Book 37 - Country 43 - Sudan

The Last Camel died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters - first published 1991

In 1897 archaeologists AmeliaPeabody and her husband Emerson travel to Sudan with their precocious son Ramses to excavate at Gebel Barkal and Napata.  However their plans change when they have to travel south into the desert in search of an African explorer and his wife who have been missing for 14 years.  After nearly dying of thirst in the desert they are rescued and taken as captives to a 'lost' city still living by ancient laws and customs.  They then have to try and escape.  The beginning and the end are fast paced and exciting but the middle was a bit dull unless you have a particular interest in what life was like in Ancient Nubia.  This novel is like a very sedate version of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  It is part of a series of detective novels about Amelia Peabody but I haven't read any of the others.  4/10

27th December 2010

Book 36, Countries 41 & 42 - Ethiopia and Eritrea

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese – first published 2009

This is a great book.  Marion and Shiva Stone are illegitimate conjoined twin boys who are born at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa in 1954.   Their mother is an Indian nun who dies giving birth to them and their father is a British doctor who leaves the hospital on the day they are born.  They are brought up by 2 other doctors at Missing Hospital.    A betrayal splits them apart.  The book is populated with the people who live and work at Missing caring for and treating the poorest people in Addis and achieving remarkable results with very little equipment or money.  The history of the period, which included the removal of the monarchy and its replacement with a Marxist military government and Eritrea’s fight for independence is told well.   My only criticism is that there is too much medical detail in places, particularly about various gynaecological procedures.  9.5/10

14^th December 2010

Book 35, Country 40 - Kenya

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton – first published 2007

The storyline is original but the plot is a bit thin.  A New York librarian called Fiona travels to Kenya to do some voluntary work on a project to improve literacy in remote villages.  The books are delivered by camel every few weeks, hence the title.  She gets to know the residents of one particular village – Mididima – particularly well but not all of them welcome the arrival of the library as they think it will disrupt their traditional way of life.  Then a couple of books go missing and the project organisers threaten to remove the service from Mididima.  Novels about mobile libraries are very rare – Ian Sansom’s series of books about Israel Armstrong, who drives a mobile library in Northern Ireland are the only other ones I have come across.  5/10

28th November 2010

Book 34, Country 39 - Uganda

Tropical Fish – Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana - first published 2005

This was the only novel set in Uganda that I could find that wasn’t about Idi Amin’s reign of terror.  The story is about a middle class family living in Entebbe in Uganda in the years after the end of the Idi Amin regime.  The chapters are narrated by the 3 daughters of the family: Rosa, Patti and Christine but most of them are narrated by Christine.  Rosa dies of AIDS and Christine eventually moves to Los Angeles.   There is enough detail in the book to be able to imagine what life was like for the family but not so much that the voices of the 3 women are swamped.  6/10

22^nd November 2010

Book 33, Country 38 - Rwanda

Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche – translated from French and first published in English in 2003

I had only recently finished An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina – the true story of Hotel Rwanda, which was excellent but also very harrowing and I wasn’t sure I could face another account of the Rwandan Genocide, even though this one was fictional.  However this novel had something different to offer.    A Canadian documentary maker called Valcourt, who is working in Rwanda in the months before the genocide falls in love with Gentille, who works at the Hotel Mille Collines.  Gentille is a Hutu but looks like a Tutsi. I’d like to say there is a happy ending but there isn’t.  Most of the book is about the run up to the genocide but there are graphic descriptions of massacres.  The book also deals with the subject of AIDS as well.   6/10

20^th November 2010

Book 32, Country 37 - Tanzania

Abela: the Girl who saw Lions by Berlie Doherty – first published 2008

2 stories are told alternately.  Rosa is a mixed race child who lives with her mother in Sheffield.  She never met her Tanzanian father.  Her mother wants to adopt a child but Rosa isn’t sure about this.

