25 books that inspired the world (1989–2014) | world literature today
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9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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NEWS AND EVENTS
Cast Your Vote! 25 Books ThatInspired the World (1989–2014)September 1, 2014 WLT
In conjunction with our November 2014 cover feature—which will focus on central European literature since thefall of the Berlin Wall—the editors of WLT invited 25writers to nominate one book that most influenced theirown writing or ways of seeing the world—from anywherein the world—and to add a brief statement explainingtheir choice. Now, it’s your turn to help us choose thebest of the best. Read through the longlist below, thenvote for your three favorites during our readers’ poll(September 1–21). The results will then be published inthe November issue.
Click Here to Vote
The Longlist
Vassilis AlexakisLes mots étrangers (2002; Eng. Foreign Words,tr. Alyson Waters, 2006)
Nominated by Gianni Skaragas: “I had just become oneof those sons who give up everything to care for sickfathers and fell into this novel of introspection.Language is the main character of a story about thesilence between words and the distances we travel toregain the ability to describe life—until the world isfilled with living speech again. A moving exploration ofloss and an intimate affirmation of why we use words tosurvive.”
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9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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AmbaiKattil oru man (2000; Eng. In a Forest, a Deer,tr. Lakshmi Holmstrom, 2006)
Nominated by Meena Alexander: “I would recommend acollection of short stories by Ambai, which is the nom deplume of the Tamil writer C. S. Lakshmi. In her sparelanguage, which could as well be the diction of poetry,Ambai enters into the often-hallucinatory nature of theeveryday in which the contemporary urban Indianwoman finds herself. This work delves into both historyand our strange amnesiac lives with elegance and wit.”
Jon Lee AndersonChe Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (1997)
Nominated by Maaza Mengiste: “Anderson’s carefullyresearched and superbly written biography of therevolutionary hero complicates the brand name that Chehas become. In this book, we meet a man both flawedand dogmatic, with such focused and unbending idealsthat they lead him to down paths that many of us willfind problematic. What does it mean to truly believe inrevolutionary ideals? What does it mean to live them?Everything about this book—its writing, its precisionand passion, its unflinching gaze on the real costs of arevolution—changed the way I think about the world
and my writing in it.”
Edwidge DanticatThe Farming of Bones (1998)
Nominated by Adnan Mahmutović: “Let me suggest The Farming of Bones, byEdwidge Danticat. Similar to my absolute favorite, Toni Morrison, Danticat finds aperfect form for the story she’s telling. It is again the raw energy of it that does notallow for Western ‘perfectionism,’ the messiness and perhaps even some naïveté inprecise poetic expression. It is the recognition that myths are a part of our modernhistories, or that our modern times are just as mythical as premodern times. It is theway the individual and the intimate are pitted against the grander historicalmovements that I find inspiring.”
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9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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Jeffrey EugenidesMiddlesex (2002)
Nominated by Elif Shafak: “It was so hard to pick justone book, but I’d love to nominate Middlesex, by JeffreyEugenides. It left an impact on me, this novel—when Ifirst read it, it was like opening a secret door. The storyof a hermaphrodite spoke to me, the epic tale of anindividual and the story of a family/culture/societyintertwined. It is a narrative that equally embraces sex,gender, culture, and perhaps offers a new form ofpolitics and resistance, all of them close to my heart.”
Ted HughesBirthday Letters (1998)
Nominated by Marina Carr: “I chose Ted Hughesbecause he is a consummate artist whom I have admiredfor decades. I chose Birthday Letters because they takemy breath away. The calm, collected gaze of them. Thelight in them. The love. The painful dissection of whathas been lost and how. The intense moments ofconnection and its opposite and throbbing under themall the realization that this script between them wasdecreed on high and they are merely the actors playingtheir separate parts. As Hughes says in another poem,“October Salmon”: “All this too is stitched into the torn
richness. / The epic poise. / Which holds him so steady in his wounds. / So loyal to hisdoom. / So patient in the machinery of heaven.”
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9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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Miljenko JergovićSarajevski Marlboro (1994; Eng. SarajevoMarlboro, tr. Stela Tomašević, 1997/2004)
Nominated by Aleš Debeljak: “Miljenko Jergović ispossibly the leading post-Yugoslav writer. His firstcollection of short stories attracted affirming attentionof local and international readership and won numerousawards, including the Erich Maria Remarque PeaceAward, Germany, and the International Award‘Literature from the Front’ (Italy). Jergović writes in an
appealing style that seamlessly weaves an eyewitness account into lyrical observationwithout neglecting a coherent narrative arch. His fiction is news that stays news.”
Andrey KurkovСмерτь посτороннеrо (1996; Eng. Death andthe Penguin, tr. George Bird, 2001)
Nominated by Etgar Keret: “The book I chose is Deathand the Penguin, by Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov. Ifound this incredible blend of humor, sorrow, existentialphilosophy, and political criticism of his local regime—all in one short novel—very inspiring. Kurkov’s uniquetone transcends the many genres the story overlaps andleft me not only with a great empathy for humanimperfection but also with a great love for penguins.”
