North Iceland
- 2013
Burial RitesÀ la grâce des hommes
1829: a farm family in the north of Iceland must lodge a woman condemned to death.
- 2010
Reykjavik
- 2018
Miss IcelandMiss Islande
1963: a young woman moves to Reykjavik to be a writer, not a beauty queen.
- 2013
Moonstone: The Boy Who Never WasLe Garçon qui n’existait pas
1918: a queer teenager in Reykjavik lives for the cinema as the Spanish flu strikes.
- 2005
Last RitualsUltimes rituels
A German student is found murdered at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik.
Lapland
- 2021
- 2011
The MidwifeLa Sage-femme
1944: a Finnish midwife follows her SS lover to a prison camp in Lapland.
- 2000
Popular Music from VittulaMusique populaire de Vittula
1960s: two boys in Pajala, in Sweden’s far north, dream of rock’n’roll.
Nurmijärvi
- 1870
Seven BrothersLes Sept Frères
Seven unruly brothers flee school and parish for the forest of Impivaara.
Porvoo Archipelago
- 1972
The Summer BookLe Livre d’un été
A grandmother and a small girl share a summer on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland.
Helsinki
- 2014
My Cat YugoslaviaMon chat Yugoslavia
A young Kosovan in Helsinki, and his mother’s married life in Yugoslav Kosovo.
- 2013
The Wednesday ClubMirage 38
1938: in Helsinki, a lawyer’s secretary hides her civil-war past as fascism rises.
- 2010
The HealerLa Dernière Pluie
In a Helsinki drowning in climate collapse, a poet searches for his missing wife.
Bergen
- 2012
Where Roses Never DieOù les roses ne meurent jamais
A Bergen private eye reopens the case of a girl who vanished 25 years ago.
- 2010
Some Rain Must FallComme il pleut sur la ville
1988–2002: a young writer’s student years, drinking and failures in Bergen.
Oslo
- 2009
The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I AmLa Vie au ralenti
A lonely old woman in an Oslo tower block decides to leave some trace of her life.
- 2008
I Curse the River of TimeMaudit soit le fleuve du temps
1989: as the Berlin Wall falls, an Oslo man’s marriage and his mother’s health fail.
- 2007
The SnowmanLe Bonhomme de neige
With the first snow in Oslo, women start to disappear, each leaving a snowman.
Tallinn
- 2012
When the Doves DisappearedQuand les colombes disparurent
1941–66: Tallinn under Soviet, Nazi, then Soviet rule, through a man who serves all.
- 2010
Apothecary Melchior and the Mystery of St Olaf’s ChurchMelchior l’Apothicaire : L’Énigme de Saint-Olav
15th century: in medieval Tallinn, an apothecary hunts a killer through the town.
Stockholm
- 2015
Everything I Don’t RememberTout ce dont je ne me souviens pas
Friends and lovers piece together the life of a young Stockholm man after his death.
- 2009
The HypnotistL’Hypnotiseur
A Stockholm hypnotist is drawn back to his craft to question a massacre’s survivor.
- 2006
Easy MoneyL’Argent facile
A student leads a double life dealing cocaine to Stockholm’s rich.
Riga
- 2015
Soviet Milk
1969–89: a mother and daughter endure Soviet Latvia, between Riga and the countryside.
- 1992
The Dogs of RigaLes Chiens de Riga
Two bodies on a raft lead a Swedish detective to Riga as Latvia breaks from Moscow.
Saint Petersburg
- 2011
Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege
1941–44: the siege of Leningrad, told through the diaries of those inside it.
- 2008
City of ThievesLa Ville des voleurs
1942: two prisoners must find a dozen eggs in besieged Leningrad.
- 2001
Moscow
- 2016
A Gentleman in MoscowUn gentleman à Moscou
1922: a count is sentenced to spend his life inside Moscow’s Hotel Metropol.
- 2010
The Big Green TentLe Chapiteau vert
1953 onwards: three Moscow schoolfriends grow into the dissident generation.
- 2006
Day of the OprichnikJournée d’un opritchnik
2028: a day in the life of the Tsar’s enforcer in a new, walled-off Moscow.
