
  • Destination: Japan

    From 17th century haikus to the work of Kazuo Ishiguro, writing from this Far East nation reveals an obsession with beauty and discipline.
  • Destination: Afghanistan

    Westerners who came here in the '70s left magnificent travel writing that captured the rugged, captivating land before war tore it apart.
  • Destination: Chile

    The crazy character of this wondrous land shines in the poems of Pablo Neruda, while its strife under Pinochet is captured best by José Donoso and Patricia Verdugo
  • Destination: Berlin

    The past of this eternally youthful "city of the world" is captured in the work of journalist Joseph Roth, author John le Carré and psychiatrist and novelist Alfred Döblin.
  • Destination: Washington, D.C.

    Our famously divided capital has produced novels about white people in power and novels about everyone else. Explore the best of both worlds with Henry Adams and George Pelecanos.
  • Destination: Montreal

    Allow Leonard Cohen and Mordecai Richler to show you Canada's most prized -- and sublimely permissive -- city.
  • Destination: China

    To understand the last century of this vast Far Eastern country, look to the moving stories of Lu Xun, a celebrated memoir of the Cultural Revolution and an engaging, concise history.
  • Destination: Jersey Shore

    Bruce Springsteen may provide the soundtrack to your boardwalk stroll, but great novels by Richard Ford and Frederick Reiken should keep you company on the beach.
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