Reddit mentions: The best european dramas & plays books

First, let me compliment you on a fascinating list. There are some truly great books in there. I'm both impressed and delighted. Based on your choices, I would recommend the following.


Catch-22 by Joseph Hellar. Even more so than Slaughterhouse-Five, this is the quintessential anti-war novel. A hugely influential 20th century masterpiece. And laugh-out-loud funny in parts too!

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Engrossing, erudite, insightful and educational narrative history of this hugely important event in 20th century history - reads like a novel. Covers not only the Allies, but also the German and (very often overlooked) Japanese side to the story.


Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, just because of its sweeping scope. Very entertaining modern novel set in India. Touches upon topics and themes as diverse as modern Indian organized crime, international terrorism, Bollywood, the 1948 Partition, Maoist rebels, the caste system, corruption in Indian film, police and government... the list goes on and on. Great fun, and eye-opening.


A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marcia Marquez. Whilst not the original "magic realism" novel (despite what Marquez himself my imply), this is the first one to gain international acclaim and is a very influential work. Entertaining in so many ways. Follow the history of the fictional town of Maconda for a hundred years and the lives (the crazy, multifaceted lives) of its inhabitants.


Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. This is a play, not a novel, and one translated from the French at that. Don't let that put you off. Existentialism has never been so interesting...


The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins. His latest tour-de-force.


Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky. Dare I say that this expose on how Government and Big Business control public debate and the media is so important, was more influential than Chomsky's review of Skinner's verbal behaviour? Perhaps not. But a very important work none-the-less.

I'm writing an essay on this right at this moment...spooky!

There's a radio play version of it on this site here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p027n4xp
which I'd highly recommend because it gives you a much better sense of what the performance would look like than just reading it. (You might need to use some sort of proxy for it if you're outside the UK though)

The English title is "the man outside" and there's copies of the book on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Outside-Wolfgang-Borchert/dp/0811200116 You might have to get a second hand copy though.

The play was also made into a film called 'Love '47' in English but this is quite far removed from the original text and in my opinion not as good so I'd recommend reading the play before watching it.

If you want to find out more about Wolfgang Borchert or the play itself I'd recommend the book "The life and works of Wolfgang Borchert" by Gordon Burgess. It gives a good introduction, a simple description of his life and the time he was writing in and introduces some basic ideas on the texts.

It's one of my favourite German plays so I hope you enjoy!

You might enjoy San Manuel Bueno, Martir by Unamuno. I've never read it in English and you can find a complete text in Spanish online here. Short and engaging. As per an amazon.com review (of an english translation),
>This book consists of the memories that a woman from a small town in Spain has of don Manuel, the town's priest. The woman, Anglea, grew up around don Manuel, whom the whole village worships as a saint. Angela, however, knows don Manuel's one secret -- he doesn't believe in God. Don Manuel continues in the church because it is the best way for him to help the people of his villaige. He continues to preach what he sees as a lie because he believes that the simple people of his village need faith to live. Angela, and don Manuel himself, struggle greatly with the question of whether don Manuel is a saint or a hypocrite. This book raises a fascinating question, and it is worth the effort of reading this short novel just to ponder its central theme. Unamuno, however, also suceeds in showing the reader the great tragedy of the title character's life. The novel is emotionally as well as philosophically rich. Don Manuel Bueno, Martir, is a beautiful and rewarding read.

Im just gonna suggest my favorite french and french canadian books :

• A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche
  
  >Set in Kigali, Rwanda, the novel deals with a love affair between an elder Canadian expatriate and a young Rwandan, AIDS and the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
  
  (Amazon link : https://www.amazon.com/Sunday-at-Pool-Kigali/dp/1400034345/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475200692&sr=1-1&keywords=a+sunday+at+the+pool+in+kigali)
  
  Theres a movie named "A Sunday in Kigali" that was made about it but I prefer the book.
  