Copenhagen
- 2016
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal
A translator from Jutland learns to drive, and to live, in Copenhagen.
- 2007
The Keeper of Lost CausesMiséricorde
A sidelined Copenhagen detective reopens the case of a vanished politician.
- 2000
The Danish GirlDanish Girl
1920s: a Copenhagen painter becomes Lili Elbe, a pioneer of gender transition.
Marstal
- 2006
We, the DrownedNous, les noyés
1848–1945: the sailors of Marstal, a small Danish port, and the women they leave behind.
Vilnius
- 2008
Vilnius: City of Strangers
Five centuries of Vilnius, seen through the eyes of travellers and outsiders.
- 1960
Promise at DawnLa Promesse de l’aube
1920s: in Wilno, today’s Vilnius, a mother raises her son for glory in France.
Minsk
- 2014
The Former SonUn fils perdu
A Minsk teenager wakes from a ten-year coma into Lukashenko’s unchanged Belarus.
Dublin
- 2023
Prophet SongLe Chant du prophète
A Dublin mother fights to hold her family together as Ireland slides into tyranny.
- 2017
Conversations with FriendsConversations entre amis
Two Trinity students fall in with an older married couple in today’s Dublin.
- 2007
The GatheringRetrouvailles
A woman gathers her large Dublin family for a brother’s wake, and the past returns.
County Wexford
- 2021
Small Things Like TheseCe genre de petites choses
1985: a coal merchant in New Ross discovers what the local convent hides.
- 2014
Nora Webster
1960s: a widow in Enniscorthy slowly rebuilds her life and finds her own voice.
Lübeck
- 1901
BuddenbrooksLes Buddenbrook
1835: four generations of a Lübeck merchant family, and their slow decline.
Berlin
- 2015
Go, Went, GoneJe vais, tu vas, ils vont
A retired Berlin professor befriends African refugees camped in the city.
- 2008
Babylon BerlinLe Poisson mouillé
1929: a Cologne detective transferred to Berlin works vice as the Republic cracks.
- 2003
Stasiland
After the Wall, East Berliners tell how the Stasi watched, jailed and broke them.
Dresden
- 2008
- 2004
Dresden
February 1945: the bombing of Dresden, and the city before and after.
- 1969
Slaughterhouse-FiveAbattoir 5
1945: an American prisoner of war survives the firebombing of Dresden.
Amsterdam
- 2014
The MiniaturistMiniaturiste
1686: a young Amsterdam bride receives a dollhouse that seems to predict her life.
- 2009
The DinnerLe Dîner
Two couples meet in an Amsterdam restaurant to discuss what their sons have done.
- 1956
Delft
- 2008
Vermeer’s HatLe Chapeau de Vermeer
17th century: Vermeer’s paintings as windows from Delft onto the first global trade.
- 1999
Girl with a Pearl EarringLa Jeune Fille à la perle
1664: a young maid enters the household of the painter Vermeer in Delft.
Warsaw
- 2017
Things I Didn’t Throw Out
Emptying his late mother’s Warsaw flat, a son sorts through her books and her life.
- 2016
The King of WarsawLe Roi de Varsovie
1937: a Jewish boxer rises as a gangster’s enforcer in Warsaw’s underworld.
- 2007
EntanglementLes Impliqués
A Warsaw prosecutor investigates a death during a group therapy weekend.
Lower Silesia
- 2009
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the DeadSur les ossements des morts
An eccentric old woman in a remote Silesian hamlet suspects animals of killing hunters.
- 2002
MicrocosmMicrocosme : portrait d’une ville d’Europe centrale
A thousand years of Wrocław, once Breslau, a city passed between nations.
- 1999
Death in BreslauLa Mort à Breslau
1933: a Breslau detective investigates a grisly murder as the Nazis take power.
Orkney
- 2016
The OutrunL’Écart
Back from London’s nights to the wind, birds and sheep farm of her Orkney childhood.
Edinburgh
- 2007
Exit Music
Days before retiring, Rebus investigates the murder of a Russian poet in Edinburgh.
