
Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US? - whitepoplar
From novels, to nonfiction, to the art of leisure.
======
Arun2009
If by "great" you mean influential, then definitely India's epics, the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata would fit the bill IMO.

Wikipedia has this to say about Mahabharata:

> The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as
> "the longest poem ever written".[7][8] Its longest version consists of over
> 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a
> couplet), and long prose passages. At about 1.8 million words in total, the
> Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey
> combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa.[9][10] W. J.
> Johnson has compared the importance of the Mahābhārata in the context of
> world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare,
> the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the Quran.[11] Within the Indian
> tradition it is sometimes called the Fifth Veda.

~~~
nindalf
But if by “great” you mean a lot of fun to read, then I’m skeptical. I grew up
with these stories since my mother and grandmother told them as bedtime
stories. As I learned to read I picked up the comic book versions (known as
Amar Chitra Katha) and later the novels.

As far as the stories themselves go, they’re pretty drab. The plot is
predictable, dialogue is meh, characters (apart from 2) are more like
caricatures than real people, the morals are as subtle as bludgeons, they drag
on for no reason. I would not recommend them to anyone.

That’s not to say they’re not important books. They were and are influential.
Today’s books might be better but they owe a debt of gratitude to the
classics. So in some ways reading the Mahabharata today and complaining it
isn’t great is similar to complaining that Seinfeld Isn’t Funny. Plus I will
say, at least half a billion people love these stories and worship the
characters as Gods. If that makes you curious, pick them up.

~~~
akashakya
You should definitely check out different versions. The story they usually use
in tv-series and 'parents' tell is the same version which is as you said
boring, and plain good guy vs bad guy plot. But many ancient versions
excellent[1][2] and they not dragged like the original!, even better if you
are into prosody(kavya)[3].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urubhanga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urubhanga)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikramarjuna_Vijaya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikramarjuna_Vijaya)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_prosody](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_prosody)

------
jxub
From where I stand, Hispanic and Slavic literature is fairly unknown and
underrated on the other side of the pond.

Ramón del Valle Inclán's "Lights of Bohemia": A great portrait of Madrid and
the dirty guts of the Spain from 100 years ago, written in a gorgeously
precise, dark and multifaceted range of vocabulary.

Ortega y Gasset's "Rebellion of the Masses". It is centered in the individual
"I am me and my circumstances" and its evolution since the enlightenment.

Sapkowski's "Witcher". Look for a good translation, lots of Slavic mythology
tidbits and wonderfully juicy curse words.

Stanislaw Lem's "The Star Diaries". Nice if you like to fantasize about buying
pieces for your spaceship in a shopping centre or think about chair-like
aliens with 11 different sexes (in the book).

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A hundred years of solitude". The book is all about
"realismo fantástico", joining the real and imaginary words in an
unforgettable blend.

~~~
lappet
Can you please provide more examples of Slavic literature? I am only aware of
Russian authors. Any idea if the english translation of Witcher by Danusia
Stok is good? I am very curious about Slavic culture and recently blogged
about "Slavs"[1], I would love to add a literature section to my post.

[1]
[https://raviramanujam.com/post/blog/slavs.html](https://raviramanujam.com/post/blog/slavs.html)

~~~
jxub
> Any idea if the english translation of Witcher by Danusia Stok is good?

I've just doublechecked that the official English translation is good indeed,
I haven't got first hand knowledge though [https://www.quora.com/I-intend-to-
read-the-Witcher-books-but...](https://www.quora.com/I-intend-to-read-the-
Witcher-books-but-see-a-lot-of-conflicting-opinions-regarding-which-is-better-
the-official-or-fan-translation)

My knowledge of Slavic literature limits mostly to the Polish and some Russian
authors, despite that I can recommend a Czech satire book that I liked:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk)

Other than that, Czeslaw Milosz for the poetry, Henryk Sienkiewicz has some
great novels about the history of Poland (The Trilogy and The Teutonic Knights
are damn hooking and intense), Zofia Kossak Szczucka
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zofia_Kossak-
Szczucka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zofia_Kossak-Szczucka)) is another
solid historical writer. I am aware however that my tastes in literature are
somewhat eclectic.