Ian McEwanAtonement (2001)
Nominated by Andrew Lam: “I know it’s quite popular and was made into a movie thatwas nominated for an Oscar, but for me personally, Atonement demonstrated thepower of language, of storytelling, and of imagination on a level I hadn’t thought ofbefore: to atone. To turn guilt and sadness into aesthetic expression. One of theloveliest books I have read in the last decade.”
9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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Thích Nhat HanhBeing Peace (1987)
Nominated by Sandra Cisneros: “Thích Nhat Hanh’sBeing Peace has been a life-changing book. It came tome before the Bosnian War and helped me during thatdifficult time. I lived in Bosnia before the conflict, andthe war made me feel especially impotent. Thích NhatHanh and his writing helped me to find my voice as apolitical being and changed me in ways I am stilldiscovering as a writer, and as a daughter, lover, friend.Truthfully, Thích Nhat Hanh’s words have made me abetter person. I am deeply grateful to this teacher forshowing me the path to peace and transformation.”
Grace PaleyCollected Stories (1994)
Nominated by Demetria Martinez: “When I losedirection in my writing and activism, I turn to GracePaley’s Collected Stories, join her on a New York Citystoop, and listen to her tales of neighbors, such as Faith.On a Saturday afternoon at the park, Faith climbs a treeto get a greater perspective on the world, encounterssome war protesters, and has a revelation that leads to anew political commitment. Wrapped in wry humor andoptimism, Paley’s stories are a revelation.”
9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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Orhan PamukBenim adım Kırmızı (1998; Eng. My Name IsRed, tr. Erdağ M. Göknar, 2001)
Nominated by Krys Lee: “Orhan Pamuk is a writerobsessed with time and how culture moves throughhistorical time, and how Turkey negotiates tradition andmodernity, a modernity that in many of his novels isbetrayed to be a modernity synonymous with the West.The White Castle, an early work of his, makes thesethemes central to understanding a country that isgeographically and culturally at a crossroads of the Eastand West. This engagement with the crossroads ofculture and time is continued in his masterpiece, MyName Is Red. My Name Is Red is both artful, inventive
in form, and one of the most artful and intelligent works to examine the struggle of acountry and tradition, sometimes rejecting and accepting a Western version ofmodernity, with dramatic consequences. Through methods of Western realisticpainting that clash with a Chinese-influenced abstract tradition of classical truth insixteenth-century Istanbul, Pamuk examines Turkey’s historical and presentlycontinuing negotiation between two cultures. As a rare, astute examination of thestruggle of so many nations today caught between tradition and a modernity dictatedby the European and North American cultures, I believe it is one of the most importantbooks written in the past twenty-five years.”
Tom ReissThe Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal,and the Real Count of Monte Cristo (2012)
Nominated by Mukoma Wa Ngugi: “Alex Dumas, a sonof a black slave and white Frenchman, was made ageneral in the French revolutionary army and married awhite Frenchwoman without race being much of afactor. But his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, grewup in a virulently racist French society—a change thathad everything to do with the slave revolt that becamethe Haitian revolution. An exciting biography of Dumas,the book also shows how racism, economics, andresistance are related. And why terms like Eurocentric
hide bitter internal struggles within the European colonizing societies.”
Arundhati RoyThe God of Small Things (1997)
Nominated by Alda Sigmundsdóttir: “It is hard to say exactly what about The God ofSmall Things mesmerized me the first time I read it. Perhaps the language, which isboth original, inventive, and utterly, beautifully true. I was so wide open to it and todaysometimes see similar motifs in my own writing, which I believe I absorbed from thatbook. Also, the deep compassion Roy feels for her characters and the oppressed of hercountry, coupled with her elegantly expressed fury at the caste system and thehypocrisy of those who propagate it.”
9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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Carlos Ruiz ZafónLa Sombra del Viento (2001; Eng. The Shadowof the Wind, tr. Lucia Graves, 2004)
Nominated by Denise Chávez: “I have been deeplyimpacted by the Spanish writers and what they aredoing to create a world of dark magic and redemptionfrom that darkness. The book that has intrigued medeeply is The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.It is so inventive and so startling in its concept.”
Pavel SanaevPokhoronite Menia za Plintusom (2003; Eng.Bury Me behind the Baseboard, tr. KonstantinGurevich & Helen Anderson, 2014)
Nominated by Alina Bronsky: “I am nominating theshort novel Bury Me behind the Baseboard, by PavelSanaev (originally written in Russian). Anautobiographical story about family, love, madness,violence, and trauma—told from the view of an eight-year-old boy—that shook Russia to the core as asurprising portrait of a generation, unveiling themadness of family structures familiar to everybody.Touchingly naïve, tragic, and incredibly funny at the
same time.”
9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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José SaramagoEnsaio sobre a cegueira (1995; Eng. Blindness,tr. Giovanni Pontiero, 1998)
Nominated by Laila Lalami: “In Blindness, the people ofan unnamed city lose their sight one after another. Asthe epidemic spreads, social order breaks down andpeople commit acts of unspeakable horror as well asoccasional acts of kindness. Throughout the novel,Saramago makes readers see that, no matter whatsociety we live in, we remain constrained by our culturalperceptions and prejudices and rarely question the stateof the world around us.”
