It’s sometimes interesting to get a different perspective on the world. Here are some books set in some far-flung places – and some places close to home – grouped by continent/large body of water with islands in it. The books on this list are written by authors from the countries they are about, and in many cases have been translated into English from their mother tongues (the book we’ve chosen for Madagascar, Return to the enchanted island by Johary Ravaloson, is only the second book to have ever been translated from Malagasy into English!).

Not all of the books are in the Young Adult collection, but we’ve tried to make sure that they all at least feature kids or teens in prominent places in the story. Our eventual goal is to have at least one book for every country in the world! Help us out by sending in recommendations if you’ve found one we’ve missed!

Last updated: November 2022

Africa

• An unfinished business / Sansal Boualem, Algeria (2010)
• Angola Janga : kingdom of runaway slaves / Marcelo D’Salete, Angola (2019)
• Saudade / Suneeta Peres da Costa, Angola (2018)
• Say you’re one of them / Uwem Akpan, Benin/Ethiopia/Gabon/Kenya/Nigeria/Rwanda (2008)
• Twenty chickens for a saddle / Robyn Scott, Botswana (2008)
• Petit pays / Gaël Faye, Burundi (2016)
• The last will and testament of Señor da Silva / Germano Almeida, Cabo Verde (2004)
• Behold the dreamers / Imbolo Mbue, Cameroon (2016)
• A house without windows / Didier Kassaï, Central African Republic (2020)
• The African equation / Yasmina Khadra, Comoros (2015)
• Allah is not obliged / Ahmadou Kourouma, Côte d’Ivoire (2006)
• Aya (Life in Yop City) / Marguerite Abouet, Côte d’Ivoire (2008, 2012)
• City of saints and thieves / Natalie C. Anderson, Democratic Republic of the Congo (2017)
• The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk) (The Palace of Desire) (Sugar Street) / Najīb Mahfūz, Egypt (1990, 1991, 1992)
• Refugee boy / Benjamin Zephaniah, Eritrea (2017)
• When the ground is hard / Malla Nunn, Eswatini (2019)
• African tales : a Barefoot collection / Gcina Mhlophe, Eswatini/Ethiopia/Ghana/Lesotho/Malawi/Namibia/Senegal/Sudan (2009)
• The shadow king / Maaza Mengiste, Ethiopia (2019)
• Wolf light / Yaba Badoe, Ghana (2020)
• Dust / Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Kenya (2013)
• She would be king / Wayetu Moore, Liberia (2018)
• In the country of men / Hisham Matar, Libya (2006)
• Translating Libya: in search of the Libyan short story / Various, Libya (2015)
• Return to the enchanted island / Johary Ravaloson, Madagascar (2019)
• The boy who harnessed the wind / William Kamkwamba, Malawi (2009)
• The treasure of Timbuktu / Umm Nura, Mali (2015)
• Guantánamo diary / Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Mauritania (2015)
• The prospector / J.-M G. Le Clézio, Mauritius (1993)
• Horses of God / Mahi Binebine, Morocco (2013)
• Woman of the ashes / Mia Couto, Mozambique (2018)
• An orchestra of minorities / Chigozie Obioma, Nigeria/Cyprus (2019)
• Akata witch and Akata warrior / Nnedi Okorafor, Nigeria (2011, 2017)
• Oil on water / Habila Helon, Nigeria (2011)
• Things fall apart / Chinua Achebe, Nigeria (1992)
• Black Moses / Alain Mabanckou, Republic of the Congo (2017)
• Equator / Miguel Sousa Tavares, São Tomé and Príncipe (2008)
• A long way gone / Ishmael Beah, Sierra Leone (2007)
• Black mamba boy / Nadifa Mohamed, Somalia (2010)
• Spud (The madness continues) (Learning to fly) (Exit, pursued by a bear) / John van de Ruit, South Africa (2005, 2008, 2009, 2013)
• Journey to Jo’burg / Beverley Naidoo, South Africa (2008)
• Beneath the darkening sky / Majok Tulba, South Sudan (2012)
• Songs of a war boy / Deng Thiak Adut, South Sudan (2019)
• Home is not a country / Safia Elhillo, Sudan (2021)
• Lyrics alley / Leila Aboulela, Sudan (2010)
• Golden boy / Tara Sullivan, Tanzania (2013)
• After the spring / Helene Aldeguer, Tunisia (2019)
• The first woman / Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Uganda (2020)
• The old drift / Namwali Serpell, Zambia (2020)
• Now is the time for running / Michael Williams, Zimbabwe (2011)
• Diamond boy / Michael Williams, Zimbabwe (2014)