Russian Lit: Nikolai Gogol for the stories, Solzhenitsyn for the Gulag
Archipelago, and of course War and Peace (Tolstoy) and Crime and Punishment
(Dostoevsky). Reserve some weeks for the last two though, heh ;)

Any help you need, just shoot me an email (in the profile), but I'm not an
expert by any means :P

~~~
lappet
Thank you! I will definitely check those out :)

~~~
jxub
All pleasure is mine! Also, glad that you like the Life of Boris :D (in the
blog post)!

~~~
lappet
Oh man, Boris is awesome, I watch his stuff almost every other day! Are you
from Poland?

~~~
jxub
Yep. I was born there (in Silesia) but I'm living in Spain since I was ten.

~~~
lappet
Awesome

------
zawerf
The "Four Great Classic Novels" from 14th-18th century China:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels)

Specifically:

Water Margin

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Journey to the West

Dream of the Red Chamber

They are referenced in everything in asian media and there a bajillion
tv/movie adaptations of them but they are relatively unknown in the west.

~~~
oldcynic
Seconded. They are excellent. I must re-read them.

Water Margin[0] came to UK on TV in the early 80s from Japanese TV. Gained
quite a following.

Journey to the West came to the UK as Monkey[1] (again a Japanese adaptation)
around the same time. It was the most ridiculous, weird thing on TV. Most
people at school were addicted to it. It became a cult classic. Sadly Saiyuki
2 never made it to the UK.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Margin_(1973_TV_seri...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Margin_\(1973_TV_series\))
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_(TV_series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_\(TV_series\))

~~~
pimlottc
Damon Alburn (musician from Blur and Gorillaz) also co-created a stage
adaptation as Monkey: Journey to the West:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey:_Journey_to_the_West](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey:_Journey_to_the_West)

------
avmich
Russian schools of science fiction, "established" by Ivan Efremov and
Strugatskie brothers, produced many great pieces of literature.

One of my favorites is "A billion years before the end of the world"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely_Maybe_(novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely_Maybe_\(novel\))
.

~~~
Thersites
Agreed. Monday Begins on Saturday is amazing -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Begins_on_Saturday](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Begins_on_Saturday)

------
LandR
Not sure how well these are known in the US..

Mans search for meaning by Victor Frankl.

Anything by Dostoyevsky.

José Saramago's the double. They made a film based on this with jake
gyllenhall but not sure how well known the book and saramego is in the US,
both book and film are excellent.

A girl is a half formed thing by Elmer mcbride is the best thing I've read in
years with a really unique writing style. It's an incredible tragic book
though... Check out first chapter online here to see if you like the style.

[http://www.flare.com/celebrity/must-read-the-first-
chapter-o...](http://www.flare.com/celebrity/must-read-the-first-chapter-of-a-
girl-is-a-half-formed-thing/)

~~~
wenc
> Mans search for meaning by Victor Frankl.

> Anything by Dostoyevsky.

These are extremely well-known in the U.S.

Dostoevsky is considered heavy literature however. It's well known but not
often read.

------
gjkood
Some great comics/graphic novels that are relatively unknown in the US

Asterix comics [1]

Tintin comics [2]

Yes, I know Spielberg's Tintin animated movie is well known but I doubt most
people in the US have heard of the entire series of Tintin comics.

I couldn't devour these fast enough when I was growing up.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-
alias%3...](https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-
alias%3Daps&field-keywords=asterix)

[2] [https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-
alias%3...](https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-
alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tintin)

~~~
ddebernardy
It's not just those two. Most French/Belgian comics [1] are unknown in the US.
There have been tons of talented newcomers since the 1990s, and some cursory
Googling suggests me that most are not translated to English yet. (Some are
available in German.)

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-
Belgian_comics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Belgian_comics)

~~~
riffraff
I would say European and south American comics are mostly unknown in the US.
L'incal, Corto Maltese, Mafalda, El Eternauta... There is a whole world which
is distinctly different from the mainstream American style and manga/manwa,
and very interesting.

~~~
allegedganon
The recently released film Valerian is based on a 70's french comics Valerian
& Laureline that is/was totally unknown in the US.

