The Calvert Journal's 100 Books to Read from Eastern Europe and Central Asia

You can start and finish this challenge whenever you like!

Experimental fiction, literary classics, searing historical accounts, and forgotten memoirs: the breadth of literature from across the post-communist world — much of it still untranslated — stands as testament to centuries of human experience in a region marked by political turmoil and extraordinary resilience. We asked writers, poets, translators, and academics to help us pick 100 of the best books from Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia available in English. From Belgrade to Bishkek, these remarkable works of literature span across cultures, borders, and time.

https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/12441/100-books-eastern-europe-central-asia

Challenge Prompts

1. Soul and Other Stories (1935) by Andrey Platonov

2. Satantango (1985) by Laszlo Krasznahorkai

3. The Unwomanly Face of War (1985) by Svetlana Alexievich

4. The Complete Fiction of Bruno Schulz: The Street of Crocodiles, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (1934-7) by Bruno Schulz

5. F Letter: New Russian Feminist Poetry (2020) edited by Galina Rymbu

6. Carbide (2015) by Andriy Lyubka

7. The Ministry of Pain (2004) by Dubravka Ugrešić

8. The Silent Steppe: The Story of a Kazakh Nomad Under Stalin (1999) by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov

9. I Served the King of England (1971) by Bohumil Hrabal

10. The Bridge on the Drina (1945) by Ivo Andrić

More...