Read around the world: Editors’ picks for World Book Day and beyond
Books have always been my salvation—whether they offer relief from the day’s events, a laugh, insight into lives different than mine, information about the world, or the magical combination of all of these—they are what inspire me. I am grateful for books every day, but on April 23, I am especially so. World Book Day is celebrated by more than 100 countries around the world, and it's a chance to honor the authors, illustrators, and books that have enriched our lives.
So, this World Book Day, the Amazon Books Editors are celebrating the books that take us all over the world: from the freezing and lonesome expanse of Antarctica to hotels in Moscow to the art museums of France and beyond, here's a list of books that will transport you to distant countries and will remind you that literature has no bounds.
Africa
To many, Trevor Noah was a bit of an unknown when he assumed Jon Stewart’s chair at The Daily Show. That’s a perfect opportunity to publish an autobiography, but Born a Crime is not necessarily the book you’d expect from the host of a comedy show. The son of a Black mother and a white father, Noah’s existence was literally a crime in South Africa, and his stories about growing up under late-stage apartheid are often shocking and harrowing. Heavy stuff, for sure, but Noah leavens his memories with wisdom, insight, and—yes—humor. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
To many, Trevor Noah was a bit of an unknown when he assumed Jon Stewart’s chair at The Daily Show. That’s a perfect opportunity to publish an autobiography, but Born a Crime is not necessarily the book you’d expect from the host of a comedy show. The son of a Black mother and a white father, Noah’s existence was literally a crime in South Africa, and his stories about growing up under late-stage apartheid are often shocking and harrowing. Heavy stuff, for sure, but Noah leavens his memories with wisdom, insight, and—yes—humor. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Australia
Set in a depressed suburb of Brisbane, Boy Swallows Universe is the unforgettable story of 12-year-old Eli (and his wise, mute older brother, August) gleaning what it means to be a good man from the parental figures in his life: septuagenarian Slim Halliday, Australia's most infamous prison escapee and the boys' babysitter; his drug-dealer-with-a-heart-of-gold stepdad, Lyle; his actual father, an anxiety-ridden alcoholic; and the mother he reveres. It's also the story of a young boy opposing a genuinely terrifying foe: local businessman Tytus Boz is rumored to reuse the body parts of murdered enemies in his artificial limb company, and he’s a heroin kingpin. Poignant, hilarious, and endlessly imaginative, this is a love letter to clear-eyed male tenderness set against a series of bloody amputations and bricks of Golden Triangle smack. —Katy Ball, Former Amazon Books Contributor
Set in a depressed suburb of Brisbane, Boy Swallows Universe is the unforgettable story of 12-year-old Eli (and his wise, mute older brother, August) gleaning what it means to be a good man from the parental figures in his life: septuagenarian Slim Halliday, Australia's most infamous prison escapee and the boys' babysitter; his drug-dealer-with-a-heart-of-gold stepdad, Lyle; his actual father, an anxiety-ridden alcoholic; and the mother he reveres. It's also the story of a young boy opposing a genuinely terrifying foe: local businessman Tytus Boz is rumored to reuse the body parts of murdered enemies in his artificial limb company, and he’s a heroin kingpin. Poignant, hilarious, and endlessly imaginative, this is a love letter to clear-eyed male tenderness set against a series of bloody amputations and bricks of Golden Triangle smack. —Katy Ball, Former Amazon Books Contributor
Antarctica
Migrations is about a woman who goes to the ends of the earth in search of herself and what just might be the last migration of a bird species. It’s also about love, adventure, climate change, and what happens when a person simultaneously runs away from her past and runs straight toward it. The main character, Franny Stone, is at home in the cold—it’s why she boards a boat in Greenland and why she frequently holds her breath to dive into freezing cold waters. We named this the Best Novel of 2020, and like Franny as she jumps into the cold water, it will take your breath away. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Migrations is about a woman who goes to the ends of the earth in search of herself and what just might be the last migration of a bird species. It’s also about love, adventure, climate change, and what happens when a person simultaneously runs away from her past and runs straight toward it. The main character, Franny Stone, is at home in the cold—it’s why she boards a boat in Greenland and why she frequently holds her breath to dive into freezing cold waters. We named this the Best Novel of 2020, and like Franny as she jumps into the cold water, it will take your breath away. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Nonfiction pick: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing or, if you’re looking for a contemporary memoir, The Impossible First: From Fire to Ice—Crossing Antarctica Alone by Colin O’Brady
France