Even more interesting is how much inspiration a certain George Lucas seem to
have drawn from them:

[http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/30/are-the-valrian-
and-l...](http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/30/are-the-valrian-and-
laureline-comics-really-a-big-unnamed-influence-on-star-wars)

------
neom
Americans don't have moomins. Moomins are awesome.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomins)
/ [https://www.moomin.com/en/blog/friendship-love-central-
messa...](https://www.moomin.com/en/blog/friendship-love-central-message-tove-
janssons-work/)

~~~
stevekemp
I grew up in the UK and watched the (Japanese) cartoon series. Nowadays I find
myself living in Finland, and Moomins are __everywhere __(no surprise I
guess!)

------
modernerd
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1889, London).

[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/308/308-h/308-h.htm](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/308/308-h/308-h.htm)

The first half of the opening chapter is the best intro to any work of comic
fiction I've read.

At face value it's a simple road trip story (by boat), but the episodes of
hypochondria and camaraderie still feel contemporary and fun — it is written
and to be read for the pure joy of it, and you need look for no deeper
meaning.

~~~
jkbyc
My mom used to read these to me and my brothers when we were little, we all
really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.

If you like Jerome K. Jerome, you should also check out Saturnin:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1724928.Saturnin](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1724928.Saturnin)
It has a great poetic and funny style of classical Czech works. There's a
movie too. Just in case someone is interested, a movie with a similar funny
and poetic style
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_It_Short](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_It_Short)
(Postřižiny) and I'd also recommend checking out
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_and_Her_Week_of_Wonder...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_and_Her_Week_of_Wonders_\(film\))
\- a surrealistic horror film...I love the soundtrack
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPyPEraG74c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPyPEraG74c)
...and to make it relevant to the original request, there's a book of the same
name by Vitezslav Nezval (I haven't read it though)

------
splittingTimes
Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities" [1] is by far the most outstanding
novel i have read, as it stretches the limits of what language can express
past anything i tought possible. The protagonist is a mathematician whose
scientific mind applies allegorical dissections over a wide range of
existential themes concerning humanity and feelings. The polarity makes it for
an extraordinary read.

Hermann Broch "The Death of Virgil". The novel creates out of a dying poet a
rich, profound vision both of civilization and of primal concerns of all
mankind.

Austrian authors where on another level in the late 30s and 40s of the 20th
century.

Finally, Victor Pelevin's "Empire V: The Prince of Hamlet" [3] You gain
instruction into the vampire life and by extension the humans which vampires
feed and the nature of god and existence itself, with interesting meditations
on existence, theology, matter, illusion and withering attacks on fashion,
advertising, politics, the Davos elite, literature and particularly the nature
of money.

===

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_Qualities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_Qualities)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Virgil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Virgil)

[3] [https://www.amazon.de/Empire-Prince-Hamlet-Victor-
Pelevin/dp...](https://www.amazon.de/Empire-Prince-Hamlet-Victor-
Pelevin/dp/1473213061)

~~~
frasinet
I can vouch for "The Man Without Qualities", the book is really extraordinary.
I read it when I was 18 and I still remember not quite knowing why I liked it
so much.

------
egourlao
Usually not into fantasy, but La Horde du Contrevent is a French fantasy
classic, written by Alain Damasio, which was published in 2004. He went later
on to collaborate on a few games that might be more known in the US (Life Is
Strange, Remember Me). Damasio has a creative use of the language, but which
must then make it hellish to translate into any other language. According to
Wikipedia, it has only been translated in Italian.

------
asimpletune
Foreign:

* Life: a users manual by George s Perec.

* Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal

* Auto-da-fe by Elias Canetti

Domestic:

These are harder because I feel like they’re all pretty well known, but maybe
they’re not actually read. Like, known bc people have heard the name, but are
not read as much anymore.

* Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

* Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

* Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Actually unknown (but super good) domestic:

* Stuff by Larry McMurtry (only famous for lonesome dove)

~~~
howenterprisey
Mason & Dixon by Pynchon is also very, very good.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
That book is incredible and made me feel uneducated. There are so many
references and jokes in that book to historical events, other books, etc. I
knew enough to realize how much of that book was going right over my head.

------
vram22
How about Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse novels (fiction)? Asking, not
saying (whether they are relatively unknown in the US). They are very popular
in India, and of course must be so in the UK, since both authors were from
there.

A lot of subtle humor (British-style, mainly about the aristocracy's ways, but
fun to read) in the Wodehouse books. And Christie has many good novels in the
detective genre. I actually don't find many detective novels good in the
literal sense of being good stories about detection of crime, I like them more
for the descriptions, conversation and atmosphere.

