2018 was supposed to have been the last entire year during which the UK retained EU membership. So, I acknowledged that sad fact by reading one book by an author from each of the then still 28 EU member states. This idea was inspired by Marina Sofia at Findingtimetowrite, who the year before had started the #EU27Project as a way to say farewell to the remaining 27 countries. I took a slightly different approach and also read a book by an author from the UK, more precisely from Scotland, since the vast majority there voted to remain in the EU.
Below you can find a list of all the 28 books that I read for this project. It features mostly novels but also a few collections of short stories and poetry. All titles link to the corresponding review. Furthermore, all the blog posts related to this reading project are tagged with #EUstill28.
Austria – The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler
Belgium – The Life of Hunger by Amélie Nothomb
Bulgaria – The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov
Croatia – S.: A Novel about the Balkans by Slavenka Drakulic
Cyprus – Census by Panos Ioannides
Czech Republic – My Golden Trades by Ivan Klíma
Denmark – Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
Estonia – The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk
Finland – The Mine by Antti Tuomainen
France – Uma Vida à Sua Frente (The Life Before Us) by Romain Gary
Germany – The New Sorrows of Young W. by Ulrich Plenzdorf
Greece – The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis
Hungary – Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
Ireland – The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
Italy – A Amiga Genial (My Brilliant Friend) by Elena Ferrante
Latvia – High Tide by Inga Abele
Lithuania – Tula by Jurgis Kuncinas
Luxembourg – At the Edge of Night by Anise Koltz
Malta – The Misfit by Oliver Friggieri
Netherlands – Dear Mr M. by Herman Koch
Poland – Instante (Moment) by Wislawa Szymborska
Portugal – O Homem Duplicado (The Double) by José Saramago
Romania – For Two Thousand Years by Mihail Sebastian
Slovakia – Seeing People Off by Jana Benová
Slovenia – Panorama by Dusan Sarotar
Spain – Nada by Carmen Laforet
Sweden – The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson
United Kingdom – Glister by John Burnside