One of our Best Books of 2023, The Art Thief is a blast to read—but also horrifying when you realize what the maniac at the center of the story is up to, and what his mom did to $2 billion worth of art to protect her loser son. Stéphane Breitwieser can’t resist filching priceless pieces from European museums, or, as he calls them, “prisons for art.” As Breitwieser’s compulsion grows, readers are left agog wondering how he’ll up the ante, and soon enough: he’s dodging guards to throw an ancient tapestry through a window, hiking through a forest to retrieve it, realizing he doesn't have 100 feet to display it in in his tiny attic apartment, and then stuffing it under his four-poster bed. Gasp! This true crime tale is gateway nonfiction. The narrative, which unfolds over just 221 crisply written pages, is a romp. The pacing reads like a thriller, with a protagonist who is either brilliant or a total dope—and probably a lot of both. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
One of our Best Books of 2023, The Art Thief is a blast to read—but also horrifying when you realize what the maniac at the center of the story is up to, and what his mom did to $2 billion worth of art to protect her loser son. Stéphane Breitwieser can’t resist filching priceless pieces from European museums, or, as he calls them, “prisons for art.” As Breitwieser’s compulsion grows, readers are left agog wondering how he’ll up the ante, and soon enough: he’s dodging guards to throw an ancient tapestry through a window, hiking through a forest to retrieve it, realizing he doesn't have 100 feet to display it in in his tiny attic apartment, and then stuffing it under his four-poster bed. Gasp! This true crime tale is gateway nonfiction. The narrative, which unfolds over just 221 crisply written pages, is a romp. The pacing reads like a thriller, with a protagonist who is either brilliant or a total dope—and probably a lot of both. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor
India
Abraham Verghese’s latest epic (which we named a Best Book of 2023) will sweep you off your feet and make you glad that the best-selling writer used 736 pages to tell his story. Set in Southern India—where “the land is shaped by water”—the novel follows three generations of a family that are bound by a uniquely disquieting truth: in every generation, at least one family member will drown. And, because it’s Verghese, it’s not just a humble story of life and death, it’s a resounding and astounding, intimate and expansive, story of how cultural, social, and racial politics play out in the lives of wives, doctors, artists—many of whom are orphans—striving to find home and purpose in a world that is ever-shifting and ever-dangerous. Filled with shimmery, charismatic people who love deeply and dream big, The Covenant of Water is an entirely magnetic read that you won’t want to end. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Abraham Verghese’s latest epic (which we named a Best Book of 2023) will sweep you off your feet and make you glad that the best-selling writer used 736 pages to tell his story. Set in Southern India—where “the land is shaped by water”—the novel follows three generations of a family that are bound by a uniquely disquieting truth: in every generation, at least one family member will drown. And, because it’s Verghese, it’s not just a humble story of life and death, it’s a resounding and astounding, intimate and expansive, story of how cultural, social, and racial politics play out in the lives of wives, doctors, artists—many of whom are orphans—striving to find home and purpose in a world that is ever-shifting and ever-dangerous. Filled with shimmery, charismatic people who love deeply and dream big, The Covenant of Water is an entirely magnetic read that you won’t want to end. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Japan
Haruki Murakami is a surreal and dreamy writer—where strange (and often otherworldly) events give way to new relationships, new worlds, and new realities. 1Q84 is perhaps Murakami's most sprawling, ambitious, and certainly his longest novel yet. I could tell you that it unravels over the course of a year in Japan and there is a parallel universe, shoot-outs, love triangles, mysteries, and homicidal intrigue. But what I’d rather say is that to read this book is to be enveloped in a strange and genius magic trick. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Haruki Murakami is a surreal and dreamy writer—where strange (and often otherworldly) events give way to new relationships, new worlds, and new realities. 1Q84 is perhaps Murakami's most sprawling, ambitious, and certainly his longest novel yet. I could tell you that it unravels over the course of a year in Japan and there is a parallel universe, shoot-outs, love triangles, mysteries, and homicidal intrigue. But what I’d rather say is that to read this book is to be enveloped in a strange and genius magic trick. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Korea
