Around the World in 80 Books: A Literary Journey

A transporting and illuminating voyage around the globe, through classic and modern literary works that are in conversation with one another and with the world around them

*Featured in the Chicago Tribune's Great 2021 Fall Book Preview*
Inspired by Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University’s department of comparative literature and founder of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic’s restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books from around the globe. Following a literary itinerary from London to Venice, Tehran and points beyond, and via authors from Woolf and Dante to Nobel Prize–winners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan, and Olga Tokarczuk, he explores how these works have shaped our idea of the world, and the ways in which the world bleeds into literature.
 
To chart the expansive landscape of world literature...