Question of the Week
Question of the Week #33: Go International
In honor of Bastille Day (July 14), which sparked the French Revolution, and our Big Read author Jhumpa Lahiri's birthday (July 11), this week we're thinking globally. Who is your favorite international author? Why?
Replies (15)
Posted by
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Alexandra Fuller. She wrote "Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight" and "Scribbling the Cat" about her life growing up in Africa. Warm, engaging and engrossing, her books give an in-depth look of life as a white girl growing up in southern African countries.
Jul 13, 2009 11:37 am
by Sunlady120 -
Colette--for her sensuous, earthy love of life and her humor.
Jul 13, 2009 11:48 am
by cymonie1 -
Carlos Ruiz Zafon. LOVED The Shadow of the Wind!
Jul 13, 2009 12:15 pm
by Purpyl -
In Search of Lost Time a.k.a. Remembrance of Things Past by Proust. It's in a category all its own.
Jul 13, 2009 12:43 pm
by smkelly531 -
Victor Hugo. Les Miserables made me the reader that I am.
Jul 13, 2009 1:12 pm
by eleftarea -
In honor of Bastille Day, I must choose a French writer! Balzac! His characters and stories are touching/interesting/sad/wonderful!
Jul 13, 2009 2:11 pm
by emilyyoung -
Douglas Adams.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is just awesome.
by evilbunnys -
Paulo Coelho, all his books are very inspirational
Jul 21, 2009 10:52 am
by Johanna_Dark -
Jose Saramago. An intriguing blend of original form and inspired (but worldly) message. Raises deep questions about how we deal with each other.
Jul 22, 2009 2:05 pm
by christe -
Alistair MacLeod, a Canadian writer. (Hope that counts as international!) He has one novel, No Great Mischief, and a collection of short stories called Island. I've liked everything of his that I've read. He has a very perceptive and humane outlook on human nature, and there's a wonderful sense of place in his writing, which is mostly set in his native Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Jul 24, 2009 1:53 am
by North23 -
So many to choose from; Eça De Queiroz for The Maias, I loved Maupassant's short stories but my all time favourite has to be One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for its sheer scale and beauty.
Jul 24, 2009 4:40 am
by Jamesbeston -
Alexander McCall Smith, he's a British writer of the "44 Scotland Street" series and "#1 Ladies' Detective Agency" mysteries; one of my favorite writers ever! Kazuo Ishiguro's very moving and emotional "Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go". There are just way too many to choose.
Jul 27, 2009 11:25 am
by amoebaghost19 -
Alexandre Dumas. I love his writing.
by saturntv -
A close call between Elie Wiesel, another survivor of both Auschwitz and Buchenwald who won the Nobel Prize in 1986 for his unforgettable work, Night, or Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Один день Ивана Денисовича Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha ...but in the end I'd have to pick Elie Wiesel.
Aug 25, 2009 5:38 am
by elliott57 -
Colette is, as, will always be my most beloved author. When a child in French primary school, I was required to learn to take "dictee"--dictation--of portions of her work. I think her stories are fascinating and her language style is precise, yet elaborate, curling like a trailing vine around a dormer window....
Aug 26, 2009 4:07 pm
by BookMuncher