By: Jacob Mercer
Once on a flight from Seoul to Honolulu, I sat next to a young couple who opened matching blue backpacks and pulled out matching editions of The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings. It was one of those “Now in Theaters” book jackets, same as the movie poster: George Clooney sitting at a bar, looking over his shoulder at his kids on the beach with this melancholy, indie-film kind of expression. “How’s the book?” I asked.
The man made a face. “Bad,” he said.
“But we love George Clooney,” the woman said.
“Did you see the movie?” I asked.
“We’re reading the book first.”
“Did you know the book was set in Hawaii?” I asked.
“Of course,” the man said. “We always read books about the place we’re traveling to.”
“Me too!” I said, taking out my copy of Hotel Honolulu—and then we all gave each other high-fives. (Or maybe we didn’t, but that’s how I like to remember it.)
I really do try to read books about where I’m going, especially if I’m traveling abroad, and ideally if the author is from that country. Since I’m guaranteed to bring a book on the plane with me anyhow, why not something that will deepen my understanding about my destination? Nonfiction is fine. Travel guides are good. But I’ve been a big fan of fiction for as long as I can remember—and really, while it’s great to know the basic facts (exchange rates, cultural norms, historical overviews, where to find lifejackets on a ferry in Indonesia), if you seriously want to dig in, to get to the heart and soul of a country—that inexorable, human-condition kind of stuff—you read one of its great pieces of literature.
Here are some recommendations for your future trips or if you need some new books for the start of year two of COVID physical distancing:
- Argentina – Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges & The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato
- Australia – The Secret River by Kate Greenville
- China – To Live by Hua Yu
- Colombia – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Czech Republic – The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
- Dominican Republic – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
- Egypt – Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
- England – The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro & White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- France – The Stranger by Albert Campus & A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemmingway (from an American expat perspective
- Germany The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
- India – The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Iran – Reading Lolita in Tehran (actually, this is nonfiction) by Azar Nafisi
- Ireland – Dubliners by James Joyce
- Japan – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
- Mexico – Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo
- Nigeria – Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adice & Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- Russia – The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- South Korea – Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook
- Spain – The Garden Next Door by Jose Donoso
- Trinidad – A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
About the Author: Jacob is the Assistant Director of International Student and Scholar Services at St. Cloud State University. He studied abroad to Germany and taught English in both South Korea and Indonesia.
