Argentina has a fascinating economy. It was once one of the richest countries on earth, and now, it’s not. The current GPD per capita is $26,500, putting it at 88th globally. The country was caught flat-footed in the early 1900s when it lost its advantage exporting food to Europe. Rather than investing the surplus gained… [Read More]
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Hungary: Flesh
A friend loaned me this Booker Prize-winning novel, so I decided to make it my pick for Hungary. Flesh, by David Szalay is a novel about a Hungarian man, István, who mostly drifts through life. Especially in the early sections of the book, I thought I was reading about Pete Davidson’s Chad character on Saturday… [Read More]
Switzerland: The Inspector Barlach Mysteries
For the nation of Switzerland, I read The Inspector Barlach Mysteries, a collection of strange detective stories by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, a Swiss writer mostly known for his plays. He wrote a few detective stories, and two of them are in this collection. These stories subvert the genre’s conventions and are as much about 1945 Munich… [Read More]
Belarus: The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko
My around-the-world reading project got stuck in the Bs because there just aren’t a lot of books on Belarus. One of my attempts turned out to be about Poland. The problem, it seems, is that Belarus doesn’t have a big enough literary culture to produce books that are translated to English, and the few that… [Read More]
Tanzania: Rosa Mistika
A classic of modern Swahili literature, Rosa Mistika is now available in English. First published in 1971, it’s the story of a teenage girl whose parents and boarding school teachers try to keep her away from boys, and of course she circumvents all efforts to control her. It’s also an allegory for the young nation… [Read More]
