In Jules Verne’s adventure novel Around the World in Eighty Days, the main character and his valet accept a bet from friends to circumnavigate the world. Besides the time devoted to the endeavor, it was quite expensive. Travel has much improved since the novel was published in 1872 but most of us don’t have the time or money to take on such a trip. (Alas!)
Luckily for us, there’s an easier, more affordable way to experience and learn about the world at large: literary tourism. Books take us on the grandest of adventures while we stay cozied up at home (or commute to work). You can go from Japan to Antarctica and back in no time flat!
Is there a country that’s long been on your travel wish list? Or perhaps a place you visited years ago and want to rediscover? Maybe you have an upcoming trip and you’d like to read about your destination in advance. Whatever your interest, there’s a book for you.
We’ve gathered an assortment of novels set around the globe for our new book list but we’ve only scratched the surface. We’d love to hear about your favorite books set around the world in the comments. Don’t miss this month’s selection in the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club: Hala Alyan will join us on October 27 to discuss The Arsonists’ City and we’d love to see you there.
Novels that will take you around the world
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The Luminaries
The Chestnut Man
Next Year in Havana
The Boat People
Cutting for Stone
Strange Weather in Tokyo
The Fishermen
Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians Trilogy Book 1)
Faithful Place
Clap When You Land
My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels Book 1)
The Yield
The Arsonists’ City
A Gentleman in Moscow
No Land to Light On
The Shadow of the Wind
Dom Casmurro
All the Light We Cannot See
The Historian
Have you read any of these titles? What’s one of your favorite books set in a different country? Please tell us all about your favorites in the comments section!
P.S. 20 books to take you around the world, 20 travel memoirs to take you around the world (from the comfort of your couch), and our whole literary tourism series.
45 comments
This is an amazing selection of books! Cutting for Stone and All the Light We Cannot See are two of my all-time favorites, and I have a copy of The Luminaries calling to me (rather loudly) from my TBR shelf. Did anyone see the miniseries of the Luminaries? If so, I’d love to know what you thought. I have not and wonder if I should read the book first before watching it.
The Yield, No Land to Light On, and The Arsonist’s City look fascinating to me. I’m going to have shoulder surgery in a couple of weeks, so will have some time off, and hopefully that will give me some additional reading time.
Happy Reading!
SO many of my favorites on this list–Gentleman in Moscow, All the Light We Cannot See, Shadow of the Wind, Clap When You Land.
I’m traveling to Japan this summer, so I’m adding Strange Weather in Tokyo to my TBR.
Another Japanese novel that I highly recommend is Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. It is set in Japan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It’s a coming of age story, a love story, and so much more. It’s one of my all time favourites.
Hope you enjoy your trip to Japan as much as I did. I would recommend Ghosts of the Tsunami by Lloyd Perry and A Beginner’s Guide to Japan by Iyer. I have read so many wonderful books about that country. U
I can’t wait to dive into these books! Another that transports me to a quaint town in Europe is the Midnight Ladies Swimming Club by Faith Hogan. When I need a cozy feeling book that features darling friends in the loveliest setting in Ireland. I turn to this book again and again when I want to take myself to Ireland and when I’m seeking inspiration for aging with curiosity . I just wish I could find more books that give me this same feeling of falling in love with a town!
I am adding Midnight Ladies Swimming Club to my TBR right away! A lovely written recommendation and it sounds wonderful.
That was a great book. I enjoyed it so much!
That sounds delightful!
Ashley, that interests me. Could you give a PG, PG-13, R rating or let me know about language and closed door/open door scenes. Thank you!
I was able to get this book on kindle for just 99 cents today… Yippee!
I’ve read a few of these and have a few on my TBR (one is sitting on my shelf here at home) and am currently in the middle of The Arsonists’ City. I may need to add a couple more! Another one I’d recommend is One Italian Summer – I read it shortly after my first trip to Italy and it took me right back to the Amalfi Coast.
The Beartown trilogy by Fredrik Backman, set in Sweden. Really, I’d recommend all of his books, but this trilogy is particularly noteworthy. Also from Sweden is the Mellinnium series (Stieg Larsson), and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.
From England, The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce. She also wrote The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, which is an outstanding pair.
Finally, Soy Sauce for Beginners (Kirsten Chen, Singapore), Three Daughters (Consuelo Saah Baehr, Palestine), A Long Petel of the Sea (Isabel Allende, Spain/Chile), and Khaled Hosseini’s books.(Afghanistan).
I will echo anything by Fredrik Backman- but especially his Beartown trilogy. Backman makes you feel that you are in Sweden and understanding the idiosyncrasies between the 2 towns and then the 2 towns and the city. In my humble opinion he is also one of the greatest character writers. His characters are so well rounded and multi-facted. I have yet to read one of his books and not experience a gamut of emotions, the strongest being how much I wish the story wasn’t over when I come to the end. This is a great time to get into the Beartown trilogy as his 3rd and final book was just recently released in the US.
I have read many of these – Cutting for Stone, My Brilliant Friend, A Gentleman in Moscow, the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, All the Light We Cannot See, and The Historian, and I would add for armchair travel “The Night Tiger” and Connie Willis’s “Black Out” and All Clear.”
Go straight to Italy with Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes. It’s a light, fun read about women of a certain age who take on new adventures in a new country. For non-fiction travel, pick up Tsh Oxenreider’s At Home in the World. She has literally traveled the world with her family & this is her story.
From my own shelf, Honolulu & Moloka’i by Alan Brennert are on my TBR when I need a quick trip to Hawaii. I have, however, immediately ordered Anne’s suggestion, The Chestnut Man, for some spooky Halloween reading. Thanks, Anne!
