Are you following the World Cup? Has that intense international feeling inspired you to look for some reading from around the globe? Here’s a summer reading challenge for you: why not read a book by an author from each of the nations facing off in the semifinals this week? Or from every country that played in the quarterfinals? Or even from every country that made it to the Round of 16?  We’ve been inspired by the Los Angeles Public Library’s brilliant virtual #Literary World Cup to create our own Literary World Cup book display featuring authors from these competing countries. We hope you'll discover some new writers to enjoy!

If you were hoping for a list of books about soccer rather than world literature, try these recommendations from from MLSSoccer.com, The New York Times, and The Guardian (where the beautiful game is, of course,  called football.)  And the NYPL’s Children’s Center has compiled a fun “Soccer Crazy” list for kids.

Here are our literary lineups:

On Tuesday, July 8, Brazil meets Germany:

Jorge Amado                                 Clarice Lispector

Paulo Coelho                                Machado de Assis

Rubem Fonseca

Heinrich Böll                                  Erich Kästner

Hans Fallada                                   Daniel Kehlman

Cornelia Funke                              Thomas Mann

E. T. A. Hoffmann                          Herta Müller

On Wednesday, July 9,  Argentina meets the Netherlands:

Adolfo Bioy Casares                  Manuel Puig

Jorge Luis Borges                        Ana Marìa Shua

Julio Cortázar                              Luisa Valenzuela

Erasmus                                       Arthur Japin

Michel Faber                             Tim Krabbé

Arnon Grunberg                      Harry Mulisch    

Hella Haasse                               

These countries may have been defeated in the quarterfinals, but these authors are still worth reading!

Belgium

Louis Paul Boon                         

Hergé                        

Amélie Nothomb

Georges Simenon

Columbia

Héctor Abad Faciolince

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Laura Restrepo

Juan Gabriel Vasquez

Costa Rica

The Costa Rica Reader: History, Culture, Politics

Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion

When New Flowers Bloomed: Short Stories by Women Writers From Costa Rica and Panama

Cuentos costarricenses                      Poesia contemporanea de Costa Rica

Little Costa Rican literature has been translated into English, but these anthologies  offer an overview.

France 

Muriel Barbery                               Jonathan Littell

Albert Camus                                  Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Alexandre Dumas                          Françoise Sagan

Marguerite Duras                         Émile Zola

And if you'd like to explore the literature of more World Cup countries, here's the rest of the Round of 16:

Algeria

Rachid Boudjedra                     Yasmina Khadra

Hélène Cixous                            Leïla Sebbar

Mohammed Dib

Chile

Isabel Allende                            Pablo Neruda

Roberto Bolaño                        Alejandro Zambra   

Ariel Dorfman

Greece

Constantine Cavafy               Menis Koumantareas

Odysseas Elytes                       Giannes Ritsos

Ianna Karystian                       George Seferis

Nikos Kazantzakis                  Ersi Sotiropoulos

Mexico

Laura Esquivel                         Juan Rulfo

Carlos Fuentes                        Luis Alberto Urrea

Octavio Paz

Nigeria

Chinua Achebe                                         Helon Habila

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie                Wole Soyinka

Buchi Emecheta

Switzerland

Bernard Comment                             Zoë Jenny

Friedrich Dürrenmatt                      Jürg Laederach 

Max Frisch                                            Gerhard Meier

Elisabeth Horem

Uruguay

Delmira Agustini

Mario Benedetti

Eduardo Galeano

Carmen Posadas

These lists are not meant to be exhaustive or definitive in any way. We simply wanted to offer a few reading ideas.  A list of major French or German writers available in English translation, for example, would be beyond the scope of our modest display.  You can find some additional suggestions on the New York Writers Coalition's World Cup Writers Reading List, which includes an author from each country that competed in 2014.  The authors on their list "are either activists or write stories featuring those who are marginalized in their own society." Please share your own international reading  recommendations in the comments section below. The world certainly offers many more wonderful authors to explore!