Books By/About Women From Around The World
Books in translation, memoirs & biographies, travel, history & non-fiction from every country in the world.
Exploring and learning about our world and reading books are my two passions. What is more, they complement each other perfectly. Reading is one of the best ways to learn about distant places, and traveling inevitably unlocks curiosities that lead to further desires to deepen knowledge. While we may not physically travel to three or four countries a month, we can mentally by what we choose to read.
For the past few years, I have been intentional about reading only books written by women or non-binary individuals (99.9% of the time). This has meant that my reading life has the time and space to be opened up to so many incredible books by women from all corners of the globe.
Books in translation, memoirs and biographies, travel and food writing, non-fiction, social sciences, and history…there is much to be explored.
To make it easier for you to find your next read (and for me to keep track of what I am reading and where I need to diversify), I have put together this list, organized by continent, and then by country.
This list will only include books I highly recommend—translated novels that entranced me, nonfiction that educated me, and memoirs and biographies that introduced me to the lives of brilliant women.
Any books that are about a region will be listed under the continent header and before the countries.
As part of my Country Bulletin series (which provides a woman-focused cultural snapshot of each country in the world, moving in alphabetical order), I am reading a book written by a woman from (or related to) each country. Books read for this series are marked with an *.
I will update the list each month to go along with my Monthly Books post (available for paid subscribers).
The goal is to read a combination of translated novels, non-fiction, and memoirs/biographies from as many countries as possible!!
Granted, not all books easily fit into categorization like this, but I will try my best by considering the author's nationality and heritage, the setting of a novel, and the topics and research in a nonfiction book.
Please feel free to give me any recommendations for books that should be next on my list!
Algeria
*Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar, Dorothy S. Blair (Translator) (novel)
Angola
*Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen by Linda M. Haywood (biography)
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
DR Congo
Cote d’Ivoire
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste (novel)
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (novel)
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Republic of the Congo
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Sudan
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East by Rebecca Lowe (travel)
Afghanistan
*My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women (anthology)
Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul by Taran N. Khan (travel)
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China
Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang (non-fiction)
China - Hong Kong
Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong by Louisa Lim (non-fiction)
Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa, Jennifer Feeley (Translator) (novel)
Georgia
India
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (novel)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (novel)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (non-fiction)
Indonesia
Iran
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (memoir)
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, Adrien Kijek (Translator) (novel)
Iraq
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (novel)
The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad (memoir)
Israel
Japan
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (Translator) (novel)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator) (novel)
Jordan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan (novel)
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
North Korea
Oman
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, Marilyn Booth (Translator) (novel)
Pakistan
Palestine
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, Elisabeth Jaquette (Translator) (novel)
My First and Only Love by Sahar Khalifeh, Aida Bamia (Translator) (novel)
Philippines
Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista (memoir)
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Korea
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (novel)
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, Deborah Smith (Translator) (novel)
8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee (novel)
Sri Lanka
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (memoir)
Yemen
Albania
*Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi (memoir)
Andorra
*Andorra Revealed: An Anthology (travel)
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, Ros Schwartz (Translator) (novel)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (novel)
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux, Alison L. Strayer (Translator) (memoir)
Happening by Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie (Translator) (memoir)
The Lover by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray (Translator) (novel)
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé, Richard Philcox (Translator) (Guadeloupe, a French overseas region) (novel)
The Postcard by Anne Berest, Tina Kover (Translator) (novel)
Georgia
Germany
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, Michael Hofmann (Translator) (novel)
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, Susan Bernofsky (Translator) (novel)
The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun, Kathie Von Ankum (Translator) (novel)
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City by Anonymous, Philip Boehm (Translator) (memoir)
Greece
Hungary
The Illiterate by Ágota Kristóf, Nina Bogin (Translator) (novel)
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Arturo’s Island by Elsa Morante, Ann Goldstein (Translator) (novel)
The Neopolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, Ann Goldstein (Translator) (novel)
Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo, Leah Janeczko (Translator) (novel)
Kazakhstan
Kosovo
Latvia
Lichtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Montenegro
Netherlands
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Michele Hutchison (Translator) (novel)
North Macedonia
Norway
Poland
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator) (novel)
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Boulder by Eva Baltasar, Julia Sanches (Translator) (novel)
Sweden
The Details by Ia Genberg, Kira Josefsson (Translator) (novel)
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva (novel)
United Kingdom
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (novel)
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (Northern Ireland) (novel)
The Bluestockings: A History of the First Women's Movement by Susannah Gibson (history)
The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing (memoir/cultural history)
A Bookshop of One’s Own: How a group of women set out to change the world by Jane Cholmeley (memoir/cultural history)
Vatican City
Antigua and Barbuda
Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid (novel)
*A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (novel)
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid (novel)
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Canada
Hysteric by Nelly Arcan (memoir)
A Convergence of Solitudes by Anita Anand (novel)
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García (novel)
Dominica
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Grenada
Guatemala
I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchu, Ann Wright (Translator) (memoir)
Until I Find You: Disappeared Children and Coercive Adoptions in Guatemala by Rachel Nolan (non-fiction)
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
How To Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (memoir)
Mexico
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, Sophie Hughes (Translator) (novel)
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor, Sophie Hughes (Translator) (novel)
After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel, Rosalind Harvey (Translator) (novel)
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, Rosalind Harvey (Translator) (novel)
Nicaragua
Panama
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago
United States of America
Argentina
*Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, Frances Riddle (Translator) (novel)
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses (Translator) (novel)
Bolivia
Brazil
An Apprenticeship of The Book of Pleasures by Clarice Lispector, Stefan Tobler (Translator) (novel)
Chile
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende, Margaret Sayers Peden (Translator) (novel)
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, Magda Bogin (Translator) (novel)
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, Nick Caistor (Translator), Amanda Hopkinson (Translator) (novel)
Colombia
Ecuador
Cockfight by María Fernanda Ampuero, Frances Riddle (Translator) (short stories)
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Australia
Fiji
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Nauru
New Zealand
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Soloman Islands
Tongoa
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know what you think of the list and any books by women from around the world that you recommend!
Jennifer
xxx