Listmania!
my top twenty modern European novels in translation
AusterlitzAusterlitz by W. G. Sebald
Buy new: £5.39 / Used from: £3.99
unforgettable meditation and Sebald's finest
The Unbearable Lightness of BeingThe Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Buy new: £5.00 / Used from: £0.01
probably the Kundera novel I love most . .
ImmortalityImmortality by Milan Kundera
Buy new: £5.36 / Used from: £0.01
. . or maybe this is
Gathering EvidenceGathering Evidence by Thomas Bernhard
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £3.24
Bernhard is one of my favourite authors and these are his memoirs - mostly harrowing
The Tin DrumThe Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Buy used from: £5.00
insane ramblings of a mad dwarf
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller (Vintage classics)If on a Winter's Night a Traveller (Vintage classics) by Italo Calvino
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £2.55
a clever game well played
Extinction: A NovelExtinction: A Novel by Thomas Bernhard
Buy used from: £35.47
dense and philosophical but only a Bernhard character could describe the death of both parents and a brother as a 'so-called family tragedy'
Rings of SaturnRings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £2.99
a walk in East Anglia was never like this
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (Panther)The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (Panther) by Jose Saramago
Buy new: £5.98 / Used from: £0.64
Reis returns from Brazil to attend the funeral of his creator
The Book of Disquiet (Five Star Paperback)The Book of Disquiet (Five Star Paperback) by Fernando Pessoa
Buy new: £5.02 / Used from: £2.47
Pessoa left hundreds of scribbled notes in a trunk and this is one of several attempts to compile them
Le Testament FrancaisLe Testament Francais by Andrei Makine
Buy used from: £0.01
Makine writes dream-like accounts of a distant Siberia and this is his best
The Book of Laughter and ForgettingThe Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
Buy new: £5.36 / Used from: £2.20
more Kundera I'm afraid
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (Panther)The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (Panther) by Jose Saramago
Buy new: £4.98 / Used from: £2.29
an astonishing and audacious book - do not be put off by the title
The Name of the RoseThe Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Buy new: £6.71 / Used from: £0.01
a bestseller but a great read too
A Heart So WhiteA Heart So White by Javier Marias
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £5.99
lyrical and spellbinding
Soldiers of SalamisSoldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas
Buy used from: £0.01
an unusual Spanish civil war novel
The Discovery of HeavenThe Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch
Buy new: £9.09 / Used from: £0.79
Eco fans should enjoy this one
The Engineer of Human Souls: An Entertainment on the Old Themes of Life,Women,Fate,Dreams,the Working Class, Secret Agents,Love and Death (Vintage Classics)The Engineer of Human Souls: An Entertainment on the Old Themes of Life,Women,Fate,Dreams,the Working Class, Secret Agents,Love and Death (Vintage Classics) by Josef Skvorecky
Buy used from: £9.39
a plotless tapestry of hundreds of stories that builds into a rich portrait of the Czech experience
Declares Pereira (Harvill Panther S.)Declares Pereira (Harvill Panther S.) by Antonio Tabucchi
Buy used from: £2.10
life under european dictatorship
The Man without QualitiesThe Man without Qualities by Robert Musil
Buy new: £9.67 / Used from: £6.93
probably the longest book I ever read
The DoubleThe Double by Jose Saramago
Buy new: £13.59 / Used from: £4.65
sorry - it's now 21, but couldn't miss this playful serious novel - the list goes on . . .