  
• Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad
  
  >Incendies follows the journey of twins Jeanne and Simon, as they attempt to unravel the mystery of their mother's life.[1] When Jeanne and Simon Marwan lose their mother, Nawal, they are instead left with a difficult mission that sends them on a journey to the Middle East in pursuit of their tangled roots and a long-lost brother.
  
  It's a very hard and crude book but it's also excellent. There's a good movie about it too. Won multiples prize, I think the movie is as good as the play.
  
  
  (Amazon link : https://www.amazon.com/Scorched-Revised-Wajdi-Mouawad/dp/0887549268)
  
  
• Dieu et nous seuls pouvons - Michel Folco (but its not translated :( so I guess you need to know french)
  
  >Pour échapper à la galère, Justinien Pibrac devient bourreau officiel du seigneur de Bellerocaille. Le jour de sa première exécution, après quelques maladresses rocambolesques, il parvient finalement à briser les os du condamné. Ainsi début la saga trépidante des Pibrac, qui deviendront de génération en génération les plus grands bourreaux de tous les temps.
  
  It's really really well written and it's filled with black humour. I dont want to spoil anything at all but it's a sure pick-up if you search a book in french.
  
  
• Empire of the Ants - Bernard Werber
  
  Science fiction book about a machine that allows communication between ants and human. I think it stands out from other science fiction book by having a more litteral approach to the philosophical themes it talks about.

To give you a few examples of great contemporary writers :

• England : Lucy Kirkwood's Chimerica, a great political play
  
  
• Sweden : Khemiri's Invasion! and I call my brothers, intelligent and funny plays.
  
  
• France : Michel Vinaver's Overboard is one of french's theatre masterpiece of the last 50 years.
  
  
• Norway : Jon Foss, for example with Autumn Dream, write poetic and understated masterpieces.
  
  
• Japan : Oriza Hirata (People of Seoul) is one of their great modern playwright, but I'm not sure he's translated into english.

Another extremely unnerving look at creeping fascism is Ionesco's Rhinoceros (https://www.amazon.com/Rhinoceros-Other-Plays-Eugene-Ionesco/dp/0802130984) (or scribd), which focuses more on finding that the people you loved and trusted or just bought your coffee from are turning into…well, rhinoceroses. But they're metaphorical rhinoceroses.

>Jean: You always see the black side of everything. It obviously gave him great pleasure to turn into a rhinoceros. There’s nothing extraordinary in that […] After all, rhinoceroses are living creatures the same as us; they’ve got as much right to live as we have!

>Berenger: As long as they don’t destroy ours in the process. You must admit the difference in mentality.

This isn't a "must read list", but going off your list, I think you would enjoy:

• Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind
  
• Greg Mortenson's Three cups of tea
  
• Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner
  
• Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita
  
• Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time
  
• Richard Adams's Watership Down
  
  If you are looking for books to expand your literary chops on, I think blackstar9000 made a very good list.
  
  For my recommendations on getting out of your element try these:
  
  
• Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince
  
• Naomi Klien's Shock Doctrine
  
• Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra's Y: The Last Man
  
• Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  

My favorite nonfiction book is "Douze coups de théatre" by Michel Tremblay. I dont think its translated tough.

Other than that, I really liked "Empire of the Ants" and "Fondation" if you like science fiction. For historic settings, I liked "Incendies"/"Scorched".

The First Word is a good overview of research that has been done on the evolution of language and why it's such a difficult and controversial topic.

I did my senior seminar/thesis on the evolution of language and in addition to The First Word we started with these articles for a general look at the questions we have regarding evolution of language and what the answers may be.

• Bickerton, Derek. Language evolution: A brief guide for linguists. Lingua 117, 2007.
  
  
• Knight, Studdart-Kennedy, and Hurford. Language: A Darwinian Adaptation? The Evolutionary Emergence of Language, 2000.
  