These stats for Christie from Wikipedia are impressive:

[ Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all
time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims
that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published
books,[5] behind only Shakespeare's works and the Bible. According to Index
Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been
translated into at least 103 languages.[6] And Then There Were None is
Christie's best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the
world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all
time. ]

~~~
JonathanMerklin
Anecdotal, but Agatha Christie popped up in the required reading more than a
few times for me from grades 6 through 10 (ages 12 though 16). I went to an
average public school in the Midwestern U.S.

Wodehouse is new to me; I appreciate the recommendation.

~~~
vram22
Interesting that you had it as early as grade 6.

You're welcome.

------
sima-qian
In terms of nonfiction books, Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky has been
eye-opening. I would strongly recommend reading the footnotes alongside it,
though they double the length of the book.

Even if you don't agree with Chomsky's politics or all of his conclusions, his
analysis of American foreign and domestic policy is worth hearing.

------
genjipress
"Epitaph Of A Small Winner" and "Dom Casmurro" by Machado de Assis. He's
written a great many other books besides those, but they're the best of the
bunch. In Brazil he's a national hero, but while much of his work is available
in English it's astoundingly under-appreciated.

~~~
tastyham
I love some foreign authors like Murakami, but I always wonder what I'm losing
in the translation and how much is the translator impacting the writing.

~~~
aerovistae
For what it’s worth, I have a friend who is a native speaker of Japanese and a
fluent English speaker of 40 years, who loves Murakami and has read a number
of his books in both English and Japanese. She says the translations are spot
on and extremely well done.

~~~
matt_the_bass
Haruki murakami is also fluent in English (he lived in Boston area for years)
and is very involved in his books ranslations into English. I have no idea
about his translations into other languages.

I’ve read all his books in English. I’m a big fan of his fiction but not crazy
about his non fiction.

------
akashakya
Vachana Sahitya[1] is less known outside I guess.

Vachana Sahitya is a form of rhythmic writing in Kannada that evolved in the
11th century CE as a part of the Sharana movement, a revolt against all the
social evils of the traditionalistic society that time. Subject varying from
their revolutionary ideas regarding human rights, society, democracy, god, and
life.

It's not actually a book, more like Haiku maybe.

[1]
[http://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kLs3AAAAIAAJ&oi...](http://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kLs3AAAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA72&dq=Vachana&ots=ctHGM6Jt51&sig=cA2uw9vJt9uVHk6F81FBxiwEdk4)

[http://www.manushi-
india.org/pdfs_issues/articles/Talking%20...](http://www.manushi-
india.org/pdfs_issues/articles/Talking%20to%20God%20in%20Mother%20Tongue.pdf)

[http://vsnanc.org/newsite/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/AllamaP...](http://vsnanc.org/newsite/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/AllamaPrabhu-AshwiniSurpur.pdf)

~~~
kamaal
Good choice, but if you don't know Kannada then you have read it in English.
And the charm goes away in translation.

------
hprotagonist
The Master and Margarita.

~~~
defen
I loved this book. Everyone has a different opinion on what the best
translation is, so it’s worth briefly scanning a few different ones to see
which you like best. I had a really hard time getting into the Ginsburg
translation, but really enjoyed the Pevear/Volokhonsky one.

Also, this site:
[http://masterandmargarita.eu/en/](http://masterandmargarita.eu/en/) is a
great resource if you’re not familiar with 1930s Soviet history and the
Gospels (both canonical and apocryphal). Without knowledge of those things you
won’t get nearly as much out of the book as you could.

~~~
hprotagonist
I like the Burgin and O'Connor translation, personally.

They have a postscript per chapter about "all the references you probably
missed", but don't add distracting markup to the text itself to call them out.
It's a nice balance, and the language is pretty good.

------
cromulen
Alamut by Vladimir Bartol

Written in 1030's by a Slovenian, it's a historical fiction novel set in the
in 11th century what is now Iran. It tells the story of how a radical leader
of an Islamic faction, based in the impenetrable mountain fortress "Alamut",
manipulates young men into perfect obedience and turns them against his
enemies through the use of drugs and a fake paradise full of women purporting
to be heaven.

