Mariama Ba - So Long a Letter (Senegal)

Overall rating (out of 5) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Grimness rating (out of 5): ☠

NSFW rating (out of 5): 💢

Genre: letter, romance, slice of life

One of the best finds from last year is So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba (Senegal). It is an amazing account of being a woman in 1970s or 1980s Senegal, although could be relevant to people anywhere. But beyond that, I found that many books from the world focus on rather upsetting issues like war, genocide, famines, colonialism, etc. Very important topics for sure but sometimes hard to read. While this book was rather uplifting and focussed more on a normal human life in normal circumstances (even if with some drama).

* SPOILERS AHEAD *

The book is written in a form of a letter to a friend, explaining recent events in the protagonist's life. That includes family and romantic relationships, husband leaving her for a decades younger woman, dealing with the public fallout due to this situation and the subsequent husband's death.

Photo by
Francesca Noemi Marconi on Unsplash

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Over 400 reading recommendations from around the world

A short while ago I decided to post this project on Reddit and see if anyone can recommend additional books from their countries. The amount and quality responses completely shocked me - in a good way! I have got over 400 book recommendations from all over the world, often less known literature or just the books from the countries I haven't covered yet. I am sharing this list here both for myself and for anyone else to search easily for their next read. While these books cover about a 100 countries, there still are many gaps, mainly for the smaller nations in Africa, Oceania, and the "-stan" countries (eg Kazakhstan, Tajikistan) where I don't have a plan for reading. I'd love to hear any suggestions for any places whether included here or not. In any case I will be adding additional lists based on my own research for most of the countries of the world as soon as I get to reading them. Without further ado, here's the recommendatio

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