A List of Fifty Favorite Living Writers by Country

(Ten or fifteen of these are the names that would leap immediately to mind for most American readers of international fiction, while the rest are a little more idiosyncratic. I’ve arranged the list in alphabetical order by country, with asterisks when it came down to a coin toss between the writer I chose and another. You can find my list of the departed here.)

 

  1. Argentina: Luis Sagasti *

  2. Australia: Ryan O’Neill *

  3. Austria: Peter Handke

  4. Belgium: Amélie Nothomb *

  5. Bolivia: Liliana Colanzi

  6. Canada: Stephen Marche *

  7. Chile: Alejandro Zambra

  8. China: Yan Ge

  9. Colombia: Tomás González

  10. Congo-Brazzaville: Emmanuel Dongala

  11. Czech Republic: Michal Ajvaz

  12. Denmark: Olga Ravn

  13. Equatorial Guinea: Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

  14. Finland: Selja Ahava

  15. France: Éric Chevillard

  16. Germany: Andreas Eschbach *

  17. Great Britain: Nick Harkaway *

  18. Greece: Amanda Michalopoulou

  19. Hungary: Attila Veres

  20. India: Vikram Paralkar *

  21. Indonesia: Andrea Hirata

  22. Ireland: Tana French *

  23. Israel: Alex Epstein

  24. Italy: Sandra Petrignani *

  25. Japan: Haruki Murakami *

  26. Kenya: Okwiri Oduor *

  27. Mexico: Chloe Aridjis *

  28. Netherlands: Toon Tellegen

  29. New Zealand: Bernard Beckett *

  30. Nigeria: Ben Okri

  31. Northern Ireland: Robert McLiam Wilson

  32. Norway: Dag Solstad

  33. Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa

  34. Philippines: Kristine Ong Muslim

  35. Poland: Olga Tokarczuk

  36. Portugal: Gonçalo M. Tavares

  37. Redonda: Philip Pullman

  38. Russia: Victor Pelevin

  39. Scotland: Michel Faber

  40. Serbia: Zoran Živković

  41. South Africa: J.M. Coetzee *

  42. South Korea: Jang Eun-Jin *

  43. Spain: Paco Roca *

  44. Sri Lanka: Anuk Arudpragasm

  45. Sudan: Leila Aboulela

  46. Sweden: Karin Tidbeck

  47. Switzerland: Peter Bichsel *

  48. Syria: Osama Alomar

  49. United States: Thomas Glave *

  50. Wales: Carys Davies

— June 16, 2024


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