Brilliant books to read around the world
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March 6, 2019
A good book deserves a spot in your suitcase as much as your camera or passport. And though you might be used to whiling away the hours with the latest best-seller, for this year’s trip, we want you to pick a book that tells you a bit more about the place you’re visiting.
With that in mind, we spoke to book lovers around the world for World Book Day. They've shared with us their favourite titles that have the power to enhance your experience of their city.
From gripping novels that capture the spirit of the cities in which they’re set to wonderfully told tales from the history vaults, these books will bring your holiday to life.
What to read in New York City
The best-seller
Sweeping the nation by storm a few years ago, ‘The Goldfinch’ (2013) by Donna Tartt is still one of our favourites to recommend. After an accident in an art gallery leaves him orphaned, 13-year-old Theo is taken in by a family friend on Park Avenue. From the wealthy Upper East Side to the seedy art underground, Tartt creates a rich world of city life as the backdrop for a gripping mystery.
The philosophical journey
If you’ve spent any time in New York, you quickly realise how essential walking is. Whether you’re getting from A to B, or you just want to explore, walking around is the ideal way to experience the city. In ‘Open City’ (2011) by Teju Cole, the narrator wanders the streets while meditating on life in North America and New York, especially in contrast to some of his international travels.
Recommended by Colleen Callery from The Strand Bookstore, an independent shop that promises “18 miles of books” at its location on 828 Broadway.
What to read in Hong Kong
The memoir
Martin Booth died in February 2004, shortly after finishing ‘Gweilo’ (2004), the book that would be his epitaph. It’s a beautifully told memoir of a childhood in Hong Kong that glows with infectious curiosity and humour.
At seven-years-old, the writer found himself with the whole of Hong Kong at his feet when his father was posted there in the early 1950s. Unrestricted by parental control and blessed with bright, blond hair that signified good luck to the Chinese, he explored hidden corners normally closed to a Gweilo – a ‘pale fellow’ – like him. Befriending rickshaw coolies and local stallholders, he learnt Cantonese, ate one-hundred-year-old eggs and even encountered the secret lair of the Triads.
The history book
Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City is still by far the most-densely populated neighbourhood the world has ever known. It thrived for nearly 50 years despite being ‘triply neglected’ – to use a Hong Kong term – by the British, Chinese and Hong Kong governments, without legislation and with little regard for basic services.
‘City of Darkness Revisited’ (2014) explores the Walled City’s dramatic growth between 1945 and 1990, while looking into the darker sides of its past. It fills in the gaps left by the original ‘City of Darkness’ book and brings the story up to date, mixing photographs and interviews found in the original book with new material that has come to light in the 20 years since the City’s demolition.
Recommended by Prudence Ho from Kelly & Walsh, a small chain of shops in Hong Kong.
What to read in Amsterdam
The history book
‘Amsterdam’ (1994) by Geert Mak is a captivating retelling of the history of Amsterdam. It goes back to the settlements of the 12th century and leads you to the present with an eye for art as well as historical events. Mak is a history writer who is famous and loved in the Netherlands: many people see his history books as holiday pleasure-reads, so don’t be scared that it will bore you.
The thriller
‘The Dinner’ (2009) by Herman Koch is a famous Dutch novel that you will finish in a few days. It is a thrilling novel with a very small, but exciting scope: everything happens during a dinner in one of the most expensive restaurants in Amsterdam. It does not tell you about the city as much as give you a real feel for it.
Recommended by Nora van Arkel from the Amsterdam Literary Society, the city’s best online guide and network for book lovers.
What to read in Barcelona
The Spanish mystery
There is so much mystery and suspense in ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ (2001) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, you just can’t put it down. Set in the labyrinth of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, it starts in 1945, when Daniel’s father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Daniel is captivated by a certain book: ‘The Shadow of the Wind.’ He goes on many adventures to protect the book and learn all he can about its author.
The outsider’s tale
Delve into the life of Natalia – ‘la Colometa’ – in Mercè Rodoreda’s ‘The Time of the Doves’ (1962) and see what Barcelona was like through her eyes before, during and after the Spanish Civil War. Her story and the struggles she goes through are no surprise for many women who took part in this particularly cruel period of Spanish history. The world is full of ‘Colometes’ and Mercè Rodoreda wrote this beautiful and harsh novel in honour to all of them.
Recommended by Clara Callís from the Barcelona Guide Bureau, which has been organising tours in Barcelona since 1990.