9 year old Abela lives in a poverty stricken village in rural Tanzania with her grandmother.  Her mother and sisters have died of AIDS.   Her uncle sends her to England with his girlfriend, pretending that she is his daughter in order to try and gain British citizenship but he gets found out and she ends up in the care of social services. There is eventually a happy ending for Abela when she gets adopted by Rosa’s mother.  The novel, which is aimed at teenagers deals sensitively with the subjects of child trafficking, female circumcision and AIDS.   6/10

16th November 2010

Book 31, Country 36 - Mozambique

Fury in the Fire by Henning Mankell – translated from Swedish and first published in 2009

This is a novel aimed at young adults.  Sofia is a young woman who lives in poverty in a village in Mozambique with her mother.  Her husband Armando works in the city and only comes home at weekends.  She lost her younger sister and both her legs when she stepped on a landmine in the first book in the series – Secrets in the Fire – and her older sister died of AIDS in the second book in the series – Playing with Fire. She is now pregnant with her third child.  Then she discovers that Armando is being unfaithful and has a mistress in the city.  The author, who is the creator of the detective Kurt Wallander, spends half his life in Mozambique. 6/10

14th November 2010

Book 30, Country 35 - Zimbabwe

The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam by Lauren Liebenberg – first published 2008

I thought this was going to be a nice story about a childhood in Rhodesia in the 1970s.  I was wrong.  8 year old Nyree and her younger sister Cia are likeable characters but when their malevolent 14 year old cousin Ronin comes to live with them their life becomes a nightmare.  I could hardly bear to read to the end to discover what evil deeds he perpetrates on them.  This is all set against a background of rising political tension and unrest in Rhodesia as it moves towards independence and the rule of Robert Mugabe.  5/10

7^th November 2010

Book 29, Country 34 - Botswana

Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith – first published 2006

This is the 7^th book in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and it is as good as all the others but also very similar to them.  Precious Ramotswe and her assistant Mma Makutsi have to solve several mysteries, including finding the identity of a blackmailer and working out what is wrong at a local game reserve.  6/10

28th October 2010

Book 28, Countries 32 and 33 - Namibia and South Africa

Blood Rose by Margie Orford – first published 2010

This was the only novel I could find set in Namibia.  I wanted to read The Sheltering Desert by Henno Martin but my local library service didn’t have a copy in stock.  South African investigator Clare Hart is sent to Namibia to profile a serial killer of teenage boys in the isolated and depressing port of Walvis Bay.  She works with local detective Tamar Damases and gradually comes to realise that the case is much bigger than they thought and that their lives are in danger.  This book won’t do much for the tourist industry in Walvis Bay but it is an above average crime novel 7/10

20^th October 2010

Book 27, Country 31 - Zambia

Hotel Juliet by Belinda Seaward – first published 2008

This book took me weeks to finish but I’m not sure why, as it is a perfectly good story.  It does leap around chronologically from the present day to 20 years ago, which I always find a bit confusing.  Hotel Juliet is an aeroplane, not a place.  Memory Cougan breaks up with her fiancé in London and returns to her birthplace in Zambia to try and find out what happened to her in her early childhood and why she end up living in the UK with her adopted mother Elise.  She stays with Max, owner of Hotel Juliet, who holds the key to the story and all is eventually revealed.  5/10

13th October 2010

Book 26, Country 30 - Angola

Creole by Jose Eduardo Agualusa – translated from Portuguese and first published in English in 2002

This was the only fiction book I could obtain set in Angola.  It is a short novel and is partly set in Brazil and Portugal as well as in Angola.  It is written in the form of letters from Carlos Fradique Mendes, a Portuguese adventurer, and starts in 1868. Fradique bears witness to the end of the Portuguese slave trade, and meets and falls in love with Ana Olimpia, a former slave girl.  4/10

6th September 2010

Book 25, Country 29 - Democratic Republic of Congo

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver – first published in 1999