We LOVED At Home in the World by Tsh! We listened to the audiobook, narrated by her, during a family road trip a few summers ago. Our daughter still comments on memories she has from the book. Excellent recommendation. Just jotted down Women in Sunlight for my TBR.
Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island continues to be a favorite and never fails to make me laugh.
The Queen of the South, for Mexico and Spain, by Arturo Perez-Reverte.
YES! This one is outstanding!
The Shadow of the Wind is part of a series that should not be missed. The whole thing is fantastic from beginning to end.
I also really loved The Kite Runner and Sparks Like Stars both of which take place in Afghanistan.
And finally my book club read American Dirt (set in Mexico) and while I didn’t love the writing I did find the story thought provoking.
American Dirt is a fantastic story! Great suggestion!
Our book club read Next Year in Havana and All The Light You Cannot See and really enjoyed both. Visit the Galápagos Islands in Wish You We’re Here by Jodi Picoult. You will think you lived there!
Cutting for Stone and Gentleman in Moscow are masterpieces. Crazy Rich Asians is a very fun read and from friends who have lived in Singapore, pretty close to the truth. A friend’s anecdote about all the children at a birthday party receiving iPads as party parting gifts. !!!
That said, otherwise this ‘travel around the world’ list is awfully depressing – lots of murders, mental instability, and general darkness. When I read to travel the world, I’d rather have at least a smidge of positivity in the place!
I’ve only read a couple of these and some others were on my TBR and I’ve added a few more. Some favourites I would add:
-the In-Between World of Vikram Lal by MG Vassanji (Kenya, 1950s)
-Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Japan, 1960s)
-Such a Lonely, Lovely Road by Kagiso Lesego Molope (post-Apartheid South Africa)
-Brother by David Chariandy (Scarborough, Canada, 1990s)
-The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine (Lesbos, contemporary)
-Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai (Sri Lanka, 1980s)
-Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Ghana and US, 18th-21st Centuries)
-Last Night at the Telegraph Club (1950s San Francisco)
Oops Last Night at the Telegraph Club is by Malinda Lo
Homegoing is one of my very favorites!
in Gentleman in Moscow the count’s name is misspelled. Rostov is an old family lineage in Russian Aristocracy and I believe he would have been upset to see his name written otherwise
The Mountains Sing by Que Mai Phan Nguyen is a remarkable novel about Vietnam and the power of family. It is told from two perspectives: a grandmother and granddaughter. The author is a renowned Vietnamese poet and this is her first novel. She wrote it in English! I read it prior to a first trip to Vietnam and could not put it down. It is amazing that this is the author’s first novel AND that English is not her first language. Definitely worth the read.
I agree completely. This book is absolutely captivating. I’ve read it twice, and will probably read it again in the future.
I love “Cutting for Stone” so much. Also one of my favorite books ever! It’s hard to explain why it’s one of my favorites, other than it’s excellent and so moving.
I love this list; I have read 10 of them and added a few to my TBR. We are traveling to Charleston after Thanksgiving. We will get to tour this historic city set up for the holidays. Any books set in Charleston I should read?
The Invention of Wings by Kidd and Grace Will Lead Us Home by Hawks. Two very different books
Oh Thank you for this! I appreciate your help. Getting them both!
Anything by Pat Conroy, but I particularly enjoyed Beach Music and The Water is Wide. Or for a lighter touch, my mother enjoys anything by Dorothea Benton Frank.
Miss Benson’s Beetle is another fun book by Rachel Joyce. It begins in England, but most of the action takes place across the Pacific in New Caledonia. Loved it!
Shadow of the Wind is one my all-time favorite books. The entire series is captivating. I also loved The Historian. Can’t wait to read The Arsonist’s City and The Boat People. Another reader mentioned American Dirt. Outside of Freedom by Johnathan Franzen, this may be my favorite book ever. It sticks with you a long time. I honestly cannot look at a Mexican immigrant without thinking of that story.
For a trip to Ireland I would highly recommend Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s books. Her Finfarran series has the feel good stories that are cozy for this time of year and they contain such vivid descriptions that I feel that I’m back in Ireland. I picked up her book The Library at the Edge of the World when I was in Ireland in 2016 as it was on all the staff recommendation shelves in the bookstores we visited. I immediately fell in love with her writing. She also several two non-fiction books. Two that I have reread multiple times chronicle her move to the Dingle peninsula (my favorite spot in Ireland). Every time I am wishing that I lived there I pick one of these treasures up and am whisked back to the west coast of Ireland.
I just read The Hacienda for a book club by Isabel Cañas . It is great for spooky season as it is very much a gothic / haunted house story but it is set in Mexico in the 1800s after the War for Independence and Mexico at that time is very much a character in this story . I couldn’t put it down.
Casting Off by Nicole R Dickson (audiobook) – set in Ireland- have listened to it several times – it’s one of my favorites
The Number One Ladies Detective series set in Botswana by Alexander McCall Smith- delightful series – always looking forward to the next installment
Detective Agency series!!!!
I loved that book sooo much. One of the few I’ve reread. I wish she had more books.
I loved that book so much! One of the few I’ve read more than once.
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, set in India, will amaze and break your heart.
Someone asked about The Luminaries TV drama. I was disappointed, it was confusing and hard to follow. I did finish the book, all 800+ pages.
The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk is a loving portrayal of Istanbul. Love’s yearnings and cultural memory are beautifully intertwined. Has made me want to visit Istanbul. And this novel has also spun off a museum for real – a collection of all the loved objects in the novel as artefacts!
Faithful Place is my very favorite of the Dublin Murder Squad books. It gave me a book hangover!
Four Seasons in Rome was such a great insight to the city, I can’t wait to go back and see all he saw! Also I Will Always Write You Back should be required reading for high school. It’s an amazing true story of pen pals and the life of the child in Africa is eye opening. It is one book I will never forget. I read it in a day