BOOKPACKING THROUGH WESTERN EUROPE
Books are travel in themselves. When we can’t travel by train, boat, plane, or car, we have books to take us where we want to go.
These ten books are a small sampling of a few favorites set in Western Europe.
The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman (Germany)
The Plum Tree is a historical fiction novel with an embedded love story. Christine and Isaac fall for each other during their teen years while living in Germany at the onset of the Nazi regime and WWII. Christine is a Christian; Isaac is a Jew, yet both of them end up inside the nightmare of Dachau Concentration Camp located in southern Germany.
It is clear that Wiseman has rock-star storytelling abilities. Page after page, she didn’t simply tell about the horrors of the camp; she made me smell the burning flesh and taste the ashes. I could see the lines in the gray, hollowed faces and hear the stomping of Gestapo boots.
From the book: “War makes perpetrators of some, criminals of others, and victims of everyone.”
Inferno by Dan Brown (Italy)
I’m a fan of all of Dan Brown’s books, but Inferno is my favorite.
Harvard Professor Robert Langdon awakens with slight amnesia in an Italian hospital. With companion Sienna Brooks, he follows a trail of clues through Florence, clues that relate to Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, The Inferno. Unraveling these clues is Langdon’s only hope of saving the entire human population from a brilliant and dangerous scientist.
From the book: “Only one form of contagion travels faster than a virus. And that’s fear.”
The Two Pennies by Susie Millar (Northern Ireland)
I picked up a copy of this book from the author herself while on tour with her in Northern Ireland. It tells the true story of the Millar family and their involvement in the construction and maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. Told in the voices of various family members, the story tells of loss and how the most famous nautical tragedy affected the lives of ordinary people.
From the book: “A great big iceberg in the middle of the ocean stood in the ship’s path and it had other ideas about our destiny. I dread to think what [my father’s] final hours must have been like, thinking of his children I am sure and cursing himself for his bold adventure stopped cruelly in its tracks.”
The BFG by Roald Dahl (England)
My favorite book as a child was The BFG, or The Big, Friendly Giant. It whisked me away to the hills and palaces of England while teaching me the importance of being kind.
Little Sophie is kidnapped from her bedroom in the middle of the night by a giant. Most of the giants in England like to gobble up little “chiddlers” for dinner. Luckily for Sophie, the giant that snatched her is a friendly giant. Together, they hatch a plan to stop the other giants from guzzling any more children. All they need now is some help from the Queen.
From the book: “I am hearing all the secret whisperings of the world!”
A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain (Switzerland)
Part travelogue, part fiction, Twain’s writing takes you up the snowy peaks of the Swiss Alps, into the heart of Germany, and onward to a little slice of Italy.
You will have to put in some work to find a flow to the story as the digressions are many and the humor is dry. It is humorous to reflect on Twain’s analysis of Americans versus Europeans. It is even more humorous to read his take on American tourists and travel guidebooks. In true Mark Twain fashion, he utilizes sarcasm to debunk the glory and mystique of Europe. Many of his observations are still relevant and still funny over a hundred years later.
From the book: “I must insist that as much style be thrown into my journeys as possible.”
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (France)
This is the book that made me fall in love with Paris, France, even before I ever set foot in the city.
This historical novel tells the haunting story of the endearing hunchback, Quasimodo; the kind-hearted gypsy, Esmeralda; and the tormented priest, Claude Frollo. Set in Medieval Paris, the writing gives a detailed description of the city as well as the looming and powerful presence of the cathedral itself.
Dark, tragic, and yet redeeming, this is a classic for a reason.
From the book: “Nothing makes a man so adventurous as an empty pocket.”
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George (France)
A book written about the love of books—what could be better?
Monsieur Perdu owns a barge on the River Seine in Paris, France. This is no ordinary barge: it is a floating bookshop. Perdu prescribes visitors books as one would prescribe medicine. He believes books have the power to heal the many broken hearts he encounters.
However, Perdu can’t seem to find any literature that heals his own heartbreak and takes off on the river to the south of France in search of peace and closure.
From the book: “I’m a firm believer that you have to taste a country’s soul to understand it and to grasp its people. And by soul I mean what grows there, what its people see and smell and touch every day, what travels through them and shapes them from the inside out.”
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (Spain)
You don’t read Hemingway to feel happy, but you do read Hemingway to fall more in love with words.
While Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley stumble numbly through the post-WWI era, they make their way around Europe, eventually settling in with a group of expatriates in Spain, right in the thick of savage bullfighting and paralyzing disillusionment. And while the characters may not be likable, they are so often relatable.
The rich, red flamboyance of Spain makes the book feel fiery, almost like it is constantly burning.
From the book: “There is no reason why because it is dark you should look at things differently from when it is light.”
Tess of the D’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (England)
Tess’s story is heavy, depressing, and as important to read now as it was at publication in 1891. It is a tale of disaster and doom for a young girl who seems always to have the worst timing.
Living in the rural town of Marlott in southern England, Tess leads a bleak life in a time when women are very much seen as inferior and subservient to men. Hardy exposes the damage of unhealthy relationships, idolizes no one, and spawns an inner conflict in the reader that is truly unsettling.
The final scene at Stonehenge will rip your heart out, chew it up, and stomp on it relentlessly. This is a book that I cannot erase from my mind or my heart.
From the book: “She knew how to hit to a hair’s breadth that moment of evening when the light and the darkness are so evenly balanced that the constraint of the day and the suspense of night neutralize each other, leaving absolute mental liberty.”
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Italy)
The popular true story of a woman in search of meaning takes place in several places across the globe, but the first place on her travel list is Italy.
After a divorce and a hard look at her life, Elizabeth Gilbert formulated a year-long plan to travel the world in search of pleasure, prayer, and peace. From eating pizza in Naples to consuming her first taste of gelato, the anecdotes transport you not only to a country but to a moment.
You may agree or disagree with her methods, but she certainly did write a witty and entertaining memoir of her own self-discovery.
From the book: “[T]raveling is the great true love of my life. … I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless, newborn baby—I just don’t care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it’s mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to—I just don’t care.”