- 2006
One Good TurnLes choses s’arrangent mais ça ne va pas mieux
A road-rage attack during the Festival draws strangers into an Edinburgh mystery.
- 2005
44 Scotland Street
The residents of one New Town tenement, first serialised in an Edinburgh newspaper.
Belfast
- 2018
Milkman
1970s: a Belfast girl is stalked by a paramilitary, and the whole district talks.
Lake District
- 1810
Guide to the Lakes
The poet’s guide to the lakes and fells he lived among, and how to see them.
Yorkshire
- 2017
The Gallows Pole
1760s: coin clippers rule the moors above the Calder Valley, until the law comes.
- 1847
Wuthering HeightsLes Hauts de Hurlevent
1770s: love and revenge between two houses on the Yorkshire moors.
London
- 2022
Londres
1915: Céline’s lost novel, among pimps and deserters in London’s underworld.
- 2021
The Island of Missing TreesL’Île aux arbres disparus
1974: a Greek and a Turkish Cypriot meet secretly in a Nicosia tavern.
- 2019
Girl, Woman, OtherFille, femme, autre
Twelve Black British women, most of them Londoners, across a century of lives.
Bath
- 1817
Persuasion
Eight years on, Anne Elliot meets the man she refused again, in Bath’s drawing rooms.
Hastings
- 1914
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists
House painters in Mugsborough, which is Hastings, argue over why the poor stay poor.
Dorset
- 1874
Far from the Madding CrowdLoin de la foule déchaînée
A headstrong young farmer and her three suitors, through the seasons of rural Wessex.
Cornwall
- 2023
The Granite Kingdom
On foot from the Tamar to Land’s End, sifting Cornwall’s myths from its history.
- 1938
Rebecca
A shy young bride at Manderley, a Cornish house haunted by the first wife.
Flanders
- 2006
The MisfortunatesLa Merditude des choses
A boy grows up among his hard-drinking father and uncles in a Flemish village.
- 1983
The Sorrow of BelgiumLe Chagrin des Belges
1939–47: a boy grows up in Flanders through the German occupation.
- 1892
Bruges-la-Morte
A widower wanders the silent canals of Bruges, haunted by his dead wife.
Brussels
- 2017
The CapitalLa Capitale
EU officials in Brussels plan a jubilee while a pig runs loose in the streets.
- 1887
Belgium Stripped BarePauvre Belgique !
Baudelaire’s furious notes on Brussels, the city he fled to and came to hate.
- 1853
Villette
A lonely English teacher at a Brussels girls’ school, thinly disguised as Villette.
Kyiv
- 1996
Death and the PenguinLe Pingouin
A struggling Kyiv writer with a pet penguin is hired to write obituaries in advance.
- 1935
The Wine of SolitudeLe Vin de solitude
1910s: a lonely girl grows up in a rich, cold family in Kyiv.
- 1925
The White GuardLa Garde blanche
A family in Kyiv waits as armies fight over the city in the civil war.
Odesa
- 2011
Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams
Two centuries of Odesa, from imperial port to Soviet city.
- 1931
Odessa StoriesRécits d’Odessa
1900s: Benya Krik and the Jewish gangsters of Odesa’s Moldavanka district.
Prague
- 2017
Spaceman of BohemiaUn astronaute en Bohême
The first Czech astronaut drifts through space, remembering Prague and his past.
- 2017
Prague Nights
1599: a young doctor finds a murdered woman in the snow of Emperor Rudolf’s Prague.
- 2010
HHhH
1942: two parachutists try to kill Heydrich, the Nazi ruler of Prague.
Brno
- 2009
The Glass RoomLe Palais de verre
1928–1990: a modernist glass villa in Brno and the lives it shelters.
Luxembourg
- 2012
The ExpatsLes Expats
An American ex-spy follows her husband to Luxembourg and suspects the neighbours.
- 2010
Neubrasilien
1828 and today: Luxembourg farmers leave for Brazil; Montenegrin refugees arrive.
Valois
- 1853
Sylvie
1830s: a Parisian dreams back to the Valois woods, its festivals and the girl he left.