José SaramagoEnsaio sobre a cegueira (1995; Eng. Blindness,tr. Giovanni Pontiero, 1998)
Nominated by Mahmoud Saeed: “What I love aboutliterature in general and the novel in particular is thedegree of human consciousness involved. JoséSaramago’s novel Blindness talks about humanity’sstruggle with savagery, which is a very old struggle.People have passed laws to rein in evil for thousands ofyears; however, if we find ourselves in a place wherethere are no laws, we revert to being primitives andbeasts. The novel proposes no particular solution butrather leaves us to think about various personal,
individual solutions.”
Dieter SchulzEmerson and Thoreau, or, Steps beyond Ourselves: Studies inTranscendentalism (2012)
Nominated by Rudolfo Anaya: “This book is the best book I've read on Emerson, and itclarified so much in my own thinking about American culture. This is the book that hasbeen most inspiring to me in recent years.”
W. G. SebaldDie Ausgewanderten (1992; Eng. The
Emigrants, tr. Michael Hulse, 2002)
Nominated by Rabih Alameddine: “My favorite Sebald—well, for this week at least.Four stories about German emigrants, possibly exiles. Seemingly unconnected at first,they begin to gel into a harrowing look at the effects of the Holocaust, which is hardly,
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if ever, mentioned. Sebald refuses to soil grief withsentimentalism. The end result is devastating.”
Ahdaf SoueifThe Map of Love (1999)
Nominated by Leila Aboulela: “This richly nuancednovel is inspiring for its depiction of East-West, Muslim-Christian, cross-cultural relationships while at the sametime upholding a positive, affirmative position. Thenarrative moves back and forth from modern Cairo tothe start of the twentieth century where Lady Annashocks colonial society by marrying an Egyptian pasha.She moves into his ‘harem’ but, instead of a heart ofdarkness, finds elegance and intellectual fulfillment,love, and political engagement.”
Art SpiegelmanMaus: A Survivor’s Tale (1986–1991)
Nominated by Miriam Katin: “The stories of our survivalduring World War II, the fate of our family and the yearsafter the war, were always a constant running narrativein my mind through the years. They were an unwanted,uninvited presence. They begged to be told.Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus gave me thepermission to draw my stories. You could call itinspiration as well, but it ran much deeper than justbeing inspired. It started my life in books.”
9/1/14, 6:50 PMCast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired the World (1989–2014) | World Literature Today
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Sasa StanisicWie der Soldat das Grammofon repariert(2006; Eng. How the Soldier Repairs theGramophone, tr. Anthea Bell, 2008)
Nominated by Peter Sís: “Stanisic’s book takes place inYugoslavia at the time of its breakup. It is about a warbetween neighbors—Bosnians, Serbs, Croats—frustratedby totalitarian coexistence that explodes with crueltyand savagery in incomprehensible ethnic cleansing. Inthis book, you see the corpses. Yet most of all, it is abouta little boy who survives because of his language andimagination. It is about a hope for the future, at least alittle bit.”
Zoë WicombDavid’s Story (2000)
Nominated by Gabeba Baderoon: “This superbly writtennovel is a nonnationalist text written at the height ofpost-apartheid South African national politicalsentiment, observing no polite loyalties that eraseawkward truths about the conduct of just struggles.Moreover, it is a feminist account of the anti-apartheidstruggle, which means it can be searingly direct aboutthe sexual violence that marked both sides of the fightfor justice. It prefigured and modeled a necessarypractice of freedom: how to ask difficult questions about
those narratives that have a tight hold on our loyalties. David’s Story is a courageousand brilliant book that appeared at an angle to the political sentiment of its time, inother words, at exactly the right time.”
Charles WrightAppalachia (1998)
Nominated by Mark Tredinnick: “When I was feeling my way in the dark out of prose,along the rope bridge of lyric, Charles Wright’s poetry came to hand, and thatmigratory bird, my poetic voice, sensed in the habitat of Wright’s quintrains andsestets, in his elegant and astringent devotionals, the strains of a home I'd fledged andflown from once. His easygoing lyricism makes landscape and language holy again, andeach moment of the trouble we all find ourselves in as beautiful as a horse at a creek atdusk. I found Appalachia in Oregon, as I was about to fly home to Australia, and what
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I read felt like the work of the master to whom mypoetry ought to be apprenticed.”
Cast Your Vote! 25 Books That Inspired theWorld (1989–2014)
Cast your vote for the top three books that youthink should make the shortlist. We will publishthe shortlist in the November 2014 issue ofWorld Literature Today.
You may select up to three books tonominate for the shortlist, and rank them infirst, second, and third place.
Only a first place nomination is required if youonly wish to nominate one book.
FIRST PLACE *
SECOND PLACE
THIRD PLACE
Full Name *
First Name Last Name
E-mail * ex: [email protected]
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