Quote:
Originally Posted by Istvan diVega
While you're quite correct in terms of geography, "Eastern Europe" is commonly used to denote the countries which belonged to the old East Block. I suspect that's what HomeInMyShoes meant. It's factually wrong not only in the case of Slovakia, but the habit of using it is 45 years old and probably won't die any time soon.
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Actually the habit is also geographically dependent
. I am from Southeast Europe and majority of the people here never thought about Czechoslovakia, or subsequently Czech Republic and Slovakia as Eastern Europe. It was always pretty much Central.
To the OP,
I understand why you grouped Bulgaria with Eastern Europe (whole USSR deal I know), and also that is really way to go only if you go with UN geographical division of Europe which is quite lacking (east, west, south, north only)
Bulgaria is
Southeast Europe, same as all former Yugoslavian republics, and believe it or not our language (yes I am from there) is so very close too. Something like Swedish and Norwegian are. So, I would suggest you incorporate this category as well as Central Europe.
Anyway try this one, maybe your library would have it:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ar_of_the_Frog
As for
Bosnian literature I can recommend
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...nd_the_Dervish
or this one
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...7.The_Fortress
or contemporary one
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ajevo-marlboro
Croatian
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...nistry_of_Pain
Serbian
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...ris_Davidovich
Bosnian/Serbian
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/..._Other_Stories
If you can find anything by Branko Ćopić as well.
There is a wealth of more, this giant sea of books, but it's not translated so very few people can swim in it. Even my favorite Bosnian novel
Legenda o Ali-paši (The Legend of Ali-pasha) by Enver Čolaković is not translated. Maybe I should do it myself someday
Oh one other thing, if you like Fantasy genre (like me :3), I would hope that for Poland entry you'd consider reading Andrzej Sapkowski and his Saga o Wiedźminie (The Witcher Saga)
https://www.goodreads.com/series/409...a-o-wied-minie
starting with The Last Wish. The series is fully translated into English either by official or fan translations.
And for Russian fantasy I'd recommend either Sergei Lukyanenko and his Night Watch series or for sci-fi Dmitry Glukhovsky and his Metro 2033
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...etro-2033?ac=1
Edit: I just wanted to add that I really like your challenge and I can understand why you are so excited to start it
It's almost like travelling, without all the hassle of travels.
I hope to do one of these "around the world" type of challenge some day, maybe with African literature or South America one.