Europe speaks 225 languages, mostly belonging to the Indo-European family. The three main
language groups are the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic. The Germanic languages, mostly spoken in
northern and western Europe, are German, English, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish etc. The people
who speak Germanic languages are stereotyped as pragmatic and calculated. The climate of northern
Europe can be deadly in winter so people had to be more practical to survive the harsh climate.
The Romance or Latin branch of languages mainly spoken in Southern and Western Europe are French,
Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, etc. The people speaking romance languages tend
to be more romantic, friendly and laid-back. The warm climate of southern Europe is great to chill,
take siesta, talk with your hands and express yourself like an opera singer.
The Slavic branch of Indo-European languages are mainly spoken in Eastern and Southern Europe,
including Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Serbian, Czech, Croatian, Bulgarian
and more. The Speakers of Slavic languages are stereotyped as being honest, not smiling,
going mushrooming in the forest and drinking alcohol and eating pickles.
Other Indo-European languages outside the three main groups are Greek,
Armenian, Albanian, Latvian and Lithuanian, Irish,
Scottish and Welsh. It’s hard to have common stereotypes as they are so widely different.
Outside the Indo-European languages in Europe we have the Uralic languages, such as Finnish,
Estonian and Hungarian, who are more drawn to nature and saunas, as well as Turkic
languages such as Turkish, Azeri, and Kazakh with the stereotypes being hospitable and generous.
In this segment I will talk about the best novels from Ireland, Italy, Iceland and more.
Which country has some of the most psychological novels? Which country’s literature tells you all
about freedom? And what’s the best novel from the poorest country in Europe? Let’s begin.
Iceland: Iceland is one of the smallest nations to have a Nobel Prize winner. Halldor Laxness’s
Independent People, the most well-known Icelandic novel, helped him win the big prize in 1955.
It depicts the spirit of financial independence among the Icelandic farmers, who are shown to be
very resilient and proud to stand on their own feet. The protagonist of this novel is a man of
principle, to the point that he prefers poverty to financial debt. Before anyone gets a credit card,
they should read this novel. It’s very poetic, at times heart-breaking and at times very
suspenseful. It’s a 20th century modern rendition of Icelandic sagas of the 13th and 14 centuries.
Freedom and independence at any cost. Today we might think the protagonist is a little
crazy but it’s that love for freedom that defines our current civilisation.
Ireland: Literature has deep roots in the Irish soil, or a combination of the soil
and Catholic discipline. James Joyce’s Ulysses is the most famous novel by an Irish author,
but it’s also one of the most difficult. It’s innovative as it pushes the boundaries of
language and consciousness. It took Ulysses, the hero of Homer’s Greek epic, Odyssey,
10 years to return home from the Trojan war, but Joyce’s hero covers a few areas of Dublin
in a single day, June 16, 1922. It’s long, complicated and at the same time artistic.
It’s a novel about language itself. If Proust wrote about time, Joyce wrote about language.
Another novel by an Irish author, which I really enjoyed is the Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar
Wilde. It’s a very unique novel about beauty, aging but it’s also very accessible to read.
Andrew from YouTube suggested the 1987 novel, The Red Men by Patrick McGinley,
set in Donegal, Ireland, which I have not read.
Italy: My favorite Italian novelist is Italo Calvino, whose best-known works are
The Invisible Cities and If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler but my favourite of novel
of his is The Baron in the Trees about a boy who has gone up the trees and refuses to come down.
He spends his entire life in the trees just like our ape-like ancestors. Italo Calvino loved two
things: science and folktale storytelling, so he tried to capture the modern condition by telling
stories that connect us to our deeper past. Of course, Italian literature is very rich,
so it is rude not to mention a few great works here. Dante’s Divine Comedy is a towering work
of literature, with so much philosophical and religious depth. Another important work is the
1988 Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco that deals with scientific mystery, conspiracy theories,
religious symbolism, and the uncertainty of human life. If the French philosopher,
Michel Foucault, argued that man was a modern invention, Eco echoes that
saying that despite our best scientific and logical efforts to find certainty,
there are mysteries we can never know and our quest for knowledge will never keep us in peace.
Eco’s most famous work is The Name of The Rose which deals with a murder mystery that took place
some 800 years ago in a monastery. Again that quest to know things. Zeno's Conscience by Italo
Svevo is about a patient suffering from addiction and ill health. Another novel that I enjoyed very
much is The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati which is a very pessimistic and nihilistic novel about
a soldier waiting for an enemy all his life, only to die at the wrong time.
Andrew0090 from YouTube suggested Luigi Pirandello’s masterpiece One, No One and One
Hundred Thousand published in 1926.
Kazakhstan: The Silent Steppe: The Story of a Kazakh Nomad under Stalin by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov
published in 2006 tells the story of famine and hardship among the Kazakh people in 1930s and 40s.
