Which authors do you think best capture the voices of their countries? Which ones give you the strongest sense of "being there"?

Tough question, but a really good one, Escritora. I really feel a sense of a tropical (much of the time) South America through the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The heavy perfume of the flowers & fruits fills the air after a rainfall in his fictional town of Macondo, so that I can almost sense them myself. Dickens of course, captures the industrial grime, cold & damp of old London town most convincingly. Ignazio Silone, Primo Levi & Natalia Ginzburg have all deftly portrayed various faces of Italy with memorable grace & style. Can't select just one, sorry. (It's a little like asking of one's favorite wine; depends on your mood & what else you're having!) <BR>BC

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First one that comes to mind is James Joyce (of course, I just got through The Dubliners), but I believe he's got it spot on! <BR>Inerestingly, I also thought Bill Bryson put me right there with him in "Notes from a Small island." Even though he's American, 20 years in England left him speaking like a Brit with the sensibilities to match. Absolutely loved that book!

Tough question, because for some countries there are SO many authors. <BR> <BR>Milan Kundera - Czechoslovakia (the former) <BR>Alan Paton - South Africa <BR>Jan Morris - just about anywhere she's been, even though she's not a native. <BR>Agree with Book Chick about the Italians;though Natalia Ginzburg is my favorite, they all give "flavor." <BR>France is impossible; there are too many. <BR>

Have you ever read Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje? It is about the civil war in Sri Lanka. He has really captured the essence of Sri Lanka in this novel. After I read this book, I wanted to go to Sri Lanka and experience it for myself.....I have never read Allan Patton, but I think Nadine Gordimer is the voice of S. Africa, although some would argue. Read Burgher's Daughter, it is a masterpiece.....I agree about Marquez. He is one of my favorites. 100 Years of Solitude captures the magic and the religious atmosphere of S. America. It has that whole Catholic-Vodoo thing going on. Yea!.....And the voice of Portugal has to be Samarago. Please read his novel Blindness.....And for Russia I would say Alexander I Solzinetsin. I think he captures the dismal gut-wrenching atmosphere of the Soviet era. You can see the poison-green walls of a Moscow hospital, and feel the cold of a Siberian winter in his novels. He captures the Russian soul. JG

Those whose words you read in their original language.