In 1959 the Price family move from Georgia to a remote village in the Belgium Congo.  The book is is narrated by the five women of the family: Orleanna, long-suffering wife of Baptist missionary Nathan Price, and their four daughters – Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May – over the period 1959-1998.  They are completely unprepared for the life they find in Congo – hostile locals, dangerous wildlife etc and the experiences they have there change the course of all their lives for ever.  The book is mainly set in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo but a small part of it is set in Congo Brazzaville.  Excellent book.  Now I understand why it has been such a favourite with reading groups for the last 11 years.  9/10

1st September 2010

Book 24, Country 28 - Congo Brazzaville

Pandora in the Congo by Albert Sanchez Pinol – translated from Catalan and first published in English in 2008

I was going to read Brazzaville Beach for Congo Brazzaville but I was dismayed to find when I started it that it isn’t set in Congo Brazzaville at all but in a fictitious place called Brazzaville.  I suppose I should have guessed this, as Brazzaville is a long way from the sea!  Despite lots of library catalogues indexing this book as being set in Congo Brazzaville, having read it I am not convinced that it is set there rather than in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

I’m puzzled why a Catalonian would want to write what is a very British old fashioned adventure story but I’m glad he did, as I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  There are two interlocking stories.  The narrator, Tommy Thompson is an aspiring ghostwriter scraping a living in London.  In 1914 he is offered the chance to ghost write the story of Marcus Garvey, who is awaiting trial for the murder of his two employers, aristocrats Richard and William Carver, on a gold-hunting expedition in the Congo.  His employers were brutal murderers who mistreated their Congolese workers.  However there is another layer to the story – a mysterious race of underground people called Tectons.  Marcus falls in love with a Tecton woman called Amgam but the rest of the Tectons are very hostile.  7/10

25^th August 2010

Book 23, Country 27 - Cameroon

Cameroon with Egbert by Dervla Murphy – first published 1989

Dervla Murphy and her 18 year old daughter Rachel set off with Egbert their pack horse to walk around rural Cameroon.   I thought there was too much detail in the book unless you happen to be studying the social customs of the people of Cameroon and very little humour.  I felt that the journey was rather aimless.  As I geographer, I found that the most interesting section was the chapter about the tragedy which had happened at Lake Nyos in 1986.  A huge carbon dioxide cloud was released from the bottom of the volcanic lake and suffocated thousands of people in the lakeside villages.  Fiction books set in Cameroon proved to be rarer than hen’s teeth, so I am grateful to Ms Murphy for providing me with this book but I won’t be reading about any of her other journeys if I can avoid it.  I wish I had chosen one of Gerald Durrell’s accounts of his animal collecting expeditions in Cameroon instead.  3/10

13^th August 2010

Book 22, Countries 23-26 - Senegal, Niger, Nigeria and Chad

Lost Kingdoms of Africa – through Muslim Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel  by Jeffrey Tayler – first published 2005

This book was a great find, as it covers Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.  Books set in all the countries except Nigeria were hard to come by.  This was my first non-fiction book of my journey.  The author is an American who travelled overland from Chad to Senegal talking to local people on his way.  His descriptions of the poverty, hopelessness and harsh climate won’t make you want to go there on holiday.  4/10

21^st July 2010

Book 21, Country 22 - Mali

Footprints in the Sand by Sarah Challis – first published 2006

Emily has just broken up with long term boyfriend Ted when she attends her great aunt Mary’s funeral in Dorset.  She learns that Mary has appointed her and her cousin Clemmie as her executors and that she wants her ashes to be scattered at an obscure place in Mali.  They set off without knowing what her connection with Mali was but all is eventually revealed in the middle of the Sahara Desert.  6/10

5^th July 2010

Book 20, Country 21 - Algeria

Dreams from the Endz by Faiza Guene – translated from French and first published in English in 2008

Books set in Algeria proved to be thin on the ground and I was pleased to find this one, as I had enjoyed her first novel – Just Like Tomorrow.  Ahleme is a 24 year old Algerian immigrant to France who lives with her disabled father and younger brother on a run down housing estate in a Paris suburb.  Ahleme struggles to keep the family together and to make ends meet.  She goes back to Algeria with her family to visit her relatives.  The story is told with humour.  5/10

