June’s Book Challenge theme is, A book set in a country you’ve never visited. If you have a country in mind, you can always search by Subject. The catalog defaults to Keyword, but, if you click/tap on where it says Keyword you can instead choose Subject and find all the books we have on that topic, in this case, Australia to Zimbabwe, etc.
Also, below, are a variety of books that we have that are set in some other countries. Or, if you have a country in mind that you want to read a book about, you can always stop by the Ref desk for help finding books set there.
Behind the Beautiful Forever
by Katherine Boo (eBook)
In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. (India)
Better the Blood
by Michael Bennett
A tenacious Māori detective, Hana Westerman juggles single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription. Delving into the investigation after a second, apparently unrelated, death, she uncovers a chilling connection to a historic crime. (New Zealand)
The Dry
by Jane Harper
A small town hides big secrets. After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there’s more to Luke’s death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets.
Havana: A Subtropical Delirium
by Mark Kurlansky
Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky presents an insider’s view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than thirty years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, and Kurlansky’s own pen-and-ink drawings throughout, Havana celebrates the city’s singular music, literature, baseball, and food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; and its extraordinary blend of cultures. (Cuba)
Huracán
Sofía Segovia
Esta novela da cuenta de la impactante historia de Aniceto Mora, el Regalado. Hijo de un padre sin escrupulos en el seno de una familia desolada por la miseria y el resentimiento, Aniceto es abandonado a su suerte: su infancia trascurre entre la pobreza y el desden de los adultos. A cada vuelta de pagina, asistimos al vertiginoso despenamiento de un personaje cuyo destino esta marcado por la fatalidad (México)
La ciudad y los perros
Mario Vargas Llosa
La obra está ambientada en el Colegio Militar Leoncio Prado, donde adolescentes y jóvenes internos reciben formación escolar secundaria bajo una severa disciplina militar. Se narran las diferentes historias de unos muchachos que descubren y aprenden a convivir con una forma de vida alienante que no les permite desarrollarse como personas, y donde se les somete y humilla. No obstante, a través de este sistema, algunos encuentran la fortaleza necesaria para asumir sus retos. (Perú)
La melodía del tiempo
José Luis Perales
La primera novela de José Luis Perales narra la historia de un pueblo castellano a lo largo de tres generaciones. Un homenaje a la vida del campo a través de una novela coral sobre el amor, las raíces y las relaciones entre padres e hijos. (España/Spain)
Rome in Love
by Anita Hughes
When Amelia Tate is cast to play the Audrey Hepburn role in a remake of Roman Holiday, she feels as if all her dreams have come true. She has a handsome boyfriend, is portraying her idol in a major motion picture, and gets to live in beautiful, Italian city of Rome for the next two months.Once there, she befriends a young woman named Sophie with whom she begins to explore the city. Together, they discover all the amazing riches that Rome has to offer. But when Amelia’s boyfriend breaks up with her over her acting career, her perfect world begins to crumble. (Italy)
We Need New Names
by NoVioloet Bulawayo
This is the debut novel of expatriate Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo. A coming-of-age story, We Need New Names tells of the life of a young girl named Darling, first as a 10-year-old in Zimbabwe, navigating a world of chaos and degradation with her friends, and later as a teenager in the Midwest United States, where a better future seems about to unfold when she goes to join an aunt working there. (Zimbabwe)
The Woman in the Purple Skirt
by Natsuko Imamura
A bestselling, prizewinning novel of obsession and psychological intrigue about two enigmatic unmarried women, one of whom manipulates the other from afar, by one of Japan’s most acclaimed young writers (Japan)