Novels are our passport to the world. From Paris to Istanbul, Berlin to Moscow, this reading challenge by DK Eyewitness Editor Lucy Sara-Kelly will immerse you in Europe’s great cities and have you itching to buy a ticket to the continent. Let your literary itinerary begin...
Dublin
Begin your adventure in Dublin with Catriona Lally’s Eggshells. Though Joyce’s Leopold Bloom may be the Irish city’s most famous flâneur, Lally creates a modern meanderer with a bit of a twist – Vivian believes she’s a changeling and she’s searching for a magical gateway home. Quirky and charismatic, she’ll lead you through Dublin street-by-street, popping into friendly cafes, jumbled bookstores and iconic museums – like the Natural History Museum – along the way.
DK Top 10 Dublin
View BookLondon
Next, pick up Sam Selvon’s novel The Lonely Londoners and you’ll find yourself at the very centre of England’s capital. Selvon’s Caribbean-English narrative follows Moses and his friends, immigrants from the West Indies, as they meet new arrivals at Waterloo Station, set up shop in Bayswater and saunter through leafy Hyde Park. You’ll experience the bitterly cold and rainy days London is notorious for, and the heady summers that make the winter months just about worth it. Starkly realistic (though injected with flashes of humour), the novel takes an in-depth look at race relations in the 1950s and maps out the city as it speeds along.
DK Top 10 London
View BookAmsterdam
Fancy a sojourn in Amsterdam? Midwinter Break, by Bernard MacLaverty, chronicles Stella and Gerry’s holiday here in minute detail, tracing the couple as they dodge bicycles along the canals, visit famous sights such as the Anne Frank House and swerve stag parties that sprawl out into the streets. The tranquil area of Begijnhof also plays a key role in the novel. MacLaverty’s prose grounds the reader in the city, which is mystically wrapped in its winter blanket, and provides an intimate portrait of marriage in its later years.
DK Amsterdam
View BookNaples
Shimmy down Italy’s spine and you’ll soon reach Naples – the literary land of Eleanor Ferrante. If you’ve already gobbled up her Neapolitan Quartet, try her most recent bestseller, The Lying Life of Adults, to further immerse yourself in this ancient city. Connected by well-walked streets, journeys on the funicular and zippy trips in a green fiat 500, the wealthy heights of Rione Alto and poorer levels of Naples’ Industrial Zone are captured in unparalleled detail.
DK Naples and the Amalfi Coast
View BookBerlin
After wandering through balmy Naples, soak up the atmosphere of bohemian Berlin in Sabahattin Ali’s Madonna in a Fur Coat. The city’s art scene takes centre stage here, as the protagonist, Raif Efendi, strikes up a life-changing, and gender role-reversing, relationship with a young painter, Maria Puder – who lives near the Tiergarten. Debating in intellectual coffee houses and twirling through bawdy cabaret bars, Raif and Maria cruise through all corners of Berlin, entranced by the city and each other.
DK Top 10 Berlin
View BookIstanbul
Swoop south to Istanbul for the final chapter of your journey, led by Orhan Pamuk’s The Black Book. This mythical murder mystery will have you acquainted with Turkey’s dazzling city in no time. Moving above and below ground, you’ll encounter famous sights such as Süleymaniye Mosque and Taksim Square, while also roaming the lesser-known and more ramshackle lanes of the city. Pamuk’s captivating narrative highlights the city’s position as a bridge between east and west and the precarious cultural identity that ensues from this. So buckle up, this is one deep dive into Istanbul.
DK Top 10 Istanbul
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