Books you have that are virtually unknown internationally

[Kyriakos]

Do you have books which you like and consider to be great, but internationally they are almost unknown?

A good example of such a book i own is one which is very famous in Greece, but i think that outside of it probably is quite unknown.

It is "The murderess", a late 19th century novel, by Alexandros Papadiamantis (widely considered as the best greek novelist of recent aeons)

Here is a pic of its cover i found in english:



It is available through amazon.co.uk

 

[warpus]

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood



It's by the same author who wrote the Handmaid's Tale, and it's one of the best books I've ever read (Oryx & Crake is), but I don't think it's really that well known outside of Canada.

You'll find it in the "Canadiana" section in the bookstore here, but it really does belong in science fiction & fantasy. It's set in a post apocalyptic world, with flashbacks to a slightly-in-the-future orwellian future. Very very good, I highly recommend it. Lots of strange biological things go on in this book.

 

[Lillefix]

You'll find it in the "Canadiana" section in the bookstore here, but it really does belong in science fiction & fantasy. It's set in a post apocalyptic world, with flashbacks to a slightly-in-the-future orwellian future. Very very good, I highly recommend it. Lots of strange biological things go on in this book.

There are a lot sf-fans that are very annoyed with her. She claimed she didn't write science fiction(talking especially about this book), because science fiction, acccording to her, was about "talking squids in space".

http://www.talkingsquidsinouterspace.com/

I think she has come to her senses nowadays.

 

[Lord Baal]

There are a lot sf-fans that are very annoyed with her. She claimed she didn't write science fiction(talking especially about this book), because science fiction, acccording to her, was about "talking squids in space".

http://www.talkingsquidsinouterspace.com/

I think she has come to her senses nowadays.

How ridiculous. We all know Sci-Fi is in fact Alien Space Bats.

I doubt that The Silver Brumby books are known outside of Australia. They're decent teen fiction, especially for young girls with a thing for horses. I wouldn't qualify them as great, by any means.

 

[Fifty]

Do people in other countries read Cormac McCarthy?

Blood Meridian is one of the best novels ever published.

 

[Traitorfish]

Not quite sure if this counts, because it's not so much a novel as an illustrated traditional poem, but The Lambton Worm.

Spoiler :

Traditional folk song/poem from the Wearside area in North-East England. (Sung version.) Unknown outside of the North-East, although it's one of those songs that everyone in Wearside has to sing at school when they're a kid.

I doubt that The Silver Brumby books are known outside of Australia. They're decent teen fiction, especially for young girls with a thing for horses. I wouldn't qualify them as great, by any means.

My girlfriend read them when she was younger, actually. Mind, she fits into the "thing for horses" niche, so I'm not sure if that really means anything.

And on behalf of said girlfriend, I'll throw in the Para Handy, a collection of short stories about the crew of a 1920s Clyde puffer and the eponymous captain. Quite popular in Scotland, but not well known outside of it.

Spoiler :

 

[Mango Elephant]

The movie isn't like the book at all. The book is sooooo much better. Seriously, y'all have to read this, it's amazing.

 

[Lord Baal]

The movie isn't like the book at all. The book is sooooo much better. Seriously, y'all have to read this, it's amazing.

I'm pretty sure that book is, you know, very well known.

 

[Mango Elephant]

I'm pretty sure that book is, you know, very well known.

Opps, it is I've never known anyone besides me to ever read it, so I presumed only the movie was popular.

 

[Japanrocks12]

I don't think Oryx & Crake is unknown internationally. A sequel to it just came out titled The Year of the Flood, which a cursory internet search tells me is an international best-seller. And that novel doesn't stand alone very well, so a large percentage of people that have read it probably also read Oryx & Crake. I know a few of my friends have, and two of them are not especially well-read.

 

[warpus]

I don't think Oryx & Crake is unknown internationally. A sequel to it just came out titled The Year of the Flood, which a cursory internet search tells me is an international best-seller. And that novel doesn't stand alone very well, so a large percentage of people that have read it probably also read Oryx & Crake. I know a few of my friends have, and two of them are not especially well-read.

Well slap me silly and call me Hungarian.. I didn't think anyone outside of Canada knew about any of her novels except for the Handmaid's Tale.

Do Americans/Europeans know of Robert J Sawyer? He's the top Canadian pop sci-fi author these days - his novel "Flash Forward" was made into some sort of a tv show recently.. He's written a lot of good sci-fi

Here's my fav book of his: