How often have you read a book whose location was part of the story? Or where the setting truly captured somewhere you know well?
I just finished The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck, a series of short stories based in New England. It’s the “community reads” choice for a local library, and the settings threw me back to my childhood, growing up in Boston’s North Shore community.
The fact that several of the stories take place in historic times further sparks memories of our young family’s visits to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts (sites of American Revolutionary War importance) and Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum of rural life in 1830’s Massachusetts.
This book got me thinking about others that have affected me this way, and of stories that are so entwined with the setting that the landscape and/or culture are integral to the book.
A few from my reading list
Set (at least partly) in the U.S.:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon (New York)
Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (US and Nigeria)
Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner (American west)
Between Two Kingdoms – Suleika Jaouad (New York City and across the US)
The Chain – Adrian McKinty (Boston’s North Shore)
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee (American south – Alabama)
Oldest Living Confederate Soldier Tells All – Allan Garganus (American south)
Sandwich – Catherine Newman (Cape Cod)
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens (Coastal North Carolina)
Set outside the US:
A Year in Provence – Peter Mayle (France)
All the Light We Cannot See – (France: Paris and Saint-Malo)
Bel Canto – Ann Patchett (South America/unnamed country)
Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese (Ethiopia)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Guernsey)
Out of Africa – Isak Dinesen (Kenya)
The Shipping News – Annie Proulx (Newfoundland, Canada)
Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Høeg (Denmark and Greenland)
Taiwan Travelogue – Yáng Shuang-zi (Taiwan)
Some of these books create a very specific sense of place, as in All the Light We Cannot See (building a model city), Where the Crawdads Sing (navigating southern marshes), Smilla’s Sense of Snow (understanding the frozen landscapes of Denmark and Greenland). For some, the period in history is just as important, as in All the Light, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and Oldest Living Confederate Soldier.
For people who travel – whether for business or pleasure – the places we’ve been become part of who we are. Books that can bring all that back to life, or show us somewhere we’ve never been, are treasured gems.
Let us know some of your favorite books that speak to where you live or travel.
Written by Ellen Harris, GMS, Product Manager, Content Group