Normandy
- 1980
- 1857
Madame Bovary
A country doctor’s wife in provincial Normandy dreams of romance, and ruins herself.
Paris
- 2016
LullabyChanson douce
A Paris couple hires the perfect nanny; the first page tells you how it ends.
- 2015
Vernon Subutex 1
Evicted, a former record-shop owner drifts from sofa to sofa across today’s Paris.
- 2015
SubmissionSoumission
A jaded Sorbonne professor watches Paris change after an Islamic party wins power.
La Rochelle
- 1949
The Hatter’s PhantomsLes Fantômes du chapelier
A strangler haunts rainy La Rochelle, and the tailor across the street knows who.
- 1863
Dominique
A man looks back on a lost love among the marshes and shores around La Rochelle.
Provence
- 1989
A Year in ProvenceUne année en Provence
An English couple’s first year in a Luberon farmhouse: truffles, mistral, builders.
Marseille
- 1995
Total ChaosTotal Khéops
A Marseille cop hunts the killers of two childhood friends in the city’s poor north.
- 1944
Transit
Refugees in Marseille chase the visas and berths that could get them out of France.
- 1844
The Count of Monte CristoLe Comte de Monte-Cristo
1815: a Marseille sailor is betrayed on his wedding day and jailed in the Château d’If.
Basque Country
- 2016
- 1897
Ramuntcho
A young smuggler of the Basque hills, his pelota games and the love a convent takes.
Corsica
- 1870
Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica
By carriage and mule through chestnut forests and granite gorges, sketching all the way.
Vienna
- 2012
The TobacconistLe Tabac Tresniek
1937: a country boy works in a Vienna tobacco shop and befriends Sigmund Freud.
- 2010
The Hare with Amber EyesLe Lièvre aux yeux d’ambre
1870s to today: a family’s netsuke pass from Paris to a Vienna palace and the Nazis.
- 2005
Vienna
A half-Jewish Viennese family and its stories, across the 20th century.
The Austrian Alps
- 2011
The Old King in His ExileLe Vieux Roi en son exil
A son follows his father’s dementia in their Vorarlberg village.
- 1963
The WallLe Mur invisible
A woman wakes in an Alpine hunting lodge, cut off from the world by an invisible wall.
Bratislava
- 2008
Seeing People OffCafé Hyène
Four struggling artists drink and drift in Petržalka, Bratislava’s concrete suburb.
- 1991
Rivers of Babylon
A country boy stokes a Bratislava hotel’s boiler and rises to rule its underworld.
Budapest
- 2010
The Invisible BridgeLe Pont invisible
1937–45: a Hungarian Jewish student between Paris and wartime Budapest.
- 2003
Budapest
A Brazilian ghostwriter lands in Budapest and falls for Hungarian.
- 2002
Prague
1990: young Americans in Budapest, sure that real life is happening in Prague.
Great Hungarian Plain
- 2013
The DispossessedLa Miséricorde des cœurs
1960s: a poor boy’s childhood in a village on the eastern Hungarian plain.
- 1985
SatantangoTango de Satan
Rain, mud and swindlers in a collapsing collective farm on the Hungarian plain.
Vaduz
- 2002
Stamping Grounds
A British writer follows Liechtenstein’s footballers through a hopeless World Cup bid.
- 1955
Ludmila
A small, weak cow in the Liechtenstein Alps prays to give the most milk of all.
Chișinău
- 2018
Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of HistoryPogrom : Kichinev ou comment l’Histoire a basculé
1903: three days of violence in Kishinev, and how they shaped the century after.
- 2000
Playing the Moldovans at Tennis
A bet sends a British comedian to Chișinău to beat the Moldovan football team at tennis.
- 1904
In the City of SlaughterDans la ville du massacre
Bialik’s furious poem on the Kishinev pogrom.
Bern
- 2004
Night Train to LisbonTrain de nuit pour Lisbonne
A Bern teacher walks out of class and follows a dead doctor’s words into Salazar’s Lisbon.
- 1972
The RobberLe Brigand
A penniless idler loves and wanders around Bern in Walser’s last novel.