Asia

• In the sea there are crocodiles / Fabio Geda, Afghanistan/Italy (2010)
• The secret sky / Atia Abawi, Afghanistan (2014)
• The henna wars / Adiba Jaigirdar, Bangladesh (2020)
• The love and lies of Rukhsana Ali / Sabina Khan, Bangladesh (2019)
• Treasures of the thunder dragon / Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Bhutan (2006)
• First they killed my father / Loung Ung, Cambodia (2006)
• Year of the rabbit / Tian, Cambodia (2020)
• Aero / Zhou Liefen, China (2019)
• These violent delights / Chloe Gong, China/NZ (2020)
• Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress / Dai Siji, China (2001)
• Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society / Adeline Yen Mah, China (2004)
• Q & A / Vikas Swarup, India (2005)
• The night run / Bali Rai, India (2014)
• A time to dance / Padma Venkatraman, India (2014)
• Anita and me / Meera Syal, India (1996)
• Beauty is a wound / Eka Kurniawan, Indonesia (2015)
• The wandering / Intan Paramaditha, Indonesia (2020)
• The enlightenment of the greengage tree / Shokoofeh Azar, Iran (2020)
• Everything sad is untrue (a true story) / Daniel Nayeri, Iran (2020)
• Daughter of the Tigris / Muhsin Ramlī, Iraq (2019)
• Farm 54 / Galit Seliktar, Israel (2020)
• The housekeeper and the professor / Yōko Ogawa, Japan (2009)
• Wandering son / Takako Shimura, Japan (2011-2015)
• The forest of wool and steel / Natsu Miyashita, Japan (2019)
• Willow trees don’t weep / Fadia Faqir, Jordan (2014)
• The dead lake / Hamid Ismailov, Kazakhstan (2014)
• Mama Hissa’s mice / Sa’ūd San’ūsī, Kuwait (2019)
• Jamilia / Chingiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyzstan (1958)
• Yalo / Elias Khoury, Lebanon (2008)
• The night tiger / Yangsze Choo, Malaysia (2019)
• We, the survivors / Tash Aw, Malaysia (2019)
• Mongol / Uuganaa Ramsay, Mongolia (2014)
• From the Land of Green Ghosts / Pascal Khoo Thwe, Myanmar (2002)
• Every falling star / Sungju Lee, North Korea (2016)
• Without you, there is no us / Suki Kim, North Korea (2014)
• Celestial bodies / Jūkhah Ḥārithī, Oman (2018)
• Written in the stars / Aisha Saeed, Pakistan (2015)
• Silk tether / Minal Khan, Pakistan (2016)
• Ishmael’s Oranges / Claire Hajaj, Palestine (2014)
• Bone talk / Candy Gourlay, Philippines (2018)
• My heart underwater / Laurel Flores Fantauzzo, Philippines (2020)
• The girl who fell to Earth / Sophia Al-Maria, Qatar (2012)
• We hunt the flame and We free the stars / Hafsah Faizal, Saudi Arabia (2019, 2021)
• Lizard’s tale / Weng Wai Chan, Singapore/NZ (2020)
• The guest / Sok-yong Hwang, South Korea (2005)
• The girl who wrote loneliness / Kyong-sok Shin, South Korea (2015)
• Funny boy / Shyam Selvadurai, Sri Lanka (1996)
• In praise of hatred / Khalid Khalifa, Syria (2014)
• Bangkok wakes to rain / Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Thailand (2019)
• Funu: the unfinished saga of East Timor / José Ramos-Horta, Timor-Leste (1987)
• The new life / Orhan Pamuk, Turkey (1997)
• The time of mute swans / Ece Temelkuran, Turkey (2017)
• The sand fish / Maha Gargash, United Arab Emirates (2009)
• The railway / Hamid Ismailov, Uzbekistan (2007)
• The other shore / Hoa Pham, Vietnam (2014)
• Fish in exile / Vi Khi Nao, Vietnam (2016)
• I am Nujood, age 10 and divorced / Nujood Ali, Yemen (2010)

