I haven’t watched anything other than the Olympics over the last week. I don’t usually watch a lot of television, but the Winter Olympics are not a normal time. You can take your Summer Olympics- I have no real interest in them or any of the sports therein. But the Winter Olympics? Hockey? Long-track speed skating? Curling? I am so there, just don’t make me watch the skiing events.
The best part of the Olympics, as usual, is not the sports themselves, but the athletes, so young and hopeful, from so many different countries. And, as many of the athletes have noted over the last week, Canadians are very good at cheering on athletes that aren’t our own (unless you’re American – sorry about that). Our passion for the Dutch is all-encompassing, as always, we love the Germans, and the curling Scots are most beloved…the list goes on.
However, this puts me in the awkward position of wanting to read more about these nations. No title immediately comes to mind though, when I think of Austria. I can think of dozens for Germany or France, but none for the Ukraine. I want nothing more than to read about tall, orange-wearing Dutch people but, right now, the newspaper is the only source fulfilling that desire.
Can you recommend any favourite books (fiction or non-fiction) set in the following countries?
The Netherlands
Belgium
Austria
Czech Republic
Ukraine
Norway
Scotland
The Captive Reader 
Oh, Claire, what a challenge!
The Netherlands – perhaps the best Dutch novel ever?
The Darkroom of Damocles
http://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/the-dark-room-of-damocles-w-f-hermans/
Belgium – Pass
Austria – Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig or perhaps something more contemporary/disturbing, Paulus Hochgatter’s The Sweetness of Life? (I’ve still to read this last one.
http://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/2007/12/08/dying-fraulein-else-arthur-schnitzler/
http://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/tss-on-tss-2-burning-secret-stefan-zweig/
Czech Republic – Simon Mawer’s The Glass Room?
Ukraine – Pass
Norway – Jo Nesbo’s crime novels are superb!
Scotland – Where to start? Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street Series, Ian Rankin’s Rebus both of those in Edinburgh. Alex Gray has a gritty crime series set in Glasgow. Jonathan Falla’s Glenfarron is set in an amalgamous Scottish village (and I love it!) http://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/glenfarron-jonathan-falla/
The publisher, Two Ravens Press, also have a number of anthologies, both fictional and non-fictional, set in Scotland. Check out their catalogue at http://www.tworavenspress.com
How’d I do?
Amazing response! I love the 44 Scotland Street series but haven’t read any of your other recommendations – and how to resist something billed as “the best Dutch novel ever”? Thanks so much!
OK maybe I was using hyperbole when describing the Hermans. But I think it’s the best Dutch novel I’ve ever read!
I do so love themed reading, Claire, and reading around the Winter Olympics is as good a reason as any!
As for the suggestions, for The Netherlands all I can think of is The Diary of Anne Frank and I can’t think of anything at all for Austria or the Ukraine, so sorry I can’t help there.
However, as for the Czech Republic may I suggest Milan Kundera or Bohmumil Hrabal or, alternatively, the wonderful novel The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, which is set there. I haven’t read any Per Petterson, the Norwegian novelist, but I have heard good things about him so maybe one of his novels for Norway (Out Stealing Horses seems to be the most well-known)?
Being Scottish I can definitely help with books set there. Tere is the wonderful Persephone, Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson, which is evocative of the Romantic Scottish setting. I also recommend The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (set in Edinburgh); anything by Alasdair Gray or Alan Warner; The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil; The Tin-Kin by Eleanor Thom.
Hope those help!
Thanks for these! The only Kundera I’ve read is The Unbearable Lightness of Being and that was a few years ago – it’s probably time to try some more of his. Will definitely need to investigate The Glass Room, which has now been recommended twice but which I’ve never heard of! I loved The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (read during my own years at a girls’ school) and am looking forward to investigating your other Scottish picks.
Although I am a Dutchwoman I don’t read a lot of Dutch literature, because I think most if it is medioce, but there are a few gems, for instance:
* Beyond Sleep by W.F. Hermans, which is brilliant (personally I liked it even better than The Dark Room of Damocles); my review is here: http://annavangelderen.blogspot.com/1997… (one of the very few in English, the rest are in Dutch;
* In a Dark Wood Wandering by Hella S. Haasse, a meditative account of the life of the medieval nobleman Charles d’Orléans;
* The Hidden Force by Louis Couperus, a classic about 100 years old, set in the Dutch East Indies;
* The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi by Arthur Japin, based on the lives of two princes from Ghana who came to the Netherlands in the mid-nineteenth century;
* Rituals by Cees Nooteboom.
And from Belgium:
* Marcel by Erwin Mortier.
Thank you for these recommendations! All of these titles are new to me.