- 1950
The Judge and His HangmanLe Juge et son bourreau
A dying Bern inspector investigates a policeman’s murder and an old enemy.
Graubünden
- 1924
The Magic MountainLa Montagne magique
1907–14: a young engineer visits a Davos sanatorium and stays seven years.
- 1881
Heidi
An orphan is sent to live with her gruff grandfather high above Maienfeld.
Lake Geneva
- 1816
The Prisoner of ChillonLe Prisonnier de Chillon
1530s: chained in a castle dungeon on the lake, a prisoner watches the light on the water.
Ljubljana
- 2010
I Saw Her That NightCette nuit, je l’ai vue
Five voices recall a Ljubljana woman who vanished during the Second World War.
- 1998
Veronika Decides to DieVeronika décide de mourir
After a failed suicide, a young woman wakes in a Ljubljana asylum with days to live.
Zagreb
- 2015
Zagreb Noir
Crime stories set in the streets and districts of Zagreb.
- 2007
Our Man in IraqNotre correspondant sur place
A Zagreb journalist sends his cousin to report from Iraq, and it goes badly wrong.
- 1988
Fording the Stream of ConsciousnessL’Offensive du roman-fleuve
Writers from East and West gather in Zagreb for a conference, and a body turns up.
Dalmatia
- 2010
Adios CowboyAdios Cow-boy
A young woman returns to her Dalmatian seaside suburb to learn why her brother died.
Novi Sad
- 1972
The Book of BlamLe Livre de Blam
A Jewish survivor walks postwar Novi Sad, haunted by the family and friends he lost.
Belgrade
- 1998
Götz and MeyerGoetz et Meyer
1942: two SS drivers gas Belgrade’s Jews; a teacher today tries to imagine them.
- 1941
Black Lamb and Grey FalconAgneau noir et faucon gris
West’s epic journey through Yugoslavia, from Zagreb to Macedonia.
Transylvania
- 2009
Along the Enchanted Way
An Englishman lives among the villagers and Roma of Transylvania and Maramureș.
- 1934
They Were CountedVos jours sont comptés
1904–14: Transylvanian aristocrats gamble and love as their world nears its end.
Bucharest
- 2015
- 1996
Journal 1935–1944Journal 1935-1944
1935–44: a Jewish writer records Bucharest’s slide into fascism, day by day.
- 1935
Bucarest
Paul Morand’s portrait of Bucharest, the “Paris of the East”.
San Marino
- 1976
Smoke Into Flame
An English bride arrives in San Marino to marry, and the engagement falls through.
Sarajevo
- 2008
The Cellist of SarajevoLe Violoncelliste de Sarajevo
1992: a cellist plays for 22 days where a mortar killed 22 people in the siege.
- 2008
The Lazarus ProjectLe Projet Lazarus
A Chicago writer of Bosnian origin travels back to Sarajevo, chasing an old killing.
- 1993
Zlata’s DiaryLe Journal de Zlata
An eleven-year-old’s diary of Sarajevo under siege.
Višegrad
- 2006
How the Soldier Repairs the GramophoneLe Soldat et le Gramophone
A boy from Višegrad remembers his town before the war, and returns as a man.
- 1945
The Bridge on the DrinaLe Pont sur la Drina
1516–1914: four centuries of Višegrad, told through its Ottoman stone bridge.
Monaco
- 1955
Loser Takes AllQui perd gagne
A clerk’s honeymoon in Monte Carlo turns into a hunt for a system to beat the casino.
Sofia
- 2016
What Belongs to YouCe qui t’appartient
An American teacher in Sofia and his troubled desire for a young hustler.
Pristina
- 2014
My Cat YugoslaviaMon chat Yugoslavia
A young Kosovan in Helsinki, and his mother’s married life in Yugoslav Kosovo.
- 2003
The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo
An American teaches English in postwar Pristina, with The Old Man and the Sea.
Podgorica
- 2015
Catherine the Great and the Small
1978: a girl grows up in Titograd, today’s Podgorica, and keeps coming back.
Skopje
- 2014
My HusbandMon cher mari
Wives in today’s Skopje speak, wryly and sharply, about the men they married.
