Destinations: Europe
Click on map or destinations in the list below
Destination: Gypsy Europe
Despite their historical distrust of the written word, Europe's Gypsies have a growing -- and captivating -- literary tradition.
Destination: The Netherlands
Delve into Lowlands literature and discover there's much more to this prosperous nation than wooden clogs, tulips and -- of course -- weed.
Destination: Russia
Alienation, the struggle for a decent life, really bad weather -- the universal themes of this vast nation's literature make us all feel Russian at one point or another.
Destination: Southern Italy
The grit -- and beauty -- of this land of Mafioso is captured in the mysteries of Leonardo Sciascia and the expat writings of Mary Taylor Simeti.
Destination: Alps
More than an Alpine playground, Europe's most beloved mountain range has provided the dramatic backdrop in novels by Hemingway, Greene and Salter.
Destination: Norway
The Eddas -- epic sagas that form the core of Norse religion -- are best read under the ash trees in this Land of the Midnight Sun.
Destination: Turkey
This endlessly fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking puzzle of a country that's fraught with religious and political conflict is brilliantly captured in the novels of Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak.
Destination: Berlin
The past of this eternally youthful "city of the world" is captured in the work of journalist Joseph Roth, author John le Carré and psychiatrist and novelist Alfred Döblin.
Destination: Southwestern France
Skip Provence and head west to Gascony, where the weight of history is felt at every turn, and the food will blow your mind.
Destination: Venice
Get to the city of canals before it disappears -- and don't forget to grab Calvino, James and, of course, Thomas Mann.
Destination: Ireland
To touch the heart of Dublin and the country beyond, look to James Joyce's "Dubliners," the poetry of Yeats and a comic masterpiece by Flann O'Brien.
Destination: Whitechapel and Spitalfields
Discover these working-class London neighborhoods in novels and histories of their most famous residents: The architect Nicholas Hawksmoor and the infamous Jack the Ripper.