It is also one of the major inspirations for the Assassin's Creed series of
games.

~~~
Pamar
I believe it inspired much more than the videogames:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins)

------
jet_silver
Erskine Childers' "The Riddle of the Sands", an analysis of German naval
ambitions pre-WWI masquerading as a tense work of fiction.

Joshua Slocum's "Sailing Alone Around the World". Slocum does that.

George Ade, any of his works: he was the logical successor as a humorist to
Mark Twain, yet his work doesn't wear all that well since he was in love with
turn-of-the-20th-century slang. With some effort his portrayals of character
turn surprisingly deep and sympathetic.

------
resource0x
Confession by Leo Tolstoy. (About the meaning of life :)
[http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/confessions-
tolst...](http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/confessions-tolstoy.pdf)

~~~
qop
What self-respecting literature enthusiast hasn't heard of Tolstoy?

~~~
EdwardCoffin
I've read some of Tolstoy's stuff, but I'd not heard of this particular work.
Wasn't that the question, about works, not authors?

------
gtycomb
Books by P. G. Wodehouse. English author, an outstanding humorist.

~~~
wenc
Yes. Despite having a shared language, many U.K. books are not widely read in
the U.S. Authors like P.G. Wodehouse and Georgette Heyer are considered a bit
niche in the U.S.

Others:

\- Enid Blyton's children books - Five Find Outers, Secret Seven, Malory
Towers etc.

\- C.S. Forester - Horatio Hornblower series

Non-English authors:

\- Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret series (French detective genre)

\- Sigrid Undset - Kristin Lavransdatter (Scandinavian)

Some foreign authors whose popularity is rising in the U.S. at the moment

\- Elena Ferrante (Italian)

\- Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norwegian)

On a related note, Wikipedia has a more comprehensive list of best-selling
world authors [1]. Ironically many of top writers in the English language
aren't widely read in America.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-
selling_fiction_a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-
selling_fiction_authors)

~~~
gtycomb
The children's books:- Just William series by Richmal Cromption. Fun of
boyhood days immortalized.

------
FilthyAnalyst
The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. Set in pre WWI Vienna. It’s a three
volume unfinished novel full of brilliant writing, much of which should appeal
to the crowd here.

~~~
garrybelka
And Heimito von Doderer. His stories, novellas. The Last Adventure.

But, as introduction or a summary of a Fin de siecle Vienna that was a
progenitor of XXth century and "proving ground for the destruction of the
world", start with Allan Janik, Wittgenstein: Vienna Revisited. Wonderfully
succint and comprehensive overview.

------
mafm
"I am a cat" by Natsume Sōseki 1905. like Murakami, but the first Japanese
author to write like that (?) All the other novels he wrote are great too.

~~~
genjipress
His "Kokoro" is my second-favorite novel of all time.

------
archagon
In 1935-36, two Soviet humorists took a coast-to-coast road trip across the US
and gathered their experiences in a book called "Single-Story America" (or
"Little Golden America" in English). The translation by Charles Malamuth seems
rather wooden compared to the hilarious, witty tone of the original Russian,
but I think it's still very much worth reading: an uncanny number of their
observations about American life and culture are still completely relevant
today.

(Some choice quotes in my Goodreads review:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6708623](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6708623))

~~~
wrinkl3
The same two authors also have a duology of satyrical novels about a conman in
the 30s Soviet Russia: The Twelve Chairs [1] and The Little Golden Calf [2].
The novels are incredibly witty and their quotes/references are still part of
the common Russian vernacular.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Chairs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Chairs)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Golden_Calf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Golden_Calf)

------
hessenwolf
The Steppenwolf, by Herman Hesse. It's supposedly about the author himself in
1920s Germany, also about depression, existentialism, and recovery, in a
surreal context.

(hence, my user name)

------
rixrax
The Egyptian[1].

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Egyptian](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Egyptian)

~~~
stevekemp
That was an surprising thing to see listed here. A couple of years ago my
Finnish wife gave me a copy, and she later followed up with "The Adventurer",
& "The Wanderer" (each in their English translations).

They were fascinating reads, although I was a little disappointed at how
hapless the main character was. He bumbles around while stuff keeps happening
"nearby", I guess that's kinda the point. It is all about the journey.

------
senthil_rajasek
Tirukkural

Excerpt from the Wikipedia page, "Considered one of the greatest works ever
written on ethics and morality, chiefly secular ethics, it is known for its
universality and non-denominational nature."

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirukkuṛaḷ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirukkuṛaḷ)

~~~
balladeer
There is a whole lot of excellent regional books that are unknown to Indians
of recent generations. They would definitely be unknown in USA imho.

------
ambrosite
Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell is a novel that was required reading in
Canada for generations, but it is almost completely unknown in the United
States. I don't know if it is a "great" book (I have not read it myself), but
many Canadians consider it a classic of Canadian literature.

