I’ve been asked a couple of times what books I’d actually recommend from my reading project – what my favourites are out of all the hundred-odd books I’ve read. I’m sure my answers will change as I continue on my reading journey, but for now (24 December 2013, specifically), here’s my response:
BEST WORK OF POETRY:
Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol, from Uganda.
A true classic – evidence of decolonization’s transformative power over the English language.
Runners-up:
Dorothy Porter’s The Monkey’s Mask, from Australia
Seamus Heaney's Death of a Naturalist from Northern Ireland.
BEST DRAMATIC WORK:
Pablo Neruda’s Fulgor y muerte de Joaquîn Murieta, from Chile.
Truly operatic and beautiful stuff.
Runners-up:
Trevor Rhone's Two Can Play and School's Out, from Jamaica.
Haresh Sharma’s Trilogy, from Singapore.
BEST NON-FICTION WORK:
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy, from North Korea.
An utterly harrowing yet heartwarming look at the world of North Korean refugees. This one’s by an outsider, but my sister tells me that an even more soul-crushing work’s been completed by an insider: Soon Ok-Lee’s Eyes of the Tailless Animals.
Runners-up:
Hugh Miles's Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West, from Qatar
Oliver Sacks’s The Island of the Colorblind, from Micronesia.
BEST MEMOIR:
Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book, from Japan.
An obvious classic – a pioneer of the genre with a strange, engrossing voice.
Runners-up:
Hiroshi Funasaka's Falling Blossoms, from Palau
Carlos Eire's Waiting for Snow in Havana, from Cuba.
BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION:
Rabindranath Tagore's Selected Short Stories, from Bangladesh.
Devastating, romantic and yet still relevant in their human folly, in their contrast of modernity and tradition, a hundred years after they were written.
Runners-up:
Dany Laferrière's Heading South, from Haiti
James A Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific, from Vanuatu.
BEST THRILLER:
H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, from
BEST EXPERIMENTAL NOVEL:
Luis Rafael Sánchez's Macho Camacho's Beat from Puerto Rico.
This category is controversial, as I'm sure is my choice - look who's a runner-up! But I need to set aside a space for works which do weird mind-bending stuff with language and plot which I dig but I know isn't for everyone. (Macho Camacho's Beat is actually a comparatively tame and accessible example.)
Runners-up:
James Joyce's Ulysses, from Ireland
Ayu Utami's Saman, from Indonesia
And here's the big one...
BEST LITERARY NOVEL:
Kyung-Sook Shin's Please Look After Mom from South Korea OR Ngũgĩ wa'Thiongo's Devil on the Cross from Kenya.
Okay - this was a tough one, and I've no idea if I've made the right choice. There were just so many great novels I read on this journey that I can't name just one as my top choice. But these two - a tender, human introspection on the cost of economic development and a crazed hallucinatory fable about corruption - currently make the top of my list.
Runners-up:
Janet Frame’s Owls Do Cry from New Zealand
Maryse Condé's Who Slashed Celanire's Throat? from Guadeloupe
Laura Restrepo’s Delirium from Colombia
Mia Couto's The Last Flight of the Flamingo from Mozambique
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man from the United States
Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin from Canada
There are of course loads of books which I didn't mention here that I also really enjoyed reading. List is highly subject to change. :D
BEST WORK OF POETRY:Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol, from Uganda.
A true classic – evidence of decolonization’s transformative power over the English language.
Runners-up:
Dorothy Porter’s The Monkey’s Mask, from Australia
Seamus Heaney's Death of a Naturalist from Northern Ireland.
BEST DRAMATIC WORK:
Pablo Neruda’s Fulgor y muerte de Joaquîn Murieta, from Chile.
Truly operatic and beautiful stuff.
Runners-up:
Trevor Rhone's Two Can Play and School's Out, from Jamaica.
Haresh Sharma’s Trilogy, from Singapore.
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy, from North Korea.
An utterly harrowing yet heartwarming look at the world of North Korean refugees. This one’s by an outsider, but my sister tells me that an even more soul-crushing work’s been completed by an insider: Soon Ok-Lee’s Eyes of the Tailless Animals.
Runners-up:
Hugh Miles's Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West, from Qatar
Oliver Sacks’s The Island of the Colorblind, from Micronesia.
Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book, from Japan.
An obvious classic – a pioneer of the genre with a strange, engrossing voice.
Runners-up:
Hiroshi Funasaka's Falling Blossoms, from Palau
Carlos Eire's Waiting for Snow in Havana, from Cuba.
Rabindranath Tagore's Selected Short Stories, from Bangladesh.
Devastating, romantic and yet still relevant in their human folly, in their contrast of modernity and tradition, a hundred years after they were written.
Runners-up:
Dany Laferrière's Heading South, from Haiti
James A Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific, from Vanuatu.
H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, from
Another classic - eldritch, this time, with layers upon layers flowering as your read on.
Runners-up:
John le Carré's The Tailor of Panama, from
John Grisham's The Firm, from the Cayman Islands
BEST ROMANCE:
Henrique de Senna Fernandes's The Bewitching Braid, from Macau
Henrique de Senna Fernandes's The Bewitching Braid, from Macau
An unexpected win from one of the least
country-like entrants on this list!
Runners-up:
Nozipo Maraire's Zenzele: ALetter For My Daughter, from Zimbabwe
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows's The GuernseyLiterary and Potato Peel Pie Society, from Guernsey.
Luis Rafael Sánchez's Macho Camacho's Beat from Puerto Rico.
This category is controversial, as I'm sure is my choice - look who's a runner-up! But I need to set aside a space for works which do weird mind-bending stuff with language and plot which I dig but I know isn't for everyone. (Macho Camacho's Beat is actually a comparatively tame and accessible example.)
Runners-up:
James Joyce's Ulysses, from Ireland
Ayu Utami's Saman, from Indonesia
And here's the big one...
BEST LITERARY NOVEL:
Kyung-Sook Shin's Please Look After Mom from South Korea OR Ngũgĩ wa'Thiongo's Devil on the Cross from Kenya.
Okay - this was a tough one, and I've no idea if I've made the right choice. There were just so many great novels I read on this journey that I can't name just one as my top choice. But these two - a tender, human introspection on the cost of economic development and a crazed hallucinatory fable about corruption - currently make the top of my list.
Runners-up:
Janet Frame’s Owls Do Cry from New Zealand
Maryse Condé's Who Slashed Celanire's Throat? from Guadeloupe
Laura Restrepo’s Delirium from Colombia
Mia Couto's The Last Flight of the Flamingo from Mozambique
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man from the United States
Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin from Canada
There are of course loads of books which I didn't mention here that I also really enjoyed reading. List is highly subject to change. :D
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