- 2012
A Spare Life
Twin sisters joined at the head grow up in Skopje as Yugoslavia falls apart.
- 1941
Black Lamb and Grey FalconAgneau noir et faucon gris
West’s epic journey through Yugoslavia, from Zagreb to Macedonia.
Vatican City
- 2016
Conclave
The Pope is dead, and the cardinals are locked inside the Vatican to choose the next.
- 2000
Angels & DemonsAnges et démons
A symbologist races through Rome’s churches to save the Vatican’s conclave.
- 1914
The Vatican CellarsLes Caves du Vatican
A swindle claims the Pope is held prisoner in the Vatican’s cellars.
Trieste
- 2001
Trieste and the Meaning of NowhereTrieste ou le sens de nulle part
A lifetime of visits to Trieste, the city at the edge of everywhere and of nowhere.
- 1923
Zeno’s ConscienceLa Conscience de Zeno
A Trieste businessman tries to quit smoking and tells his life to his analyst.
Venice
- 2009
Venice: Pure City
Venice’s whole life, from marsh refuge to trading empire and tourist stage.
- 1992
WatermarkAcqua alta
A Russian poet’s winters in Venice: fog, water, light and the smell of seaweed.
- 1992
Death at La FeniceMort à La Fenice
A conductor is poisoned at La Fenice, and Brunetti walks Venice to find out why.
Florence
- 2003
The Birth of VenusLa Naissance de Vénus
1490s: a merchant’s daughter in Florence as Savonarola’s bonfires burn its art.
- 1908
A Room with a ViewChambre avec vue
A young Englishwoman in Florence, a room over the Arno, and a kiss among violets.
Cortona
- 1996
Under the Tuscan SunSous le soleil de Toscane
An American buys a crumbling villa above Cortona and learns to live the Tuscan way.
Italian Coast
- 1959
The Long Road of SandLa Longue Route de sable
Pasolini drives round Italy’s summer beaches, from Ventimiglia in the west to Trieste.
Rome
- 2022
Roman Stories
Locals, migrants and visitors in the Rome of today.
- 2009
Let the Games BeginLa Fête du siècle
A satanist sect and a has-been writer crash a tycoon’s lavish party in a Rome park.
- 2007
Four Seasons in Rome
A year in Rome with newborn twins, as a writer walks the city and its past.
Naples
- 2011
My Brilliant FriendL’Amie prodigieuse
1950s: two girls grow up in a poor, violent neighbourhood of Naples.
- 2006
- 1978
Naples ’44Naples 44
1944: a British intelligence officer’s diary of Naples just after liberation.
Amalfi Coast
- 1955
The Talented Mr RipleyMonsieur Ripley
A young American takes over a rich man’s life, from a seaside village to Rome.
Sicily
- 2019
The Florios of SicilyLes Lions de Sicile
1799: two brothers open a spice shop in Palermo, the start of a dynasty.
- 1994
The Shape of WaterLa Forme de l’eau
Montalbano’s first case: a body at dawn in a Sicilian town of sun and gossip.
- 1977
Sicilian CarouselCarrousel sicilien
A coach tour round the island, from Greek temples to Palermo, with an old friend’s ghost.
Albanian Alps
- 2009
Land of Eagles
On horseback the length of Albania, from the mountains of Theth to the Greek border.
Tirana
- 2003
The SuccessorLe Successeur
1981: the Guide’s chosen successor is found dead in his Tirana bedroom.
Durrës
- 2021
Asturias
- 1884
La RegentaLa Régente
In Vetusta, Oviedo in disguise, a judge’s bored wife is courted by her confessor.
Barcelona
- 2006
The Cathedral of the SeaLa Cathédrale de la mer
14th century: a serf’s son rises in Barcelona as Santa Maria del Mar is built.
- 2001
The Shadow of the WindL’Ombre du vent
1945: a boy finds a forgotten novel in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, in Barcelona.
- 1962
In Diamond SquareLa Place du Diamant
1930s–40s: a young woman in Gràcia lives through the Republic and the war.