------
arpfaust
"De Avonden"/"The Evenings" by Gerard Reve. It is a small masterpiece set in
the period after WWII in The Netherlands. It deals with themes like the post-
war boredom, but also more general themes like emptiness of personal relations
and how life can seem pointless in your early twenties.

I always think of it as the Dutch version of The Catcher in the Rye, which
deals with similar themes. But the main character in The Evenings is decidedly
less of a prick than Holden Caulfield hahaha.

By some great mistake of the book's editors in its time, this masterpiece did
not get translated in Enlish until last year or so. If it would have been
translated in the years after it was written, it would surely have been a
major hit in the Enlish speaking world like it was over here.

------
ivm
Novels and stories by Victor Pelevin. Only a few of his works are available in
English but these are also the best ones:

Buddha's Little Finger – [https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Little-Finger-Victor-
Pelevin/...](https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Little-Finger-Victor-
Pelevin/dp/0141002328)

The Yellow Arrow – [https://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Arrow-New-Directions-
Paperbook...](https://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Arrow-New-Directions-Paperbook-
ebook/dp/B016CIOCTS)

Hermit and Sixfinger (free) – [http://pelevin.nov.ru/pov/en-
hermit/1.html](http://pelevin.nov.ru/pov/en-hermit/1.html)

------
forkLding
The Deptford Trilogy, has a bit of a Kurt Vonnegut feel but much darker, start
with Fifth Business.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deptford_Trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deptford_Trilogy)

------
hackandtrip
Candide by Voltairre , really short drama, funny with a really unique point of
view of pestilence. Confessions by Rousseau, superb biography of an amazing
life. Zeno's conscience, a psycho analysts novel with a different point of
view.

------
rabboRubble
Amatka by Karin Tidbeck. This short book had the strangest vibe. I guess I
would describe the book as if the lovechild of P.K. Dick and Margaret Atwood
went to a Nordic country, stayed for 20 years, all the while doing weird stuff
with fish and a dictionary.

Despite my colorful synopsis, seriously, the book delved into language, its
use, meaning, permanence, delivery, and evolution. Perfect for these crazy
days in US politics.

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0716GNTTG/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0716GNTTG/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)

------
abrowne
JG Farrell's _Empire Trilogy_ are my favorite fiction books, but as an
American I've rarely ran into them except through foreign media, like the BBC
World Service and RTÉ.

They were republished by New York Review Books Classics, and I second this
collection in general.

Jean-Claude Izzo's Mediterranean noir fiction, especially his _Marseilles
Trilogy_ and _The Lost Sailors_ also qualify. They are published in
translation in the US by Europa Editions.

Many of Europa Editions' books would fit (except their few US hits, like Elena
Ferrante's works, which are better-known).

------
vram22
Some books by George Mikes.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mikes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mikes)

[ George Mikes ['mikeʃ] (15 February 1912 – 30 August 1987) was a Hungarian-
born British journalist, humourist and writer, best known for his humorous
commentaries on various countries. ]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_be_an_Alien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_be_an_Alien)
\- his most famous one.

------
Pamar
"Long John Silver" by Larsson ([https://www.amazon.com/Long-John-Silver-Bjorn-
Larsson/dp/186...](https://www.amazon.com/Long-John-Silver-Bjorn-
Larsson/dp/1860465390)).

I have read some other books by Larsson, but this is definitely the one I
liked more. It is sort of a retelling of "Treasure Island" as narrated by the
eponymous character (including how he became a pirate, and what happened to
him after the event in the novel).

------
paolgiacometti
I suggest "The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati". A great book about the
meaningless of everyman planning about leaving a successful life. Mr. Paolomar
by Italo Calvino is another last century Italian masterpiece with the
reflection of a math teacher about the world and life in general.

wikipedia
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tartar_Steppe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tartar_Steppe)

------
resource0x
If someone asked me to recommend a single XX century novel in Russian, I would
certainly point to this one:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1060818.It_s_Me_Eddie](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1060818.It_s_Me_Eddie)

Provokes very strong emotions (both positive and negative :). I cannot vouch
for the quality of English translation though.

------
nextos
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tartar_Steppe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tartar_Steppe)

Also, on the technical side (sorry I couldn't resist), CTM
[https://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html](https://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html)
is really underrated.

~~~
whitepoplar
_Il deserto dei tartari_ is one of my favorites!