Europe

• The doll: a portrait of my mother / Ismail Kadare, Albania (2020)
• The structure is rotten, comrade / Viken Berberian, Armenia (2019)
• Emil and Karl / Jacob Glatstein, Austria (1938)
• A song for summer / Eva Ibbotson, Austria (2007)
• Days in the Caucasus / Banine, Azerbaijan (2019)
• Voices from Chernobyl / Svetlana Aleksievich, Belarus (2006)
• Pietr the Latvian / Georges Simenon, Belgium (1930)
• The cat I never named / Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2020)
• Stork mountain / Miroslav Penkov, Bulgaria (2016)
• The Walnut Mansion / Miljenko Jergović, Croatia (2015)
• This way back / Joanna Eleftheriou, Cyprus (2020)
• The Devil’s workshop / Jachym Topol, Czechia (2013)
• The Marco effect / Jussi Adler-Olsen, Denmark (2014)
• The boy who spoke Snakish / Andrus Kivirähk, Estonia (2016)
• Crossing / Pajtim Statovci, Finland (2019)
• The Count of Monte Cristo / Alexandre Dumas, France (1844)
• No and me / Delphine de Vignan, France (2010)
• The dark library / Cyrille Martinez, France (2020)
• Catherine’s war / Julia Billet, France (2020)
• Willa and Hesper / Amy Feltman, Georgia (2019)
• Silber (Dream a little dream) (Dream on) (Just dreaming) / Kerstin Gier, Germany (2015, 2016, 2017)
• The book jumper / Mechthild Gläser, Germany (2017)
• The last temptation / Nikos Kazantzakis, Greece (1975)
• I am fifteen and I don’t want to die / Christine Arnothy, Hungary (1956)
• Boy on the edge / Friðrik Erlingsson, Iceland (2014)
• Moonstone / Sjón, Iceland (2016)
• Bog child / Siobhan Dowd, Ireland (2008)
• The Grey Land (The call) (The invasion) / Peadar Ó Guilin, Ireland (2016, 2018)
• If this is a man / Primo Levi, Italy (1947)
• The path to the nest of spiders and Baron in the trees / Italo Calvino, Italy (1956, 1959)
• Golem / LRNZ, Italy (2016)
• What hell is not / Alessandro D’Avenia, Italy (2019)
• A Latvian Kiwi / Guntar John Elepans, Latvia/NZ (2004)
• Between shades of gray / Ruta Sepetys, Lithuania (2011)
• In the shadow of wolves / Alvydas Šlepikas, Lithuania (2019)
• Conversations with Stalin / Milovan Djilas, Montenegro (1962)
• Mister Orange / Truus Matti, Netherlands (2012)
• On the edge of gone / Corinne Duyvis, Netherlands (2016)
• Sophie’s world / Jostein Gaarder, Norway (1991)
• On the road to Babadag / Andrzej Stasiuk, Poland (2011)
• Flights / Olga Tokarczuk, Poland (2017)
• A curse of roses / Diana Pinguicha, Portugal (2020)
• The book of whispers / Varujan Vosganian, Romania (2017)
• Other Russias / Viktoria Lamasko, Russia (2017)
• Isolde / Irina Odoevtseva, Russia (2019)
• Gamayun Tales (I) (II) / Alexander Utkin, Russia (2020)
• Hidden camera / Zoran Živković, Serbia (2005)
• The best thing that can happen to a croissant / Pablo Tusset, Spain (2004)
• Books burn badly / Manuel Rivas, Spain (2010)
• The librarian of Auschwitz / Antonio Iturbe, Spain/Germany (2017)
• Heidi / Johanna Spyri, Switzerland (1880)
• Vita nostra / Marina Dyachenko, Ukraine (2018)