Almond made me laugh, wince, hold my breath with anticipation, and cry. I couldn’t put it down. When Yunjae sees another kid getting beat up in an alley, he just stares. He doesn’t intervene, he doesn’t run away. Pages later, we learn this Korean boy’s inability to express or understand emotion (including anger, which he has plenty reason to feel) is due to a mental disorder. The reality of Yunjae’s condition is pushed to the limits in this brilliantly fresh novel. As he comes of age, an unimaginable tragedy strikes his family, and Yunjae must navigate the world on his own—high school, running his mother’s bookstore, teenage brawls, and an emotion he has never understood: love. Violence threatens him at every turn, but it is precisely his disability that allows him to survive. Filled with heart-aching sentences and stunning moments of resilience and care (when you learn why he eats almonds, I defy you not to feel a pang), Won-pyung Sohn’s debut novel examines a world in which connection trumps emotion and loyalty becomes more than a feeling. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Almond made me laugh, wince, hold my breath with anticipation, and cry. I couldn’t put it down. When Yunjae sees another kid getting beat up in an alley, he just stares. He doesn’t intervene, he doesn’t run away. Pages later, we learn this Korean boy’s inability to express or understand emotion (including anger, which he has plenty reason to feel) is due to a mental disorder. The reality of Yunjae’s condition is pushed to the limits in this brilliantly fresh novel. As he comes of age, an unimaginable tragedy strikes his family, and Yunjae must navigate the world on his own—high school, running his mother’s bookstore, teenage brawls, and an emotion he has never understood: love. Violence threatens him at every turn, but it is precisely his disability that allows him to survive. Filled with heart-aching sentences and stunning moments of resilience and care (when you learn why he eats almonds, I defy you not to feel a pang), Won-pyung Sohn’s debut novel examines a world in which connection trumps emotion and loyalty becomes more than a feeling. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Mexico
Unsettled by a disturbing letter from a newly married cousin, Mexico City socialite Noemí goes to check on her cousin who now lives at the remote estate of High Place. Noemí—who smokes cigarettes, drives a convertible, and knows her mind—discovers that High Place lives in the past: mold runs along the ancient wall paper, the electricity barely works, and the servants don’t speak. Plus the very old master of the house has a thing for eugenics, and Noemí’s cousin is clearly losing her mind. And then Noemí begins to hear voices.… While Mexican Gothic is set in the 1950s, Moreno-Garcia has written this creepy, fabulous read for today’s audience.—Adrian Liang, former Editor
Unsettled by a disturbing letter from a newly married cousin, Mexico City socialite Noemí goes to check on her cousin who now lives at the remote estate of High Place. Noemí—who smokes cigarettes, drives a convertible, and knows her mind—discovers that High Place lives in the past: mold runs along the ancient wall paper, the electricity barely works, and the servants don’t speak. Plus the very old master of the house has a thing for eugenics, and Noemí’s cousin is clearly losing her mind. And then Noemí begins to hear voices.… While Mexican Gothic is set in the 1950s, Moreno-Garcia has written this creepy, fabulous read for today’s audience.—Adrian Liang, former Editor
Russia
In A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles skillfully transports readers to The Metropol, the famed Moscow hotel where movie stars and Russian royalty hobnob, where Bolsheviks plot revolutions, and intellectuals discuss the merits of contemporary Russian writers, where spies spy, thieves thieve, and the danger of 20th century Russia lurks outside its marbled walls. It’s also where wealthy Count Alexander Rostov lives under house arrest for a poem deemed incendiary by the Bolsheviks, and meets Nina, a precocious and wide-eyed young girl who holds the keys to the entire hotel and will irrevocably change his life. Despite being confined to the hallways of the hotel, the Count lives an absorbing, adventure-filled existence, filled with capers, conspiracies, culture, hide-and-seek, and a confrontation with communism. Towles magnificently conjures the grandeur of the Russian hotel and the vibrancy of the characters that call it home. And, if you’re a fan of Towles, check out what he’s been reading lately. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
In A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles skillfully transports readers to The Metropol, the famed Moscow hotel where movie stars and Russian royalty hobnob, where Bolsheviks plot revolutions, and intellectuals discuss the merits of contemporary Russian writers, where spies spy, thieves thieve, and the danger of 20th century Russia lurks outside its marbled walls. It’s also where wealthy Count Alexander Rostov lives under house arrest for a poem deemed incendiary by the Bolsheviks, and meets Nina, a precocious and wide-eyed young girl who holds the keys to the entire hotel and will irrevocably change his life. Despite being confined to the hallways of the hotel, the Count lives an absorbing, adventure-filled existence, filled with capers, conspiracies, culture, hide-and-seek, and a confrontation with communism. Towles magnificently conjures the grandeur of the Russian hotel and the vibrancy of the characters that call it home. And, if you’re a fan of Towles, check out what he’s been reading lately. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Nonfiction pick: Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath by Bill Browder
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