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Finished 15/3 2025
Sq 1 = a title from a European country not in the EU
Untraceable by Sergei Lebedev (Russia 🇷🇺 and a bit of Czech republic before the EU expanded east 🇨🇿)

Sq 2 = a title originally written in a Slavic language
Empusion by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland 🇵🇱)

Sq 3 = a group read
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (Ireland 🇮🇪 )

Sq 4 = a title from a country bordering the Mediterranean Sea
Den anden datter AKA L'Autre Fille by Annie Ernaux (France 🇫🇷)

Sq 5 = a title displaying LGBTQ character(s) / topic
Playboy (Semiotext by Constance Debré (France 🇫🇷)

Sq 6 = a title from a EU member state with a currency other than the Euro:
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria 🇧🇬 doesn't get the euro until 1/7 2025. Also International booker winner 2023 btw.).

Sq 7 = a title by a winner of any prize of literature
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (UK author 🇬🇧 setting: Space 🌎, Booker winner 2024)

Sq 8 = a title written in the 19th century (1800s)
Sult by Knut Hamsun (1890, Norway 🇳🇴)

Sq 9 = a title from a country bordering the Baltic Sea
The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun (Berlin 1932, Germany 🇩🇪 )

Sq 10 = a graphic novel
More Post-It Monsters and Klæbemonstre III by John Kenn Mortensen (Denmark 🇩🇰 )

Sq 11 = a title written after WWII in a European country that does not exist anymore
Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal - Czechoslovakia 🇨🇿 1965.
(I really wanted to claim this with Lebedev (see sq. 1) which is all about the former Soviet poisons and Czechoslovakia, but it's not written "IN' one of those!)

Sq 12 = a title originally written in a Romance language
Elskeren AKA L'Amant or The Lover by Marguerite Duras (France 🇫🇷)

Sq 13 = a title from a country with the Euro as its currency
Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride (Ireland 🇮🇪 )

Sq 14 = a title from a country with mountains
The Wolf by Guy de Maupassant (France 🇫🇷)

Sq 15 = a title published 2020 or even later
³§±èæ²Ô»å by Dorthe Nors, 2025 (Denmark 🇩🇰 )

Sq 16 = a title that can be considered genre fiction
En oplagt sag AKA A Simple Story by Leonardo Sciascia (Italy 🇮🇹)

I'll try to select titles that cover as many European countries as possible and also try to read the few countries I am missing from Europe : D

Plans:
Maybe a few more Nobel Prize winners, I am surely missing some more Europeans. Maybe I'll finally complete my read of the women winners and read Elfriede Jelinek
On the male side and Europeans:
The Trolley by Claude Simon (France 1985)
Sult by Knut Hamsun (Norway 1920) <- DONE!!
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard by Anatole France (France 1921)
The Bonds of Interest = Los Intereses Creados by Jacinto Benavente (Spain 1922)
A title by Bunin (Russian 1933)


Also my reading of the world is missing a few countries:
Bulgaria: I have Georgi Gospodinov in my sights <- DONE!
Turkey: Here I am more at a loss, I've started several of Pamuk's, and just can't. I've also tried two younger female authors without luck - but maybe I can try again.
Update: I have Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali waiting.
Montenegro: I have Catherine the Great and the Small by Olja Knezevic
Lithuania: (I have read something short, but it would be nice with a novel)
Reading map:

A lot of interesting stuff -
I also have difficulty with Turkey... what about Elif Shafak ? Or is she among the two younger female authors?

Orgeluse wrote: "A lot of interesting stuff -
I also have difficulty with Turkey... what about Elif Shafak ? Or is she among the two younger female authors?"
Yep unfortunately, tried it and failed. But I'll give the classic by Ali a try!

Perhaps these female Turkish writers are more your cup of tea :):

Erendiz Atasü: The Other Side of the Mountain

Müge İplikçi: Transit Yolcular

Latife Tekin: Swords of Ice

Buket Uzuner: A Cup of Turkish Coffee

I quite liked Madonna in a Fur Coat, it also had the advantage of being quite short, so not a massive time commitment if you don't love it!

Pretty limitless choice in Scottish crime fiction!

I’m impressed by how many countries you’ve read � and how many! I need to check out this app�
I hope you enjoy your reading and I look forward to seeing what you pick for your remaining countries!

Carolien wrote: "I quite liked Madonna in a Fur Coat, it also had the advantage of being quite short, so not a massive time commitment if you don't love it!
-> Excellent, thanks!