North and Central America

• Mr. Potter / Jamaica Kincaid, Antigua and Barbuda (2002)
• How the one-armed sister sweeps her house / Cherie Jones, Barbados (2021)
• Ru / Kim Thuy, Canada/Vietnam (2012)
• Straight punch / Monique Polak, Canada/Québec (2014)
• Loiterers / Simon Bossé, Canada/Québec (2014)
• The marrow thieves / Cherie Damaline, Canada/Métis (2017)
• Enchanted air: two cultures, two wings / Margarita Engle, Cuba/USA (2016)
• The art of white roses / Viviana Prado-Núñez, Cuba (2018)
• Dominicana / Angie Cruz, Dominican Republic (2019)
• The grief keeper / Alexandra Villasante, El Salvador (2019)
• Don’t ask me where I’m from / Jennifer De Leon, Guatemala/USA (2020)
• The field guide to the North American teenager / Ben Philippe, Haiti/Canada (2019)
• Sure, I’ll be your black friend / Ben Philippe, Haiti/Canada (2021)
• Small island / Andrea Levy, Jamaica/UK (2004)
• Here comes the sun / Nicole Dennis-Benn, Jamaica (2016)
• Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe / Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Mexico/USA (2012)
• Disappeared / Francisco X. Stork, Mexico (2017)
• Sia Martinez and the moonlit beginning of everything / Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, Mexico/USA (2020)
• The country under my skin / Gioconda Belli, Nicaragua (2002)
• The book of unknown Americans / Cristina Henríquez, Panama (2014)
• Prospero’s daughter / Elizabeth Nunez, Trinidad and Tobago (2006)
• The stars and the blackness between them / Junauda Petrus, Trinidad and Tobago/USA (2019)
• The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian / Sherman Alexie, USA/Spokane (2007)
• If I ever get out of here / Eric L. Gansworth, USA/Tuscarora (2013)
• Hearts unbroken / Cynthia Leitich Smith, USA/Muscogee (2018)

Oceania*

• Tomorrow, when the war began / John Marsden, Australia (1996)
• Bridge of Clay / Markus Zusak, Australia (2018)
• Catching Teller Crow / Ambelin Kwaymullina, Australia (2018)
• Nuanua / Various, Cook Islands/Fiji/Kiribati/Niue/Papua New Guinea/Samoa/Solomon Islands/Tonga/Vanuatu (1995)
• Miss Ulysses from Puka-Puka / Johnny Frisbie, Cook Islands (2016)
• The collected poems of Alistair Te Ariki Campbell / Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Cook Islands (2016)
• The sailmaker’s daughter / Stephanie Johnson, Fiji/NZ (1996)
• Enslaved in paradise / Pajendra Prasad, Fiji/India (2018)
• Consuming Ocean Island: stories of people and phosphate / Katerina Martina Teaiwa, Kiribati (2015)
• Indigenous literatures from Micronesia / Various, Micronesia/Marshall Islands (2019)
• Legends, traditions and tales of Nauru / Timothy Detudamo, Nauru (2008)
• Mr. Pip / Lloyd Jones, Papua New Guinea/NZ (2006)
• A true child of Papua New Guinea / Maggie Wilson, Papua New Guinea (2019)
• Where we once belonged / Sia Figiel, Samoa (1999)
• Telesā (series) / Lani Wendt Young, Samoa (2011-)
• Afakasi woman / Lani Wendt Young, Samoa (2019)
• The savage coloniser book / Tusiata Avia, Samoa (2020)
• Devil-devil / Graeme Kent, Solomon Islands (2011)
• Becoming Tongan / Helen Morton Lee, Tonga (1995)
• Sado / Mikaela Nyman, Vanuatu/NZ (2020)

*For books by and about New Zealanders, please see our Māori and New Zealand booklists.

South America

• All my goodbyes / Mariana Dimópulos, Argentina (2017)
• Furia / Yamile Saied Méndez, Argentina (2020)
• Love in English / Maria E. Andreu, Argentina/USA (2021)
• The fat man from La Paz / Rosario Santos, Bolivia (2000)
• Affections / Rodrigo Hasbún, Bolivia (2017)
• The shape of bones / Daniel Galera, Brazil (2006)
• Here the whole time / Vitor Martins, Brazil (2020)
• Where we go from here / Lucas Rocha, Brazil (2020)
• I lived on Butterfly Hill / Marjorie Agosín, Chile (2014)
• Space invaders / Nona Fernández, Chile (2019)
• The farm / Héctor Joaquín Abad Faciolince, Colombia (2018)
• Fruit of the drunken tree / Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Colombia (2018)
• The revolutionaries try again / Mauro Javier Cardenas, Ecuador (2016)
• Children of paradise / Fred D’Aguiar, Guyana (2014)
• Zama / Antonio di Benedetto, Paraguay/Argentina (1956)
• War by candlelight / Daniel Alarcón, Peru (2005)
• The invisible mountain / Carolina de Robertis, Uruguay (2009)
• It would be night in Caracas / Karina Sainz Borgo, Venezuela (2019)

We’re currently missing stories by authors from the following countries: Andorra, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belize, Brunei, Chad, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Laos, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Maldives, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Nepal, Niger, North Macedonia, Palau, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, San Marino, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Suriname, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Tuvalu.