A List of Fifty Favorite No-Longer-Living Writers by Country

(A good half of these are at least among 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 living here.)

 

  1. Algeria: Albert Camus

  2. Alsace-Lorraine: Tomi Ungerer

  3. Argentina: Jorge Luis Borges

  4. Australia: Nevil Shute *

  5. Austria: Ingeborg Bachmann *

  6. Belgium: Georges Simenon

  7. Bohemia: Franz Kafka

  8. Brazil: Clarice Lispector *

  9. Canada: Mavis Gallant *

  10. Chile: Juan Emar

  11. Colombia: Gabriel García Márquez

  12. Czech Republic: Bohumil Hrabal

  13. Denmark: Hans Christian Andersen

  14. Egypt: Albert Cossery

  15. Finland: Tove Jansson

  16. France: Barbara Molinard *

  17. Germany: Stefan Heym

  18. Great Britain: J. G. Ballard *

  19. Greece: Aristophanes [or, if that’s unfair, then Nikos Kazantzakis]

  20. Honduras: Augusto Monterroso

  21. Hungary: Ferenc Karinthy

  22. India: Kamala Markandaya *

  23. Indonesia: Pramoedya Ananta Toer

  24. Iran: Sadegh Hedayat

  25. Ireland: Samuel Beckett *

  26. Italy: Italo Calvino *

  27. Japan: Yasunari Kawabata

  28. Mexico: Juan Rulfo

  29. Netherlands: Maria Dermoût

  30. Nigeria: Chinua Achebe

  31. Northern Ireland: Brian Moore *

  32. Norway: Stig Sæterbakken

  33. Poland: Stanisław Lem *

  34. Portugal: José Saramago

  35. Puerto Rico: Piri Thomas

  36. Redonda: Ray Bradbury

  37. Romania: Eugène Ionesco

  38. Rome: Ovid

  39. Russia: Leo Tolstoy *

  40. Scotland: Muriel Spark

  41. Serbia: Milorad Pavić

  42. Soviet Union: Mikhail Bulgakov

  43. Spain: Javier Marias *

  44. Sweden: Henning Mankell *

  45. Switzerland: Ágota Kristóf

  46. Trinidad and Tobago: Samuel Selvon

  47. United States: William Maxwell *

  48. Uruguay: Mario Levrero

  49. Wales: Richard Hughes

  50. Zimbabwe: Doris Lessing

— October 2, 2022


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