100 Books to Read from Eastern Europe and Central Asia
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
New East Digital Archive, 100 Books
Experimental fiction, literary classics, searing historical accounts, and forgotten memoirs: the breadth of literature from across the post-communist world — much of it still untranslated — stands as testament to centuries of human experience in a region marked by political turmoil and extraordinary resilience. We asked writers, poets, translators, and academics to help us pick 100 of the best books from Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia available in English. From Belgrade to Bishkek, these remarkable works of literature span across cultures, borders, and time.
35 experts voted on this list: Yuri Andrukhovych, Francesca Ebel, Boris Dralyuk, Alina Purcaru, Caroline Eden, Yuliya Komska, Hannah Weber, Matthew Janney, Yelena Moskovich, Lidija Dimkovska, Manjola Nasi, Sarah Young, Paula Erizanu, Culture Editor, Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler, Jennifer Wilson, Elena Goukassian, Will Mawhood, Daniel Petrick, Anastasiia Fedorova, Madeleine Nosworthy, Marketing Coordinator, Natalia Antonova, Valzhyna Mort, Zinovy Zinik, Ainsley Morse, Anastasia Gavrilovici, Katie Marie Davies, Features Editor, Andrej Pleterski, Lucia de la Torre, Hamid Ismailov, Robert Chandler, Nadia Beard, Radu Vancu
This list was originally published in 2021 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.