16^th June 2010

Book 19, Country 20 - Morocco

The Wayward Wind by Ashleigh Bingham – first published 2007

Hooray, I have made it out of Europe at last and crossed the Straits of Gibraltar to my second continent – Africa.  Tom Sinclair sails from London to Morocco in 1867 in search of his sister who has gone missing.  He struggles in a country where he doesn’t speak the language until he teams up with Spanish governess Francesca.  Together they face several challenges including a stay in a town during an outbreak of the plague.  It was a better story than I thought it was going to be and gives a reasonable flavour of Morocco in the mid 19^th century.  6/10

14th June 2010

Book 18, Country 19 - Spain

The Return by Victoria Hislop – first published in 2008

I really enjoyed The Island by Victoria Hislop and so was looking forward to her new novel.  This one is mainly set in Spain at the time of the Civil War in the 1930s but starts and ends in the present day.  Sonia and her friend go on holiday to Grenada to learn to dance Flamenco but Sonia is also looking for the roots of her mother, who was Spanish but who had told her very little about her past.  She meets an old man called Miguel who runs a café and he tells her about the Ramirez family who used to own it and what happened to them all during the Civil War.  Mercedes was the only daughter of the family and she lived to dance.  She fell in love with a guitarist called Javier but lost touch with him in the turmoil of the Civil War.  I didn't think this was as good as The Island but it is nevertheless well worth reading as it brings this period of Spanish history to life.  I never realised how brutal the Spanish Civil War was or what the aftermath was like for those who lost the war.  7/10

1st June 2010

Book 17, Countries 17 and 18 - Switzerland and Portugal

Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier – translated from German and first published in English in 2008

I chose this book because it was supposed to be like Shadow of the Wind, which I loved and because it enabled me to travel from Switzerland to Portugal within the book, thus passing over France which I had already visited and Spain, which I needed to visit last in Europe before crossing over into Morocco.  However it isn’t nearly as good as Shadow of the Wind.  Raimund Gregorius is an eccentric middle aged professor of ancient languages at a colledge in Berne.  One day he meets a Portuguese woman standing on a bridge and decides to change his life.  He buys an obscure book written by a Portuguese man Amadeu de Prado and decides to travel to Portugal to track him down.  Unfortunately he turns out to be dead but Raimund is undeterred and seeks out his friends and family in Lisbon.  There was rather too much introspection and pages and pages of Amadeu’s philosophical thoughts, which were rather incomprehensible to me, so it was a bit of a slog to finish the book.  4/10

Book 16, Country 16 - Italy

A Kiss from Maddelena by Christopher Castellani – first published 2003

This novel is set in the village of Santa Cecilia in rural Italy in 1943.  Most of the young men are away fighting the war and just before he is old enough to be called up, Vito Leone wants to secure the affections of Maddalena, who is the daughter of the village’s most powerful family.  When the Italians surrender to the Allies and the Germans invade everyone flees apart from Vito and his mother.  However Vito hasn’t given up on winning Maddalena’s heart. I see that there is now a sequel available - The Saint of Lost Things, which continues the story of Maddalena's life in the USA after the war but I haven't read it. 5/10

21^st May 2010

Book 15, Country 15

The School at the Chalet – Elinor M Brent-Dyer – first published 1925

This is the only book on my journey round the world, which I have read before – about 35 years ago.  This is the first book in the very long (62 book) Chalet School series, which span the period from 1925-1970.   It covers the establishment of the school in the Austrian Tyrol and the pupils who join it in the first term.  I have read all 62 books but never in order.  The story is a bit dated now but I still enjoyed it.  6/10

6^th May 2010

Book 14, Country 14 - Slovenia

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho – translated from Portuguese – first published in English in 1999