Pretty limitless choice in Scottish crim..."
-> Except for all the ones I've read already :D

Erin wrote: "I hope you enjoy your reading and I look forward to seeing what you pick for your remaining countries!"

Thanks, and you too!

Three titles up already:
Untraceable by Sergei Lebedev
Empusion by Olga Tokarczuk
Den anden datter by Annie Ernaux

I see you're another fan of Neil Lancaster! I love his books. He recommended Denzil Meyrick to me at Bloody Scotland this year. I've read the first ones in the DCI Daley series since then and am enjoying it so far.

The other Scottisch author I discovered this year was Ed James, I really recommend his DI Rob Marshall series starting with The Turning of our Bones.

Carolien wrote: "I see you're another fan of Neil Lancaster! I love his books. He recommended Denzil Meyrick to me at Bloody Scotland this year. I've read the first ones in the DC..."

You were at Bloody Scotland?? I've been there for maybe five years, but skipped last year! Will you be going in September?

Anetq wrote: "Carolien wrote: "I see you're another fan of Neil Lancaster! I love his books. He recommended Denzil Meyrick to me at Bloody Scotland this year. I've read the fir..."

it was my first time and I loved it. Probably not this year, but ask me closer to the time. If you are coming, I will try to make a plan! (I'm aiming to be at the Welsh crime festival in Aberystwyth in April).

I am halfway through already!! 8/16 read - and great reads as well!
I also ticked off a new country: Bulgaria!
Now onto Keegan for the Group read, and maybe a graphic novel?

Anetq wrote: "I'll try to select titles that cover as many European countries as possible and also try to read the few countries I am missing from Europe : D"

Unless I change up some titles I've already messed this one up with 3 frenchies... not on purpose :)
But for once this is progressing super fast! I guess my Januarys are usually too busy to read anything but crime fiction, but I got a head start... 11/16 read

Anetq wrote: "Anetq wrote: "I'll try to select titles that cover as many European countries as possible and also try to read the few countries I am missing from Europe : D"

Unless I change up some titles I've a..."

Simply wonderful :))

Excellent progress!

This is moving at an unprecedented speed! Only 3 to go, and it's still January?!

Things I really enjoyed:

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (Ireland 🇮🇪 ) - group read!

Playboy (Semiotext by Constance Debré (France 🇫🇷) - LGBTQ

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria 🇧🇬 no euro yet)

En oplagt sag AKA A Simple Story by Leonardo Sciascia (Italy 🇮🇹) - A crime novel / police procedural packed into I think 48 pages! - genre fiction

Did not enjoy:
Sult by Knut Hamsun (1890, Norway 🇳🇴) - 1800s


Now reading & enjoying:
Plan: Deborah Levy: The Position of Spoons: And Other Intimacies (UK 🇬🇧 )

Speedy gonzales :)))!!

Happy to hear that you liked Time Shelter! And not surprised you did not like the Knut Hamsun...

I will check out the Deborah Levy

Orgeluse wrote: "Speedy gonzales :)))!!

Happy to hear that you liked Time Shelter! And not surprised you did not like the Knut Hamsun...

I will check out the [author:Deborah Levy|14..."

Oh do! She's amazing! (...Spoons is a collections of intros to other's work and short essays)

Okay - so for my no-longer existing country - I could go with
War's Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich (1988 - so USSR) which has been lounging on my bookshelf for a few years (I've read Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster and Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II and really like her oral history - even though the contents are not easy.

Anetq wrote: "Okay - so for my no-longer existing country - I could go with
War's Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich (1988 - so USSR) which has been lounging on my bookshelf for a few years (I'..."

Great choice! I also think her Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets is quite interesting in view of the understanding of mentalities in the east in the post Soviet era.

I have moved things around a little to fit in Nors (most if not all of her earlier stuff is out in English, and it's great - short too!)

Sq 15 = a title published 2020 or even later
³§±èæ²Ô»å by Dorthe Nors, 2025 (Denmark 🇩🇰 )

I've also squeezed in
Sq 13 = a title from a country with the Euro as its currency
Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride (Ireland 🇮🇪 )

Quite a strange book about grief and coping - without any details except for the hotel rooms the main character stays in around Europe. Very good!
All the travelling made me think it was quite appropriate for this challenge...

I've finished the challenge!!