What to read in Stockholm
The gruesome page-turner
‘Easy Money’ (2006) by Jens Lapidus is a contemporary and rather more gruesome take on Stockholm. In a hard boiled style similar to James Ellroy or Dennis Lehane, Lapidus tells a complex and gripping tale of Stockholm’s underworld. Following three key players in the Stockholm drug trade, with different backgrounds and motivations, a new and chilling side of the capital is laid bare.
The epic series
‘The Stockholm Series’ (1960-68) by Per Anders Fogelström is mind blowing in its detail and majestic in its scoop. The five-part series gives an unparalleled account of Stockholm from the mid-19th century to the 1960s. Throughout the novels, we get to follow Henning Nilsson and his children and grandchildren, as the city changes and expands before our eyes. Fogelström’s stories of the landscape, weather, streets, rooms, bars and people of Stockholm remain some of the most read in Sweden today.
Recommended by Julia Gillberg from The English Bookshop in Stockholm, a book lover’s paradise with another branch in Uppsala and a giant online store to boot.
What to read in Athens
The travel diary
As Athens’ foremost travel columnist, Diana Farr Louis has been taking to the roads less travelled in Greece for the last forty years and coming back to Athens with more stories, recipes and a deep sense of what makes the country what it is today. In ‘Athens and Beyond: Day Trips & Weekends’ (2003), she recounts her day trips around the city and short weekends further afield, bringing together the history, mythology, cuisine and culture of each place with the ease of a local, and the eye for detail of a modern day Pausanias.
The alternative guidebook
‘Athens Beyond the Guidebook’ (2014) by John L. Tomkinson may remind you of your favourite history teacher, the one who told you the interesting and strange pieces of history that the textbooks left out. From close encounters of the third kind to little-known temples, haunted villas and even stories of Jesus walking in Attika in the 1930s, these are the kind of books that make traveling even more fun.
Recommended by Matt Barrett, a travel consultant for Greece Travel, the essential online guide for anyone visiting Greece.
What to read in Edinburgh
The illustrated guide
‘This is Edinburgh’ (1961) by Miroslav Sasek is a beautiful, illustrated version of the city – we sell an insane number of copies of the book in the shop. It essentially covers the city in illustration, as part of the ‘This Is the World’ series.
The interactive tour
‘A Work of Beauty’ (2014) by Alexander McCall Smith is the writer’s take on the city in the way that he wishes to tell of it. Through a variety of different media he takes the reader on his own unique experience of Edinburgh.
Recommended by Keira Brown from The Edinburgh Bookshop, a cosy getaway in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh that’s exactly as a book shop should be.
What to read in Bruges
The classic
‘Niccolò Rising’ (1986) by Dorothy Dunnett is the first book in the eight-part ‘House of Niccolo’ series. It’s where we get to know the young Claes van der Poele, a dyer’s apprentice in the city of Bruges. The stories are set in the late 15th century, the heyday of Flanders, which then was the major trading port between the Scandinavian countries and the southern city-states. Claes rises from an apprentice to setting up a trading empire. He travels from the Mediterranean to the far North, becoming involved in a political game of chess.
The history book
‘Money, Banking and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges’ (2008) by Raymond De Roover is a fascinating book about the rise of Bruges as a financial capital in the 1400s and the site of the first stock exchange. It clearly shows the ties Bruges had with the Italian City states and their financial institutions, such as the Medici Bank of Florence. A lot of the financial tools we use today were forged in this era, which is what makes this book so interesting.
Recommended by Jos Deroo from Books & Brunch, a charming café in medieval Bruges that’s lined with books to browse or buy.
More recommendations from around the world
Cork
Gavin Clarke from the Irish Literary Society recommends ‘City of Bohane’ (2011) by Kevin Barry, a book that he describes as “a wild imagining of a future dystopian Cork city,” set in 2053 where technology is minimal.
Oslo
Lars Tingelstad from The National Library of Norway advises any Viking buffs to pick up a copy of the ancient classic ‘Heimskringla’ (1230) by Snorri Sturluson.
San Francisco
Andy Bellows from City Lights, the bookshop famous for its ties to the Beat Generation, picks ‘Cool Gray City of Love’ (2013) by Gary Kamiya, a best-selling collection of 49 stories about specific sites or intersections in one of the USA’s hippest cities.
Melbourne
Warren Bonett from Embiggen Books in Melbourne suggests ‘Mebourne’ (2011) by Sophie Cunningham, a book that centres around a year in the city’s life, weaving together stories of Melbourne’s past, with her own interactions with the city.
Berlin
Shane Anderson from Saint George’s Bookshop recommends ‘Goodbye to Berlin’ (1939) by Christopher Isherwood, a semi-autobiographical novel loosely based on three years the writer spent in pre-Nazi Germany.