It would be reasonable to exclude at least French, German, British and Russian writers for now.

Interested to see, what is known where. I can recall:

Hungary – Ferenc Molnar

Sweden – Stig Claesson (and Astrid Lindgren ofc)

Norway – Jostein Gaarder

Finland – Tove Jansson

Neatherlands – M G Schmidt

These mostly seem to be northern. Out of all the smaller countries, I do think I have read Swedish authors by far the most, even after excluding Lindgren.

33 comments

  1. Tbh, none. And it’s something I really should do but spanish is such a huge language that every month there are a ton of new books published.

    Maybe it’ll be a new year’s resolution

  3. The only ones I can think of right now are:

    Belgium – Willy Vandersteen

    Belgium – Georges Remi (Hergé)

    I’m not really familiar with European writers besides the Dutch, French and British ones.

  4. Czech Republic – Franz Kafka: “The Metamorphosis”, “Letter to the father”; Karel Čapek: a story (can’t recall its title) about the friendship between two boys who later fall out over some stamps

    Austria – Christine Nöstlinger: “Der Wauga”; Felix Salten: “The fifteen hares”

    I know, it’s kind of cheating to list Kafka and Austrians.

  5. I wish I could name a lot more, but the ones I can think of right now are:

    Belgium – Bart van Loo, Hugo Claus and David van Reybrouck

    Bulgaria – Ivan Vazov

    Hungary – Arthur Koestler (maybe cheating a bit, since he was also a Brit)

    Poland – Andrzej Sapkowski

    I would love to start reading more stuff from smaller countries though. Any Estonian writers that you’d recommend OP?

  6. Knut Hamsun – Hunger (Norway)

    Sjowall and Wahloo – Martin Beck series (Sweden)

    The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlof (Sweden)

    The Coming of Joachim Stiller by Hubert Lampo (Belgium)

    The Summer Queen by Hubert Lampo (Belgium)

    Mieke Maaike’s Obscene Childhood by Louis Paul Boon (Belgium)

    Gangrene 1: Black Venus by Jeff Geraerds (Belgium)

    Pedigree by George’s Simenon (Belgium)

    The Judge and His Hangman by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Switzerland)

    Poor but still Rich Days by Peter Camenzind (Switzerland)

    The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse (Switzerland)

    Embers by Sandor Marai (Hungary)

    The Garden by Jiří Trnka (Czechoslovakia)

    Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel by Milorad Pavić (Serbia)

    Also a ton of Dutch books.

    EDIT Sandor not Sandir

  7. Italy- Luigi Pirandello. I’ve read all his works but my favorite is “One, No One and One Hundred Thousand”.

  8. Norway – Jo Nesbø. His books about Harry Hole are among the best I read in my life with such amazing stories. The books he writes that are not about Harry are just…not good at all. Can’t figure out way.
    With one exception – Headhunters. It is really good, movie is great too.

  9. Milan Kundera : born in Czechoslovakia, started writing in Czech, migrated to France, became French… and started writing in French (and rewrote the French translations of his early work !). Not sure why, but I personally prefer his work written in Czech: *The Joke, The unbearable Lightness of Being.*

  11. A lot of it has already been written, but I’d like to add:

    Stanisław Lem- – Poland

    Friedrich Dürenmatt -Switzerland

    Carl Gustav Jung – Switzerland

    Henning Mankell – Sweden

  13. I hate responding to a question with another question, but what are some Estonian authors we should read?

  14. Stanislaw Lem and Andrzej Sapkowski (but the whole witcher series looks like it was “lord of the rings” fanfiction at some point) from Poland

  15. So, I cannot recomend Catalan writer Joan-Lluís Lluís, because he is a French national?

    His last novel, *Junil al país dels bàrbars* is just wonderful.

  16. Turkey – Sadık Yemni.

    His stories very close to Stephen King. You can get unique and exotic taste of Turkish culture inside the books.

  17. Friedrich Dürrenmatt has been mentioned, I will add my vote too. Fantastic dark author.

    Also Karel Čapek (Czechia).

  19. Not really a “smaller” country, but two Poland authors are really stand out for me. Andrzej Sapkowski with The Witcher series (I’ve been a big fan since 90s, when I read it for the first time). Stanislav Lem is one of the GOAT sci-fi authors.

  20. I don’t come from Estonia and I don’t speak estonian, but the translation of Andrus Kivirähk’s book all have been very funny and thought provocative.

  21. A Czech writer
    Jaroslav Hasek, he wrote a book called ‘the good soldier svejk’ which while written in the early 20th century is genuinely one of the funniest satire books I’ve read.

  24. I’d like to vote for the Czech/Bohemian writer Karel Čapek, whose two masterpieces *R.U.R.* (a play) and *The War with the Newts* (a novel) are important milestones in the development of literary science fiction writing.

  25. I think the question is fine, but I would rephrase it a bit. It is a huge difference if a writer is from a small country that speaks a “big” language, or the opposite. So for example Swiss or Austrian writers will have a much easier time reaching bigger audiences in they write in German, Italian or French, whereas Polish (debatable if it constitutes a small country) or Slovenian writers write for a much smaller native audience.

    That being said, not many come to mind, except maybe for Sapkowski which I am reading right now and some Scandinavian authors which are wildly popular here in Germany (ranging from thrillers to Astrid Lindgren).

  27. Top of mind:

    Austria – Thomas Bernhard (I read a lot of his. He writes like a steamroller)

    Norway – Knut Hamsun’s ‘Hunger’

    Netherlands – The ‘Big 3’ Willem Frederik Hermans, Gerard Reve, Harry Mulisch

    Hungary – Krasznahorkai

    And Franz Kafka of course, although I wonder since he wrote in German whether that still counts as “from small country”.

    Edit: And if Ireland counts as small, I don’t know where to begin. Beckett, Joyce, Heany, Wilde, Swift,…

  29. I am not to much into reading, but there are a few that come to mind.

    Norway – Jo Nesbø
    Sweden – Stieg Larsen, Jonas Jonasson
    Finland – Arti Paasilinna

  30. Portugal: Saramago, Pessoa

    Greece: Kavafis, Kazantzakis

    Spain: Aramburu, Grandes

    Turkey: Sabahattin Ali

    These mostly seem to be Southern.

  31. Arto Paasilinna (Finland) – Year of the hare ++ many more.

    A very unique author like nobody else….So good that i would liked to learn finnish to read it in original language..

  32. Italy (not really small, but wasn’t on the list) – Umberto Eco, various works’

    Czechia – Jaroslav Hasek, Good Soldier Svejk

    Finland – Mika Waltari – Sinuhe the Egyptian, Wanderer

    Norway – Margit Sandemo, Legend of the Ice People (it was a historical fantasy generational story that spawned 47 (!) books, it was a big “dime novel” series in Poland in the 90s.

    Sweden – Astrid Lindgren, Pippy Longstocking and the Six Bullerby Children

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