My title written after WWII in a European country that does not exist anymore is:
Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal - Czechoslovakia 🇨🇿 1965 (I totally copied someone elses challenge here, but I bought the book in Prague last May, so it was perfect. Liked it too.

So first finished count is:

Sq 1 = Not in the EU Untraceable by Sergei Lebedev (Russia 🇷🇺)
Sq 2 = Slavic language Empusion by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland 🇵🇱)
Sq 3 = Group read So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (Ireland 🇮🇪 )
Sq 4 = Mediterranean Sea Den anden datter AKA L'Autre Fille by Annie Ernaux (France 🇫🇷)
Sq 5 = LGBTQ Playboy (Semiotext by Constance Debré (France 🇫🇷)
Sq 6 = No Euro: Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria 🇧🇬 no euro until 1/7 2025)
Sq 7 = Prize winner Orbital by Samantha Harvey (UK author 🇬🇧 setting: Space 🌎, Booker 2024)
Sq 8 = 19th century (1800s) Sult by Knut Hamsun (1890, Norway 🇳🇴)
Sq 9 = Baltic Sea The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun (Berlin 1932, Germany 🇩🇪 )
Sq 10 = a graphic novel More Post-It Monsters and Klæbemonstre III by John Kenn Mortensen (Denmark 🇩🇰 )
Sq 11 = country that doesn't exist Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal - Czechoslovakia 🇨🇿 1965.
Sq 12 = Romance language Elskeren AKA L'Amant or The Lover by Marguerite Duras (France 🇫🇷)
Sq 13 = with Euro Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride (Ireland 🇮🇪 )
Sq 14 = Country with mountains The Wolf by Guy de Maupassant (France 🇫🇷)
Sq 15 = 2020 or later ³§±èæ²Ô»å by Dorthe Nors, 2025 (Denmark 🇩🇰)
Sq 16 = Genre fiction En oplagt sag AKA A Simple Story by Leonardo Sciascia (Italy 🇮🇹)

That's
France 🇫🇷 4 books
Ireland 🇮🇪 & Denmark 🇩🇰 2 books each
And one each from: Italy 🇮🇹, Germany 🇩🇪, Norway 🇳🇴, UK 🇬🇧
Russia 🇷🇺, Poland 🇵🇱, Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Czechoslovakia 🇨🇿

That is a surprising amount of French lit for me - and I didn't even count De Beauvoir's A Very Easy Death, which I also read.

Only 4/16 from (the former) East / Central Europe :(
But I still have plans to read:
Olja Knezevic: Catherine the Great and the Small (Montenegro 🇲🇪 )
Rasa Askinyte: The Easiest (Lithuania 🇱🇹)

Montenegro 🇲🇪 is the last european country I haven't read.
And maybe the Faroe islands 🇫🇴 which (just like Greenland, which I have read) is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, but counting them on their own, I've just ordered some young & some queer poetry.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And thanks so much for the extensive list of titles!!!

Wow, amazing! I hope you enjoyed your reads! 😊

Thank you - and thanks for the tip about Hrabal for sq.11 :)
I am hoping to read more Eastern Europeans, and tick off the last country I'm missing in Europe on my Reading the world ambition:

Yes most of them very much - I am also working on the longlist for the International Booker Prize:
Quite happy with the 9 women / 4 men ratio and the geographical and thematic variety!

Eurotrash / Swiss M
On a Woman's Madness / Suriname W (new country!)
A Leopard-Skin Hat / French W
Reservoir Bitches / Mexico W
Under the Eye of the Big Bird / Japanese W
The Book of Disappearance / Palestine W
Perfection - italian / Berlin M
There's a Monster Behind the Door / 1980s� Réunion W (new country!)
Hunchback / Japan W
Balle: Rumfang I /DK W
Mircea Cărtărescu: Solenoid / Romania M
Heart Lamp (out 8/4) India W
Small Boat (out 23/4) / French - Calais boat M

Congrats, Anetq! I've just finished Closely Watched Trains which I liked as well. I would recommend Catherine the Great and Small as well, I read it in February and found it a fairly easy read and I could connect with Catherine the Great in many ways.

Anetq wrote: "Yes most of them very much - I am also working on the longlist for the International Booker Prize:
Quite happy with the 9 women / 4 men ratio and the geographical and thematic variety!

Eurotrash /..."

Interesting list - I wonder why Solenoid is on the list.. It isn't a bad book but it has been out for ages...