The Library will be closed on Sunday, March 31, 2024, in observance of Easter

Literary World Cup

Public Relations Office, Library Administration,
LAPL Logo and Literary World Cup Hashtag

During the past month, the world has turned its attention to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup. This quadrennial celebration of soccer/football/futbol/futebol/Fussball inspired us to hold a World Cup of our own. For each match, we presented a book from a writer representing each of the competing nations. We got to show off how your library has a wide variety of writers that literally span the globe. We found authors from far away places like Australia and Cameroon, and even places not quite as far away, like the USA and Mexico.

We know that books are just as popular, and probably even more popular, than soccer. We were happy to give everyone the exposure to the great writers of the world. (And we were even happier that two countries with great literary traditions in Germany and Argentina made the final!)  Now, you can check back on some of the authors we featured during the past 30 days. These books are just a small fraction of what you can find in your library.

So whether or not you wanted to say Los geht's Deutschland, kämpfen und siegen! or Vamos, vamos, Argentina! today, you cannot lose if you read any of the following great authors.


Literary World Cup Countries and Authors

Flag of AlgeriaAlgeria

Assia Djebar
Mohammed Dib
Yasmina Khadra
Rachid Mimouni

Greece

Nikos Kazantzakis
Sophocles
Stratis Myrivilis
Apostolos K. Doxiadēs

Argentina

Ernesto Sábato
Isol
Adolfo Bioy Casares
Manuel Puig
Julio Cortázar
Jorge Luis Borges
César Aira

Honduras

Ramón Amaya Amador
Roberto Sosa
Roberto Quesada

Australia

Patrick White
Hannah Kent
Markus Zusak

Iran

Mahbod Seraji
Roya Hakakian
Abolqasem Ferdowsi

Belgium

Maurice Maeterlinck
Hugo Claus
Hergé
Georges Simenon
Kitty Crowther

Italy

Dante Alighieri
Luigi Pirandello
Giorgio Bassani

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Aleksandar Hemon
Ivo Andric
Semezdin Mehmedinović

Ivory Coast

Marguerite Abouet
Ahmadou Kourouma
Bernard Dadié

Brazil

Paulo Coelho
Clarice Lispector
Manuel Antônio de Almeida
João Ubaldo Ribeiro
Jorge Amado
Machado de Assis
Ana María Machado

Japan

Banana Yoshimoto
Haruki Murakami
Yasunari Kawabata

Chile

Pablo Neruda
Nicanor Parra
Gabriela Mistral
Isabel Allende

Korea Republic

Kim Young-Ha
Kyung-sook Shin
Kang Sŏk-kyŏng

Cameroon

Patrice Nganang
Ferdinand Oyono
Mongo Beti

Mexico

Carlos Fuentes
Octavio Paz
Laura Esquivel
Juan Rulfo

Colombia

Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Laura Restrepo
Jorge Franco Ramos
Héctor Abad Faciolince

Netherlands

Cees Nooteboom
Herman Koch
Willem Frederik Hermans
Guus Kuijer
Saskia Noort
Hella S. Haasse
Annie M.G. Schmidt

Costa Rica

Carlos Luis Fallas
Alfonso Chase
Carlos Gagini
Fabián Dobles
Carmen Naranjo

Nigeria

Chinua Achebe
Wole Soyinka
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Helon Habila

Croatia

Slobodan Novak
Miroslav Krleža
Ivan Kozarac

Portugal

António Lobo Antunes
José Saramago
Fernando Pessoa

Ecuador

Jorge Carrera Andrade
Jorge Icaza
Demetrio Aguilera-Malta

Russia

Boris Pasternak
Leo Tolstoy
Mikhail Bulgakov

England

Geoffrey Chaucer
George Orwell
Charles Dickens

Spain

Miguel de Cervantes
José Manuel Caballero
Carlos Ruiz Zafón

France

Victor Hugo
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Honoré de Balzac
Jules Verne
Jean-Claude Mourlevat

Switzerland

Max Frisch
Johanna Spyri
Robert Walser
Albert Einstein

Germany

Heinrich Böll
Cornelia Funke
Thomas Mann
W. G. Sebald
Sebastian Fitzek
Günter Grass
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

United States

Ken Kesey
Willa Cather
Philip Roth
Joan Didion

Ghana

Kwei Quartey
Taiye Selasi
Amma Darko

Uruguay

Eduardo Galeano
Juan Carlos Onetti
Cristina Peri Rossi
Mario Benedetti

Blog post by Bob Timmermann and Madeline Peña.

 

 

 

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