There are some interesting books, even more so perhaps this year because the Cup is being held in Africa for the first time. But I thought it might also be fun to use the idea of the World Cup, now in its final days, to kick off a discussion of some recent (or not-so-recent) books that might otherwise be overlooked. So I started thinking of a list of some of my favorite novels and collections from Argentina, Spain, Nigeria, Brazil . . . and on and on. Why did I do this? No special reason—I thought it might be fun, lord knows books could use more attention these days, and I had some time on my hands at work. But then I ran into countries such as Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, not to mention Paraguay and North Korea. What was I to do? (It would’ve been so much easier if Russia, Turkey, and the Czech Republic had qualified!)

His overall list is pretty solid: Ivan Vladislavic’s Portrait with Keys: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked for South Africa (a book that I read as the WC started and ABSOLUTELY LOVED), Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi for England, Jenny Erpenbeck’s The Book of Words for Germany, Antonio Tabucchi’s Indian Nocturne for Italy, Augusto Roa Bastos’s I, the Supreme for Paraguay, Alejandro Zambra’s The Private Lives of Trees for Chile, and 26 other titles.

This is a difficult list to come up with, but I’m sure readers have other interesting suggestions. (Personally, I’d replace the Ogawa with Kobo Abe’s The Box Man because it’s so Beckett and yet so singular.) If you have additions, suggestions, etc., etc., you should post them below, or on the WWB blog. It would be fun to come up with a sort of short reading list of books from these countries . . .

Here are the nine titles that are part of this offer:

Argentina: Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean

Brazil: by Joao Cabral de Melo Neto, translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith

Germany: by Georg Buchner, translated from the German by Richard Sieburth

Germany: by Novalis, translated from the German by Ralph Manheim

Germany: translated from the German by Peter Wortsman

The Netherlands: by Gerbrand Bakker, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

Spain: by Unai Elorriaga, translated from the Basque by Amaia Gabantxo

South Africa: by Breyten Breytenbach

South Africa: by Herman Charles Bosman

Overall, this is a great way to support Archipelago while getting a bunch of interesting books . . .

According to the brief description with this video, Benjamin Stein’s The Canvas is being translated into English . . . More on that when I feel like disclosing more. (A publisher has to keep some secrets, right? Otherwise he’s just a blogger.)

Katy Derbyshire — who runs the wonderful — wrote about this a while back in relation to a reading she attended (and as Katy pointed out to me, you should check the comments—there’s a cute fight between the author and his wife):

Then came Benjamin Stein. I haven’t read his new novel, Die Leinwand, but I’m going to have to now. It’s printed so that you can start reading at either end, with the two strands meeting in the middle where you then have to flip the book over and start again. Loosely based around the case of Binjamin Wilkomirksi, the novel looks at that old evergreen, the nature of memory, from a slightly different standpoint – how memories and truths can be manipulated and faked. Stein read well, a pitch-perfect chapter about books and libraries and ownership and lies, featuring a down-to-earth wife who made me wonder all over again about fact and fiction. And then he surprised me by giving a slide show. He’d been on a research trip to Israel, where the book is partly set, in search of a mikveh where his two (!) showdowns take place. Germans aren’t generally all that au fait with orthodox Judaism – and nor am I – so it was an unexpected lesson and gave us a great sense of Stein’s love for his subject matter. The serious reader was suddenly transformed into a smiling enthusiast, showing us the people and places that inspired him.

Oh, and sorry Germany. I thought for sure you would dismantle Spain the way you did Argentina, England, et and cetera. But no! Thrilling! And uh, go Spain? (I’ve been rooting for WC teams based on which cities I love the most. Amsterdam vs. Barcelona is a tough, tough call. I do love the color orange . . . And Catalan literature . . .)