Veronika decides that she no longer wants to live and tries to commit suicide.  She isn’t successful and wakes up in Villette, the local mental hospital in Ljubljana.  She then decides that she does want to live, partly as a result of her conversations with fellow patients.  However the doctor tells her that her suicide attempt has done irreversible damage to her heart and that she will die as a result in just a few days.   An unusual plot with an interesting twist. It is well thought out and is therefore a thought provoking and worthwhile read.  I have just noticed that this book was turned into a film in 2009.  6/10

3rd May 2010

Book 13, Country 13 - Hungary

Esther's Inheritance by Sandor Marai - translated from Hungarian - first published in English in 2008

Esther is single and lives with her elderly relative Nunu.  20 years earlier her boyfriend jilted her in favour of her sister Vilma.  Vilma is now dead and her husband Lajos comes to Esther's house with his 2 unlovely children asking for money.   A short book and although it was ok, I'm glad it wasn't any longer.  5/10

1st May 2010

Book 12, Country 12 - Czech Republic

Season of Leaves by Catherine Law - first published 2008

This novel is set partly in Devon/Cornwall and partly in Prague.  During World War 2, while working as a Land Girl on a Cornish farm, Rose Pepper meets and falls in love with a Czech soldier, Krystof.  However while she is still in shock from the death of her parents in a bombing raid in Plymouth, she is tricked into marrying her previous boyfriend, who turns out to be cold and controlling.  After the war she and Krystof flee to his home in Prague but their problems aren't over, as the Communists are taking over the country.  7/10

30th April 2010 

Book 11, Country 11 - Poland

Escaping into the Night by D Dina Friedman - first published

13 year old Halina escapes from the Ghetto when her mother is imprisoned by the Nazis.  With her friend Batya she joins a group of people hiding out in encampments in  the forests of Western Poland.  The group struggles to find enough food to eat and to protect themselves from the Nazis.  The book is based on the true story of the Bielski brothers who successfully hid 1,200 Jews in the forests of Belorus in the Second World War (dramatised in the film Defiance starring Daniel Craig) 7/10

19th April 2010

Book 10, Country 10 - Ukraine

Dream Land by Lily Hyde - first published 2008

Written for young adults, this is a compelling novel about a girl named Safi and her family of Crimean Tatars who have spent decades in exile in Uzbekistan and are finally allowed to return to their homeland.  However they are not welcomed by many of the people who now live in the Crimea and the book is about their struggle to rebuild their villages.  I had no idea of the existence of the Tatars, their forced exile during World War 2 or their current struggles to re-establish their lives in their homeland.  7/10

18th April 2010

Book 9, Country 9 - Russia

Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick - first published 2007

Written for young adults and set at the time of the Russian Revolution, this novel is a fictionalised account of the time that the author Arthur Ransome spent in Russia as a journalist/spy.  He falls in love with Evgenia, Trotsky's secretary, whom he later married.  As things become more and more dangerous for them in Russia, Arthur and Evgenia have to flee the country.  Some of the book is told in the form of a fairy tale, which I wasn't that keen on. 6/10

14th April 2010

Book 8, Country 8 - Finland

House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore - first published 2006

16 year old Eevi lives in a Finnish orphanage in 1901 .  She is sent to work as a housekeeper for Thomas Eklund, a doctor in a rural village.  He falls in love with her but she has a boyfriend called Lauri in Helsinki, with whom she is desparate to be reunited.   Thomas accompanies her on a long walk to the nearest railway station, so she can go to Helsinki, although he is very sad to see her leave.  The second half of the book is set in Helsinki, where Lauri and his friend Sasha are involved in resistance to the Tsar's rule.  The first half of the book is more interesting than the second but it enlightened me about an area of history about which I knew very little, for example  I had no idea how much influence the Swedes had in Finland at this time.  6/10

6th April 2010

Book 7, Country 7 - Norway

Black Seconds by Karin Fossum - translated from Norwegian - first published in 2007

9 year old Ida Joner goes missing on her way to the local shops.  Inspector Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre investigate the disappearance but they have little to go on.  The characters of Ida's mother and aunt and her children and that of a simple local man called Johannes are well drawn but I found the ending a bit of an anticlimax.  5/10

24th March 2010

Book 6, Country 6 - Sweden

Return of the Dancing Master - Henning Mankell - translated from Swedish, first published in English in 2003.