It chronicles the horrors of Soviet social engineering, turning a semi-nomadic people
into a hard-working labour force in the service of the Soviet state. The result is enormous famine,
pain and trauma for the Kazakh people. But against all odds, they survive.
so? A viewer on Youtube suggested the Path of Abai by Mūhtar Äuezov published in the 1940s
and 50s which won many prizes and was translated into many languages. It’s an epic tale of the life
of the greatest Kazakh poet Abai Qūnanbaiūly, his growing up and the challenges he faced in life.
Latvia: Aleksandrs Grīns translated the German novel All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich
Maria Remarque which I included in my top 10 German novels. Aleksandrs Grīns’s own greatest
novel is Blizzard of Souls published 1934 about a young Latvian schoolboy who goes to war. You can
see the parallel with the All Quiet on the Western Front as they both depict the futility of wars.
Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena published in 2015 deals with isolation, depression and
later redemption of its characters. It’s about the unhappy relationship between a mother and
daughter during the Soviet rule when people walked on eggshells, a small slip could ruin your career
and life. The story alternates between the mother and the daughter but the novel is pretty
short. It was also suggested by Emiel from YouTube. Latvia’s national epic is Lāčplēsis
or "The Bear-Slayer" published in the 1870s by Andrejs Pumpurs. It’s somewhat
similar to the Finnish epic Kalevala and the Estonian epic Kalevipoeg. The context for
all these national epics in the region is the Russian rule, as they all call for autonomy and
self-preservation for their national identity. It’s through myths that a culture can survive.
Liechtenstein: I found no novels in English. However my search resulted
in a few novels in German. The Dark Muse, a crime novel, by Armin Öhri won the EU
Prize for Literature. Gutenberg-Schalun is the German title of a historical novel by
Hermine Rheinberger who lived between 1864 and 1932. It’s set in the 14th century and
she published it 1897 making her the first female author from Liechtenstein.
Lithuania: Tula published in 1993 by one of the most famous Lithuanian novelists, Jurgis Kuncinas.
Set in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in a poor neighbourhood, it follows the life of
a drunkard narrator as he staggers his way in the underside of town in search of his love,
Tula. In his imagination he invents ways to be with her. Sometimes turning himself into a bat.
Sometimes traveling through countries to be with her. It feels like someone is stuck
inside a prison and uses his imagination to be free and to be with his lover.
It’s funny with dark humour but also a tragic tale of a man reminiscing about his past. The writing
is beautiful, reminding me of Flaubert, taking something mundane and turning it into an art.
Aurimas as well as Emiel YouTube suggested Antanas Škėma’s novel, White Shroud published in 1958,
considered the most important modernist novel in Lithuania, written in stream
of consciousness that deals with the immigrant experience of an elevator operator in New York
and the absurdities of life. Elevators go up and down, which sums up the undulating yet pointless
human life. You wake up, go to work, come home and repeat it all over again. Santa, another
viewer suggested Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas’s novel In the Shadow of Altars, another psychological
novel from Lithuania. I’m beginning to think, there’s something in the soil of Lithuania that
makes its writers more psychological or perhaps Lithuanians love Dostoevsky.
Luxembourg: Rewenig's Hannert dem Atlantik (1985) is unique because it’s the first novel written in
Luxembourgish language. Why? Because most writers either write in German or French.
Jean Back’s short novel Amateur plays with the idea of fiction, memory and reality all mixed up.
I found no novels to read in English, but I learnt how to spell Luxembourg which means
little castle in old German, a country that produces the best wine therefore is one of
the richest nations. So if you want to be wealthy get in the wine business.
Malta: Malta is perhaps the only European country that speaks a Semitic language,
close to Arabic. Happy Weekend by Immanuel Mifsud is the only novel I found to be
available in English. I have not read it but from reviews it seems to deal with issue of morality,
and how to act or not to act. If you have read it, comment below,
telling us all about it. A while back I got an email from some companies saying that my
podcast was trending in Malta. I think it’s some practical joke. If you’re in Malta let me know.
Moldova: The Good Life Elsewhere is a 2014 novel by a Moldovan writer of Russian origin
Vladimir Lorchenkov. It is the story of a group of villagers who want to migrate to Italy for better
opportunities. As you might know, Moldovan language is related to Romanian, so Italy as
a destination makes sense due to the linguistic proximity as both are Latin-based. I think it is
a common tale of many from the poorer countries migrating westward to better their lives.
The novel also plays with the idea of descending on Italy as a kind of crusade for the promised
holy land, Italy for financial reasons or the Vatican City for religious reasons. According
to some studies, Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, but also the most corrupt, so no
wonder people take to the road for a better life elsewhere. Interesting fact, Alexander Pushkin
the national poet of Russia lived in Moldova for 3 years and now the house he lived in is a museum.