~~~
jxub
Nassim Taleb swears by this one too.

------
projectramo
I think it’s fair to say that even great books allegedly “known” in the US
aren’t widely known in the sense of having actually been read.

With that in mind, I would just go through the list of Nobel Prize winners (or
Penn or another major award).

If the popular winners are too well known for your tastes (Ishiguro, Morrison)
I am sure the less famous ones will be sufficiently unknown (Pamuk, Mahfouz).

------
pavlov
Francis Spufford is a brilliant English author who should be more widely
known.

For the HN crowd I would heartily recommend "Red Plenty" (2010). It's a semi-
fictional novel about that brief moment in time around 1959 when the Soviets
really thought that the dream of Communism was within reach.

The characters (most of them real people) include mathematicians, biologists,
party officials, computer designers... There's probably no other novel that
could afford to spend so many pages on discussing linear optimization and
centralized economic planning without sacrificing the emotional narrative. I
can't recommend it enough.

~~~
avmich
His "Operation Backfire" [https://www.lrb.co.uk/v21/n21/francis-
spufford/operation-bac...](https://www.lrb.co.uk/v21/n21/francis-
spufford/operation-backfire) should be interesting for us on HN, it puts in
perspective modern British aerospace works. He has a great way describing past
events.

------
oldcynic
Is Michael Marshall Smith well known in the US?

Intruders was made into a BBC America series, but his earlier works are much
more interesting.

Only Forward, One of Us, What You Make It, or Spares from the nineties are all
well written, and all beat any of the suspense he's written as Michael
Marshall. He simply seems much better writing near future dystopian sci-fi.

------
alexashka
anything by Jack London.

I had read translations of his works in russian and after immigrating to
Canada, was surprised to know that nobody had ever heard of him here.

A real gem if you enjoy the likes of 'of mice and men'.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London)

~~~
gtycomb
His autobiography "John Barleycorn". Even exploring a lifetime drinking
alcohol, it ends up as a book to cherish.

------
bshepard
Some US history books that are relatively unknown in the US:

-Ann Douglas "Terrible Honesty" (Study of artists, Black and nonblack in New York/Manhattan in the 20s)

-James W. Douglass "JFK & the Unspeakable"

-Walter Johnson "River of Dark Dreams"

-Gerald Horne "The Counterrevolution of 1776"

-J. Sakai, Settlers (readsettlers.org)

-Ida Wells "Lynch Law in America"

~~~
ianai
You’re close to another good point: historical conversation tends to start
around 1776 in the US in a manner not too different from 1776 being the start
of time. I read a fuller historical account from a perspective including
what’s known about America before the Spanish found it, through Spanish
colonization, and through to the modern era. I’ve known my fellow citizens to
fall prey to the idea that “our history” refers to a telling solely from the
view that started in 1776. But that’s inconsistent with the view that the US
is the home of people with family from all over.

------
zura
The Knight in the Panther's Skin is a Georgian medieval epic poem, written in
the 12th century by Shota Rustaveli:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knight_in_the_Panther%27s_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knight_in_the_Panther%27s_Skin)

------
gtycomb
Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil by M. Mukundan (Malayalam. English
translation: On the Banks of the Mayyazhi)

------
copperx
The Eight Day of Creation by Horace Freeland Judson. It was popular in the
80's, but I haven't met anyone who has read it or even heard of it.

It is a brilliant account of the discovery of DNA. Simply astounding. It
should have been made into a movie, or more appropriately, in a TV series.

------
pyb
I've started reading French books again recently, and found some great ones:

Les Choses, Georges Perec

Alcools, Guillaume Appolinaire (poetry)

Francois Mitterrand, l'Abeille et l'Architecte (essay/diary)*

Bernard Henri Levy, La Pureté Dangereuse (essay)*

*AFAIK The last two don't have an English translation.

~~~
davidivadavid
I recommend _Un Homme qui dort_ by Perec. Really interesting use of 2nd person
narration.