• Christiansen and Kirby. Language evolution: consensus and controversies. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7, 2003
  
• Pinker, Steven. The Big Bang. The Language Instinct, 1994
  
• Pinker and Bloom. Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13, 1990
  
• Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch. The Faculty of Language: What is it, who has it and how did it evolve? Science 298, 2002
  
• Jackendoff and Pinker. The nature of the language faculty and its implications for the evolution of language (Reply to Fitch, Hauser and Chomsky). Cognition 97, 2005
  
  Edit: P.S. I haven't read Bickerton's Adam's Tongue, but I've read several of his articles and found them useful, so that title may also be worth having a look at.

I don't know about cool and unique, but:

A pocket dictionary, perhaps? Or traditional Norwegian folktales? Or a bilingual edition of A Doll's House? Bilingual books are wonderful!

There are also some good Norwegian movies, like The Bothersome Man (2006) and Blind (2014).

You could also get him an over-priced waffle iron for making tractor shaped waffles.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
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I have no idea which translation is most accurate, but I have always preferred Andrew Porter's translation, as it is designed to be sung, fitting the music like a glove. That alone makes it the most pleasurable to follow along to while listening or watching.

http://www.amazon.com/Ring-Nibelung-Richard-Wagner/dp/0393008673/ref=sr_1_1

Definitely seems to be the same guy!

And it looks like they do Part II with the modern looking Penguin cover:
http://www.amazon.com/Faust-Part-Penguin-Classics-Pt-2/dp/0140440933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405354543&sr=8-1&keywords=philip+wayne+faust

Your local library might have it and if they don't, they might be able to order it through interlibrary loan. https://www.worldcat.org/ is an excellent way to find the book closest to you, so you might be able to just go out and read it at a different library if it's close.
Here are some online copies:
https://archive.org/details/threeplaysbybrie00brierich
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=46992 (project gutenberg)

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Three-Plays-Brieux-Maternity-Daughters/dp/1162795638
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Plays-Brieux-Eug%C3%A8ne-Brieux/dp/B002Q4U9WM

I'll echo the other redditor that said The Forever War.

I read it for a comparitive literature class I took and it was the only book besides R.U.R. that I really enjoyed.

And speaking of that, R.U.R.. This is the book that made the word "Robot" into a science fiction staple. And it's a short read too.

Walter Kaufmann's translation of Goethe's Faust is presented in such a way. Best translation I've read. Currently on Amazon. Would link but I'm on mobile

EDIT: Here it is

Augusto Boal - Theatre of the Oppressed

Jerzy Grotkowski - Towards a Poor Theatre

Alfred Jarry - Ubu Roi - but this version is better if your local library has it.

I'd highly recommend Andrew Porter's translation. I read it before I saw my first Ring (Seattle, 1986) and I still have my dogeared old copy and re-read it every time I am lucky enough to a a cycle. I've read other translations, but I always come back to this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Ring-Nibelung-Richard-Wagner/dp/0393008673

Are you into classics, or could you enjoy some modern, punchy, gritty and sometimes downright nasty fiction, by the author of Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh?

He writes with a Scottish accent in places, and is not afraid of violence and - well - adult content, but if you are ok with all that malarkey, then might I suggest The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs?

Adult content warning.

If you prefer the classics with a dark twist, then perhaps you should try Goethe's Faust and/or Matthew Lewis' The Monk.


Edit: Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is another book that I found intriguing - for being introduced to the way of life, and how to cope with sociological issues, in the 17th Century, in Boston.

Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia is based on a play by the French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais.

The "sequel" to it, Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" too.

https://www.amazon.com/Figaro-Trilogy-Seville-Marriage-Classics-ebook/dp/B006GODTMK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525319904&sr=8-1

Well, it's not my phrase. That's what the study of the origins of language is referred to as in Linguistic literature. It's actually somewhat confusing, because "the evolution of language" refers to how language originated both as a social structure and as a biological feature of humans, while "language evolution" refers to the processes by which established languages change over time (ie, Old English becoming Middle English becoming Modern English).

Also, there are many researchers who would argue that language is a special case of meaning—that is, without language there is no meaning, and structure preceded semantics. Particularly, Deacon, Bickerton, and Torey all express this idea in different ways. I'm partial to this point of view myself.

> I dont know how easy it is to actually get a copy, though.

Really hard!