This is a stand alone novel about the detective Stefan Lindman, who is a colleague of Kurt Wallander but he doesn't feature in this story.  If you have watched the Swedish verion of Wallander on the television, don't expect Stefan in the book to resemble the character in the TV series.  Stefan is on sick leave when he hears that a former police colleague has been murdered.  He decides to investigate himself.  He uncovers a dark side to Swedish society - Neo Nazism.  Not the greatest plot or my favourite Henning Mankell novel but a well written story.   6/10

8th March 2010

Book 5, Country 5 - Denmark

My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time by Liz Jensen - first published 2006

This is a story about two 19th Century Danish prostitutes, who time travel to 21st Century London.  A surprisingly enjoyable book with engaging characters. 8/10

2nd March 2010

Book 4, Country 4 - Germany

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - first published 2007

A wonderful book.  Don't let the fact that it is narrated by death put you off.  This book is one of those rare novels that is utterly different from anything else I have ever read.  If you aren't crying by the end or are at least moved by it, then you are indeed hard hearted.  It is the story of Liesel, who is sent to stay with foster parents Hans and Rosa in a town near Munchen at the beginning of the Second World War, and her friends and neighbours on Himmel Street.  10/10

20th February 2010

Book 3, Country 3 - the Netherlands

Girl in Hyacinth Blue - Susan Vreeland - first published 1999

This novel is arranged as a series of short stories about the lives of the people who have owned a fictional Vermeer painting known as the Girl in Hyacinth Blue, starting with the most recent and moving back through time to Vermeer and his family.   Some of the stories were more enjoyable than others - my favourite was the one set at the time of the Christmas Flood of 1717 - but on the whole it was enjoyable and gave me a good flavour of life in the Netherlands.  It reminded me greatly of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, which was also first published in 1999.  6/10

14th February 2010

Book 2, Country 2 - Belgium

Resistance by Anita Shreve - published 1995

Anita Shreve's books are always well written and this one is no exception.  The wife of a resistance member shelters a wounded American bomber pilot at their farmhouse in Nazi occupied Belgium during the Second World War and falls in love with him.    8/10

7th February 2010

The Journey Begins - Book 1, Country 1 - France

Just Like Tomorrow by Faiza Guene  Translated from French and first published in English in 2006

Written by a teenager whose own parents emigrated from Algeria to France, this novel manages to find humour in what is really quite a grim life on a deprived local authority housing estate in a Paris suburb.  Doria who narrates the story is of Moroccan origin.  She lives with her mother in a small flat, her father having recently deserted them to return to Morocco to look for another wife.  Doria and her Mum muddle along with very little money with the help of their friends and neighbours.  A quick and easy read to start my journey.  7/10

24th January 2010

Introduction

This is my own personal reading challenge.  As a geographer, who also loves reading, I don't know why I didn't think of it years ago.   I have decided to read my way around the world in 80 books travelling across land borders between adjacent countries where possible and taking short sea journeys where necessary, as if I were on a real journey.  I have chosen mainly fiction but have also included some travel writing when I have been unable to obtain a novel set in a particular country.   My criteria is that at least half of the novel is set in the country I am travelling through but the author does not have to be from that country.  Some of the books have been translated into English and some are novels written for children or young adults.  I have used the current names for the countries, although several of the books are set in the past when some of the countries' names were different.

It is an environmentally friendly way to travel with a very low carbon footprint, especially as I will be borrowing all the books from my local public library service.  I would never be able to afford to visit most of these countries during my lifetime or indeed have the time to do so.

I will give the books a mark out of ten for enjoyment.  I estimate that it will take me about 2 years to complete my journey.  I actually started my journey in January 2010 but have only now got round to setting up this blog, so some of the reviews will be posted in retrospect.