There's also an interesting film adaptation available on Youtube here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPhaT-
zjIFA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPhaT-zjIFA)

------
Thersites
This is more a question, in terms of Sci-Fi are people familiar with China
Miéville? Perdido Street Station, Embassytown, and The City and the City are
classics, Perdido Street Station might be the best fiction I have ever read.
Dark stuff

~~~
mindcrime
_Perdido Street Station_ was one of the best sci-fi novels I've read. I
haven't read much - if any - of Miéville's other material, but it's on my
list.

FWIW, his work seems to be at least relatively well known in the US. As one
example, I'm sitting at a random Barnes & Noble store in Durham NC as I write
this, and they have several Miéville titles on the shelf.

------
m0llusk
Because predictions are an important part of all planning: Superforecasters by
Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardener, accompanied by the good judgement project at
goodjudgement.com and gjopen.com.

------
watwut
The gods are athirst from Anatole France:
[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24010](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24010)

~~~
analogwzrd
Alternate (probably American title) I remember from high school is The Gods
Will Have Blood

------
sidcool
The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen. Superbly written treatise.

------
hessenwolf
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peig_Sayers#Peig](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peig_Sayers#Peig)

------
chriselles
The Three Body Problem trilogy of books by Cixin Liu

Although awareness in the west is very quickly rising.

I believe it is also slated to become a movie/TV series on Amazon in the
future.

------
j_b_s
The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei (2016). Chinese author and setting
(contemporary Beijing).

Following the theme of the solitary male antihero...a la Murakami.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
I read that and liked it. Plus it's short, so it's a good intro for people to
see whether they'd be interested in other contemporary Chinese fiction.

------
handbanana
The Revolt of the Masses by Ortega Y Gasset

------
marvelous
Everybody's Right by Paolo Sorrentino. He's better known for directing movies.

------
garrybelka
Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere by Lev Gumilev
[http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/English/ebe.htm](http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/English/ebe.htm)

Surprisingly, not only ethnoses have an age, but their growth, development and
aging follows a fairly common trajectory.

------
viabary
This has been a great list. Now off for a shopping spree on Amazon books

------
motohagiography
Is this thread full of standard literary cannon works because of an
engineering bias against non-instruction manuals?

I hope we've moved past the engineering cliche of "I don't read fiction, why
would I read something someone just made up?"

------
anacleto
19th Century Russian literature is almost unknown to US.

\- Dostoevsky

\- Bulgakov

\- Sorokin

\- Tolstoy

\- Chekhov

~~~
reducesuffering
Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Bulgakov's Master and Margarita are all renowned in
the US. They pop up in this thread and in pop culture references like in Tron
and Seinfeld.

------
branchless
Henry George: Progress and Poverty.

Explains how taxing land instead of labour is the path to a far better world.
Versus now where progress means higher land prices which means poverty for
those excluded from land.

Once nearly got to be mayor of New York. Sold 6 million copies (at the time
only the bible outsold it).

[https://www.aier.org/article/amazing-influence-henry-
george-...](https://www.aier.org/article/amazing-influence-henry-george-ec-
harwood)

As recommended by Albert Einstein and many others.

------
knuththetruth
"The Long Ships" by Frans G. Bengtsson. It's a wonderful, humorous adventure
tale about the life of a viking.

I'd also just suggest you browse the New York Review Books collection. They
put a lot of effort into reviving this kind of literature in translation, as
well as digging up forgotten American gems.

[https://www.nyrb.com/](https://www.nyrb.com/)

~~~
genjipress
Upvoted for NYRB. They're like the Criterion Collection of litfic at this
point -- they find good stuff that's been out of print for too long, reissue
it, bring it back to an audience that deserves to know about it. They recently
reissued another long-out-of-print favorite, "Berlin Alexanderplatz", in a new
translation.

------
Pica_soO
All men are mortal - Simone de Beauvoir

------
goodpoint
1984

~~~
dominotw
not really unknown.

~~~
torstenvl
The question was "What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the
United States?"

Although certain 1984 memes (like "Big Brother") are well-known, the book
itself is not. Most Americans, if they've read any Orwell, have only read
Animal Farm; and other concepts from 1984 (the memory hole, two minutes hate)
are completely unheard of... again, because the book is not actually well-
known.

~~~
analogwzrd
Unfortunately, you could argue that it's well known because it's so easy to
believe that it's being used as an instruction manual.

~~~
torstenvl
I think it's probably best to avoid snarky political commentary. The question
under discussion is merely whether the book is well-known.

------
reboog711
Space Rogues is a fun space adventure story by an indy author, John Wilker.

[https://www.amazon.com/Space-Rogues-Adventure-Adventures-
Smu...](https://www.amazon.com/Space-Rogues-Adventure-Adventures-Smuggler-
ebook/dp/B0756561CK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1529776077&sr=8-2&keywords=Space+Rogues)

