Reading Across Borders Challenge Completed!

Reading Across Borders Challenge
My original goal was to have at least 10 books in translation in 10 different original languages, which I did meet. I then expanded it to include works published in English with a foreign setting and author. For additional reference, but not really included in this challenge, I listed books with foreign settings by American authors. I’m kind of unsure about Neil Gaiman and Geraldine Brooks. Do they have dual citizenship or just live in the U.S.? I think Brooks may have US citizenship because she won the Pulitzer for March. I didn’t include that book on this list, but I did include Year of Wonders. I may get to add Queen of the Tambourine to this list, we’ll see if I can finish it today. I did finish it, so I added it below.

So the total comes to:

• 14 works in translation
• 33 works by foreign authors with foreign settings (in addition to those above)
  
• 8 works with foreign settings by American authors

As I see those statistics, I’m very pleased. I’m sure I may have made some mistakes somewhere, but no one’s perfect. It was a good year for reading, and I’m looking forward to even more ‘reading across borders’ in 2008.

10 Different Original Languages (14 titles):

The Birds by Arisophanes (Greek) FINISHED
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (German) FINISHED
The Little Prince by Exupery (French) FINISHED
Mad Shadows by Marie-Claire Blais (French; Canadian setting) FINISHED
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (French) FINISHED
Veronika Decides to Die by Paolo Coelho (Portuguese; setting in Slovenia) FINISHED
The Wreath by Ingrid Undset (Norwegian) FINISHED
The Bookseller of Kabul by Seierstad (Norwegian; setting in Afghanistan) FINISHED
The Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano (Spanish) FINISHED
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (Russian) FINISHED
Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol, Vol. 1 (Russian) FINISHED
Buying a Fishing Rod for my Grandfather by Gao Xingjian (Chinese) FINISHED
Travels of Marco Polo (Old French/Italian debate) FINISHED
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (Swedish) FINISHED

Published in English by non-American authors (32 titles):

Atonement Ian McEwan (UK) FINISHED
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana) FINISHED
Silas Marner by George Eliot FINISHED (British author)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Congo) FINISHED
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson FINISHED (Scottish author)
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins FINISHED (British author)
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (Scottish author) FINISHED
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (India) FINISHED
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Germany; Australian author) FINISHED
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Canada/USA) FINISHED
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Canadian author) FINISHED
The Translator by Leila Aboulela (Sudan/Scotland) FINISHED
The Bone People by Keri Hulme (New Zealand) FINISHED
Wild Swans by Jung Chang (China) FINISHED
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (England) FINISHED
Phantastes by George MacDonald (Scottish author) FINISHED
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (British author) FINISHED
The Sea by John Banville (Ireland) FINISHED
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Canada) FINISHED
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (India) FINISHED
Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie (Nigeria) FINISHED
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana) FINISHED
Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro (British author) FINISHED
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (England) FINISHED
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (British author) FINISHED
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (British author) FINISHED
This Year It Will Be Different by Maeve Binchy (Irish author) FINISHED
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan) FINISHED
The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens (British author) FINISHED
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (British location/Australian author) FINISHED
Coraline by Neil Gaiman (British author) FINISHED
Stardust by Neil Gaiman (British author) FINISHED
Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam (British author) FINISHED

Published in English with foreign settings by American authors (8 titles):

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (China) FINISHED
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Italy, Indonesia, India) FINISHED
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Denmark) FINISHED
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Jamaica) FINISHED
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Britain) FINISHED
The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Hungary) FINISHED
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (Peru) FINISHED
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Canada) FINISHED