Madrid
- 2011
Leaving the Atocha StationAu départ d’Atocha
A young American poet on a fellowship in Madrid, as the train bombings strike.
- 2011
The InfatuationsComme les amours
A Madrid editor grows obsessed with a couple she watched at breakfast, until his murder.
- 2006
Winter in MadridUn hiver à Madrid
1940: a British spy in hungry, post-war Madrid, looking for a lost friend.
Mallorca
- 1842
A Winter in MajorcaUn hiver à Majorque
Sand and Chopin’s winter in a Valldemossa monastery: rain, suspicion, the island.
Seville
- 1845
Carmen
1830: a soldier in Seville falls for a Roma cigarette girl and throws his life away.
Granada
- 1832
Tales of the AlhambraContes de l’Alhambra
An American lodges in the Alhambra and gathers Granada’s Moorish legends.
Alpujarras
- 1999
Driving Over Lemons
An ex-drummer buys a farm with no road or water in the hills of Las Alpujarras.
Cádiz
- 2010
The SiegeCadix, ou la diagonale du fou
1811: Cádiz under French bombs, and a killer who strikes where the shells fall.
Istanbul
- 2003
Istanbul: Memories and the CityIstanbul : souvenirs d’une ville
1950s: Pamuk’s childhood in a fading Istanbul, and the city’s melancholy, hüzün.
Ankara
- 1928
The Turkish Ordeal
A novelist joins Atatürk’s war and watches Ankara, a dusty town, become a capital.
Porto
- 2003
Hunting MidnightLes Sortilèges de minuit
1800s: a boy in Porto befriends Midnight, an African healer brought there as a slave.
Lisbon
- 2018
Luanda, Lisbon, ParadiseLuanda, Lisbonne, Paradis
An Angolan father and son wait for a better life in the shacks on Lisbon’s outskirts.
- 2004
Night Train to LisbonTrain de nuit pour Lisbonne
A Bern teacher walks out of class and follows a dead doctor’s words into Salazar’s Lisbon.
- 1999
A Small Death in LisbonUne mort à Lisbonne
A teenage girl’s murder leads a Lisbon detective back to Nazi gold and wartime Portugal.
Corfu
- 1956
My Family and Other AnimalsMa famille et autres animaux
1935: a boy, his eccentric family and every creature on Corfu’s hills and shores.
- 1945
Prospero’s CellL’Île de Prospero
Corfu before the war: a young couple’s house by the sea, its saints and olive groves.
Athens
- 2014
OutlineDisent-ils
A novelist teaching in Athens for a summer listens as strangers tell their lives.
- 2010
Something Will Happen, You’ll SeeÇa va aller, tu vas voir
Workers on the edges of Athens and Piraeus, as the debt crisis takes hold.
- 1995
Deadline in AthensJournal de la nuit
An Athens inspector chases the murder of a TV reporter who was on to a story.
Hydra
- 1959
The Sea ChangeUne saison à Hydra
A playwright, his wife and his young secretary end up on Hydra to stage a new play.
Crete
- 2005
The IslandL’Île des oubliés
1939–57: a family’s story unfolds around Spinalonga, Crete’s leper colony.
- 1946
Zorba the GreekAlexis Zorba
1910s: a bookish narrator and the exuberant Zorba reopen a lignite mine on Crete.
Valletta
- 1973
The Kappillan of Malta
1940–42: a humble priest shelters Valletta’s people in the catacombs during the siege.
- 1963
V.
1919 and 1940s: the hunt for the mysterious V. leads to Valletta.
- 1961
The Great Siege: Malta 1565
1565: the Knights hold Malta against the Ottomans, and Valletta is built after.
Nicosia
- 2021
The Island of Missing TreesL’Île aux arbres disparus
1974: a Greek and a Turkish Cypriot meet secretly in a Nicosia tavern.
- 1957
Bitter LemonsCitrons acides
Durrell’s years in Cyprus, as the island slides toward conflict.
Famagusta
- 2014
The SunriseLa Ville orpheline
1972–74: a couple’s glamorous hotel in Famagusta, as war approaches Cyprus.