Travelling in the world of books - 15 book tips for the sofa

In the midst of a global virus crisis, you can't travel the world for pleasure, but you can still travel the world of books. We suggest 15 books that will take you around the world, to different continents and eras.

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Book tips for travelling dreamers

Even if you can't travel, you can stay at home on the couch and read your way to other places. Here are 15 books that will take you to other countries and other times.

Many times, when you close the book, you will still be relatively happy and thankful that you are in Sweden in 2020. But in the meantime, you have experienced an interesting journey!

1. Finland: mirage 38 by Kjell Westöö

Join us in intellectual Helsinki in the 1930s. In a gentlemen's club, politics and what is happening in Europe are discussed from different political perspectives. Throughout the story you follow Mrs Wiik, the secretary of one of the members of the men's club, whose dark secret leads in a completely unexpected direction.

2 Estonia: Purging by Sofi Oksanen

The old woman in the Estonian countryside is chasing flies and making pickles. Suddenly she spots a bundle in the garden. Is it a human being? And why does the old woman, who jams and juices, carry so much fear? The beast in the garden is a girl who carries the history of both the woman and Estonia, and she is hunted.

3: United Kingdom: The midwife in the East End by Jennifer Worth

This is a fascinating true story by Jennifer Worth, who worked as a midwife and nurse in the poorest parts of London in the 1950s. This is both a great story and a historical document. It is sometimes a bit dizzying to realise how poor and underdeveloped it could be in our part of the world at that time.

4. France: Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

When the French police knock on Sarah's family's door in Paris in 1942, she hides her little brother in the wardrobe, locks the door and puts the key in her pocket. She thinks they will come back later, but instead they are taken to the sports centre. Vel' d'hiv along with thousands of other Jews and locked up.

5. Italy: Steel by Silvia Avallone

Life revolves around the steelworks, where the intense heat is slamming, and where someone occasionally loses a hand. The young protagonists of the story, Anna and Francesca, realise that they have never seen snow, but they have seen drugs. If you are born here, can you leave and choose a different life?

6. Romania: Bury me standing up by Isabel Fonseca

Isabel Fonseca is an American journalist who has lived with Gypsies in Eastern Europe and has made a serious attempt to understand their history. Where do they come from? Why have they lived as nomads? What is it that makes it difficult for 'the rest of us' to accept them? The title refers to a Gypsy man who in a dramatic farewell exclaims "Bury me standing, all my life I have been on my knees".

7TH USA: The dream by Harry Bernstein

Bernstein made his literary debut at the age of 95 (!) with the book 'The Invisible Wall'. This is his second novel in which he tells the story of how, at the age of ten, he emigrated with his poor Jewish family from England to the United States. Interesting and poignant about the dream that partly remains a dream.

8. Canada: Canada by Richard Ford

Dell and his twin sister live a rootless life in the US in the 1960s, as their father moves between states for his job. When the father loses his job, the situation worsens and the parents, improbably, carry out a bank robbery. Dell ends up with a distant and very eccentric acquaintance of his mum in the Canadian countryside.

9. Cuba: Dream heart by Cecilia Samartin

The two cousins Nora and Alicia grow up together in a sheltered and privileged existence in Cuba in the 1950s. When Castro comes to power, their lives are turned upside down. Nora flees with her family to the United States while Alicia's family stays behind. Throughout the years, they continue to correspond, with letters from two seemingly different planets.

10. Egypt: House of Yacoubian by Alaa Al-Aswany

The old house in the heart of Cairo was built in European style in the 1930s. Now it is home to a blissful mix of people, from the corrupt rich man who bends the Koran to satisfy his desires to the gay editor-in-chief and the poor woman on the roof. Together they take you to a bustling Cairo!

11. Ethiopia: 438 days by Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye

438 Days is the story of their imprisonment in an Ethiopian jail after the journalists crossed into the Ogaden to report on Lundin Oil. This is an exciting account of that terrifying adventure. It is also a reflection on what journalists can and should do, and what risks a journalist should be prepared to take. 

12. Bangladesh: Before the river takes us by Helena Thorfinn

Two different stories intertwine in the centre of Dhaka. In one, you meet the Swedish family Paulin, who are trying to find their feet amidst aid policy, glitter balls and children's parties with hired clowns. In the other, you will follow poor teenage sisters Mina and Nazrin, who flee their home village to avoid being married off and becoming slaves to men forty years their senior.

13. North Korea: Escape from camp 14 by Blaine Harden

North Korea has closely guarded detention centres housing hundreds of thousands of prisoners, and inside these detention centres are underground prisons. American journalist Blaine Harden has written the unlikely story of Shin Dong-hyuk's escape from Camp 14, which eventually took him all the way to South Korea and the United States. 

14. Japan: Memoirs of a geisha by Arthus Golden

Enter a world where a girl's virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder, where women are trained to charm powerful men, and where love is considered an illusion. This is a spellbinding story that takes you to a time and a world far from our own, to the Japan of the geisha.

15. The North Pole: The expedition - my love story by Bea Uusman

In 1897, three men travelled to the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon. The André expedition was supposed to bring the men fame, but instead all three died. The question is how? Bea Uusma is obsessed with finding out what really happened and spends much of her life investigating.

More ideas for books that take you out into the world?

Do you have more tips for books that take the reader out into the world? Feel free to share! You can also find more book tips in the same spirit on the blog. Maria's memoirs, where we got the inspiration for this post.

All images in the post are borrowed from Pixabay.

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