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International (non-U.S.) book recs
48
items A list of diverse book recommendations from books that take place all over the world – some have parts in the U.S., but all take place at least partially elsewhere. Some high fantasy books are recommended because they are inspired by mythology or his...
Sections
12
Contemporary
Fantasy
Graphic novels
Historical
Horror
Magical realism
Contemporary
Contemporary fiction that takes place in Trinidad, England, Ghana, and more.
Bianca Bridge is like an eyeshadow palette. She's a vibrant kaleidoscope of big personality and even bigger dreams, with a tendency towards messiness and fallout. Case in point: losing her job and ruining her reputation by having an affair with a mar...
The God of Good Looks by Breanne McIvor
It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom's awkward energy, and their connection ...
Bellies by Nicola Dinan
Afi Tekple is a young seamstress in Ghana. Smart and pretty, she has also been convinced by her mother to marry a man she doesn't know: a wealthy businessman named Elikem. His family has chosen Afi in the hopes that she will distract him from a curre...
His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie
After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family has moved back to China. Settling into a luxurious serviced apartment in Shanghai, Wei, Lina, and their daughter, Karen, join an elite community of Chinese-born, Western-educated professional...
What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan
Ijeoma comes of age as her nation does. Born before independence, she is eleven when civil war breaks out in the young republic of Nigeria. Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child and they, star-crossed, fall in love. They are from dif...
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
After one of his songs goes viral, Ollie Cheriet gets the opportunity of a lifetime: a cross-country tour, an album deal, and a chance to help his family with their financial struggles. The only problem? Ollie has major stage fright, a symptom of his...
Under All the Lights by Maya Ameyaw
Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She’ll be working in her family’s ice-cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend—whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort—and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadi...
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson
Korede’s sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola’s knife. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. ...
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Fantasy
Fantasy with settings based on Nigeria, Jamaica, Palestine, and more.
The smallest spark can bind two hearts . . . or start a revolution. In the magic-soaked capital city of Oluwan, Small Sade needs a job--preferably as a maid, with employers who don't mind her unique appearance and unlucky foot. But before she can be ...
The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She's a legend...
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Somadina and her twin brother, Jayaike, are practically the same person: they finish each other's sentences and make each other whole. When the twins come of age, their magical gifts begin to develop, but while Jayaike's powers enchant, Somadina's ca...
Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi
A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, s...
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
As each new decade begins, the Sun’s power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the chaotic Obsidian gods at bay. Sol selects ten of the most worthy semidioses to compete in the Sunbearer Trials. The winner carrie...
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
When August’s brother disappears before his sophomore semester, everyone thinks the stress of college got to him. But August knows her brother would never have left her voluntarily, especially not after their mother so recently went missing. The only...
A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury
On the islands of Hans Lollik, Sigourney Rose was the only survivor when her family was massacred by the colonizers. When the childless king of the islands declares he will choose his successor from amongst eligible noble families, Sigourney is ready...
Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender
Graphic novels
Graphic novels that take place in Canada and England, as well as one heavily based on Palestine.
Aiza has always dreamt of becoming a Knight. It’s the highest military honor in the once-great Bayt-Sajji Empire, and as a member of the subjugated Ornu people, Knighthood is her only path to full citizenship. Ravaged by famine and mounting tensions,...
Squire by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh
When Kumiko’s well-meaning adult daughters place her in an assisted living home, the seventy-six-year-old widow gives it a try, but it’s not where she wants to be. She goes on the lam and finds a cozy bachelor apartment, keeping the location secret e...
Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu
Shy and softhearted Charlie Spring sits next to rugby player Nick Nelson in class one morning. A warm and intimate friendship follows, and that soon develops into something more for Charlie, who doesn't think he has a chance. But Nick is struggling w...
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
Keum Suk Gendry-Kim was an adult when her mother revealed a family secret: She had been separated from her sister during the Korean War. It’s not an uncommon story—the peninsula was split across the 38th parallel, dividing one country into two. As ma...
The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
Historical
Historical fiction that takes place in Germany, Palestine, and England.
Gabi Keefer flees Holocaust-era Germany with nothing but her husband, her nephew, and the clothes on her back, but that isn't the whole story. Over generations, her granddaughter, Lena, struggles with drug addiction and an unplanned pregnancy; her so...
From Where We Are by Nicole Zelniker
Funny and touching, Behind You Is the Sea brings us into the homes and lives of three main families—the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars—Palestinian immigrants who’ve all found a different welcome in America. Their various fates and struggles ca...
Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj
On the eve of her daughter Alia’s wedding, Salma reads the girl’s future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, the...
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
Horror
Horror that takes place in Mexico, France, Canada, and more.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, ...
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure...
I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea
London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old trans, autistic Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than be...
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White
Chuck Warren died tragically at the old abandoned mill, but Paz Espino knows it was no accident — there's a monster under the town, and she's determined to kill it before anyone else gets hurt. She'll need the help of her crew — inseparable friends, ...
Lockjaw by Matteo L. Cerilli
Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends, Ila and Hannah. Since then, Alice’s life has spiraled. She lives a haunted existence, selling videos of herself for money, going to parties she hates, drinking herself to ...
Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
In her electrifying debut, Julia Armfield explores women’s experiences in contemporary society, mapped through their bodies. As urban dwellers’ sleeps become disassociated from them, like Peter Pan’s shadow, a city turns insomniac. A teenager enterin...
Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
Leah is changed. A marine biologist, she left for a routine expedition months earlier, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost...
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Ruby Chen has always played the part of the dutiful eldest daughter: excelling in school; excelling in piano lessons; excelling at keeping her younger sister, Tina, focused on extracurriculars meant to impress college admissions officers. But when a ...
The Dark Becomes Her by Judy I. Lin
Magical realism
Magical realism that takes place in Puerto Rico and Ecuador.
Isla Larsen Sanchez's life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage...
The Storyteller's Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal
The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—not for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea ...
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova
Nonfiction
Nonfiction that takes place in Senegal and Palestine.
In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to Columbia,...
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ahed Tamimi is a world-renowned Palestinian activist, born and raised in the small West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, which became a center of the resistance to Israeli occupation when an illegal, Jewish-only settlement blocked off its community spring...
They Called Me a Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri
Older classics
Classic novels that takes place in Palestine.
The day after Liyana got her first real kiss, her life changed forever. Not because of the kiss, but because it was the day her father announced that the family was moving from St. Louis all the way to Palestine. Though her father grew up there, Liya...
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray makes a Faustian bargain to sell his soul in exchange for eternal youth and beauty. Under the influence of Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, where he is able to indulge hi...
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Poetry & novels-in-verse
Poetry & novels-in-verse that take place in England, the Dominican Republic, Palestine, and more.
Michael is a mixed-race gay teen growing up in London. All his life, he’s navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican—but never quite feeling Greek or Black enough. As he gets older, Michael’s coming out is only the start of learning who...
The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people… In New York City, Yahaira Rios is call...
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
A diaspora of memories runs through this poetry collection—a multiplicity of voices, bodies, and houses hold archival material for one another, tracing paths between Brooklyn, Beirut, and Jerusalem. Boundaries and borders blur between space and time ...
The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan
Nima wishes she were someone else. She doesn’t feel understood by her mother, who grew up in a different land. She doesn’t feel accepted in her suburban town; yet somehow, she isn't different enough to belong elsewhere. Her best friend, Haitham, is t...
Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
Bavaria. 1880. Hilde was dreamed into existence by the god Odin and, along with her five sisters, granted cloaks that transform them into swans. Each sister’s cloak is imbued with a unique gift, but Hilde rejects her gift which allows her to lead the...
A Warning About Swans by R.M. Romero
Retellings
Retellings of myths, fairytales, and classic literature that takes place in worlds inspired by India, England, and France.
I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions--much good it did me. So begins Kaikeyi's story. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on legends of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean...
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
The Lost Boys say that Peter Pan went back to England because of Wendy Darling, but Wendy is just an old life he left behind. Neverland is his real home. So when Peter returns to it after ten years in the real world, he's surprised to find a Neverlan...
Peter Darling by Austin Chant
One for All by Lillie Lainoff
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and po...
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Romance
Romance that takes place in Canada.
Seventeen-year-old Jamie Taher-Foster has big plans for senior year. She's made a list of things and places in Toronto she and her boyfriend of three years, Ben Cameron, need to check off before graduating. And the biggest plan of all: a very special...
You Started It by Jackie Khalilieh
Sci-fi
Science fiction that takes place in worlds inspired by China and Chile.
Sixteen-year-old Rumi Sabzwari has spent his entire life behind the armored walls of St. Iago, which protect citizens of the Union of Upper Cities from the outside world’s environmental devastation. But when rebels infect his father with a fatal viru...
Under This Forgetful Sky by Lauren Yero
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall of China. It doesn't matter that the girls die from the mental strain. When 18-year-old Zetia...
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao