12 Novels That Will Take You on an Adventure Around the World

Chile

This enthralling epic spans decades and lives, bringing to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family against the backdrop of Chile. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile man whose pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his wife, Clara, who has a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their daughter embarks on a forbidden love affair, the lovers’ child will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future.

 Read the full review of THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS.

Nigeria

Set on the outskirts of Umuahia, Nigeria, and narrated by a guardian spirit, AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES tells the story of Chinonso, a young poultry farmer who sacrifices everything to win Ndali, the woman he loves. Spanning continents, traversing the earth and cosmic spaces, and told by a narrator who has lived for hundreds of years, the novel is a contemporary twist of Homer's ODYSSEY.

Ireland

In this darkly comic tale, Mahony, a charming ne’er-do-well, returns to his haunted Irish hometown and turns the town—and his life—upside down. Abandoned at an orphanage as a baby, Mahony assumed that his mother wanted nothing to do with him. But when he receives an anonymous note implying that she may have been forced to give him up, Mahony embarks on a pilgrimage to the rural village of Mulderrig to uncover the truth about his mother.

Read the full review of HIMSELF.

Afghanistan

Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco—AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED is about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. Khaled Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most.

Japan

KAFKA ON THE SHORE tells the story of a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who is on the run in Japan, and Nakata, who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder, in what is a truly remarkable journey.

Antarctica

In Midge Raymond’s harrowing novel, Deb Gardener and Keller Sullivan spend a few blissful weeks each year studying the habits of penguins in Antarctica. There, they escape the sorrows of their separate lives and find solace in their work and in each other. But as a new research season begins, Keller fails to appear. Then, Deb’s ship receives an emergency signal from a cruise liner that has hit desperate trouble; among the crew of that sinking ship, Deb learns, is Keller.

Read the full review of MY LAST CONTINENT.

Jamaica

At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence, but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman. In HERE COMES THE SUN, a cast of unforgettable women battle for independence while a maelstrom of change threatens their Jamaican village.

Brazil

In 1980s Rio de Janeiro, Ana, a struggling voice-over actress, is her daughter’s moon, her sun, her stars. But when Ana becomes involved with a civilian rebel group, her daughter, Mara, is forced to escape and emigrates to California as an undocumented immigrant. Mara finds employment as a caregiver, and she begins to grapple with her turbulent past and uncover vital truths about her mother and herself.

China

This Pulitzer Prize–winning novel presents a portrait of China in the 1920s, when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife, O-Lan, is a universal tale of an ordinary family caught in the tide of history.

England

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a newspaper where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy break up with her white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places and careens from one questionable decision to another, asking herself all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.

Haiti

In a story that travels beyond borders and between families, acclaimed Dominican novelist and poet Julia Alvarez reflects on the joys and burdens of love―for her parents, for her husband, and for a young Haitian boy known as Piti. In this intimate true account of a promise kept, Alvarez takes us on a journey into experiences that challenge our way of thinking about history and how it can be reimagined when people from two countries―traditional enemies and strangers―become friends.

Norway

In this seventh installment of the Hanne Wilhelmsen series set in Norway, the brilliant female detective must untangle the complex and bitter history of one of Oslo’s wealthiest families after a celebratory get-together at their home ends in a multi-victim homicide. As she searches for the killer, Hanne will once again risk everything to find out the truth. But this time, will she go too far?