Travel
Destination: The Netherlands
Delve into Lowlands literature and discover there's much more to this prosperous nation than wooden clogs, tulips and -- of course -- weed.
Destination: Alaska
Put aside stories of a freezing, exotic locale full of igloos and kooks in favor of these portraits of the hardscrabble -- and magical -- Northern state.
Destination: Russia
Alienation, the struggle for a decent life, really bad weather -- the universal themes of this vast nation's literature make us all feel Russian at one point or another.
Destination: Vancouver
This livable, futuristic, far West outpost of our continent has been a home for writers from Alice Munro to Douglas Coupland.
Destination: Louisiana
John Kennedy Toole, Ernest Gaines and the recipes of Enola Prudhomme will instruct you in the sorrows and joys of the Bayou State.
Destination: The Alps
More than an Alpine playground, Europe's most beloved mountain range has provided the dramatic backdrop in novels by Hemingway, Greene and Salter.
Destination: Norway
The Eddas -- epic sagas that form the core of Norse religion -- are best read under the ash trees in this Land of the Midnight Sun.
"The Prince of the Marshes"
Rory Stewart spent a year in remote Maysan Province where he was left to aid -- and govern -- 850,000 Iraqis.
Destination: Turkey
This endlessly fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking puzzle of a country that's fraught with religious and political conflict is brilliantly captured in the novels of Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak.
Destination: North and South Korea
The "black hole" of Asia and its estranged brother to the south are revealed in books from a political refugee, an American mountain man and a war veteran.
Destination: Japan
From 17th century haikus to the work of Kazuo Ishiguro, writing from this Far East nation reveals an obsession with beauty and discipline.
Destination: Afghanistan
Westerners who came here in the '70s left magnificent travel writing that captured the rugged, captivating land before war tore it apart.
"Brief Encounters With Che Guevara"
This superb debut story collection travels to Colombia, Sierra Leone and the U.S., examining the damage capitalism has wreaked on the world.
