10 Eye-Opening Novels That Provide A Window to Different Cultures

Novels About Different Cultures: Our 10 Picks

Things To Bring on Your Next Vacation

If you want to explore a new culture yourself, you'll want to make sure you're prepared. Here are a few helpful items you should consider getting if you love to travel:

• A money belt for easy access to cash & cards
• Keep your dirty clothes separate from the clean ones with a laundry bag
• Travel-size toiletries that won't take up too much space
• If you're traveling with kids, you might want to bring along some games
• Depending on your preference, either a backpack or some nice luggage
• Cozy pillows can improve any long flight or car trip
• If you're going to a country where you don't know the language, a translator can be a big help
• A travel mug for your coffee or tea

8 Great Movies About Different Cultures

1. Heaven on Earth (2008)
2. My Brother the Devil (2012)
3. Far and Away (1992)
4. Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
5. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
6. Head-On (2004)
7. Trade (2007)
8. Boy (2010)

What is Culture?

In Depth

It's not necessary to get on a plane to learn about other societies. No matter where you live, great fiction can transport readers to virtually every corner of the planet, and introduce them to a multitude of cultures along the way. From modern Shanghai to 1980s Nigeria, here are, in no particular order, ten novels that illuminate ways of life from around the globe.

Coming in at #1 is "The Tusk That Did the Damage" by Tania James. After escaping a life of servitude, a South Indian elephant who lost his parents to poachers as a calf ravages the countryside. People have dubbed him the Gravedigger due to his habit of burying the humans he kills. Manu, whose cousin was one of the creature's victims, becomes drawn into the world of poaching alongside his brother. Meanwhile Emma, a young American filmmaker, starts a risky romance with the veterinarian subject of her documentary. Narrated through the perspectives of Manu, Emma, and the Gravedigger himself, the novel tells a harrowing tale of man's troubled coexistence with nature.

For #2 we have "Living Treasures" by Yang Huang. During the Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent civil unrest, law student Gu Bao falls in love with soldier Tong. Despite her college's rules against sex, she ends up pregnant, and is taken to her grandparents' faraway village for an abortion. In the Sichuan woods, Bao befriends an endangered panda and an expectant young mother named Orchid, who is hiding from enforcers of China's one-child policy. Bao must find inner strength as she fights to save the bear and ensure the birth of Orchid's second baby.

Bao must find inner strength as she fights to save the bear and ensure the birth of Orchid's second baby.

At #3 we get "The River's Song" by Suchen Christine Lim. As young people living along the Singapore River, Ping and musician Weng used to be in love. That was before life took them in different directions, Ping to college in the U.S. and Weng to prison for political dissidence. When Ping, now an American citizen, returns to her native land, she is confronted by steel skyscrapers taking the place of the crowded riverside of her youth. As she struggles to understand the changes that have taken place in her former home, Ping will have to face both her former lover and a transformed nation.

Arriving at #4 is "A Good Girl" by Chandana Roy. Meek Ellora Chatterjee was raised by her uncle and aunt to obey the rules of their conservative Indian society. But well-behaved children don't always stay that way. When eighteen-year-old Ellora makes headlines by falling in love with a cricket player, she suddenly finds herself at the center of a scandal, shunned by her peers. Many years later, she must make a decision that will impact her family, but has she taken away the right lessons from her past?

For #5 we find "The Reeducation of Cherry Truong" by Aimee Phan. Cherry's parents have sent her obstinate brother away from Los Angeles to live with distant relatives in Vietnam. Traveling to her ancestral land to bring him back, she begins a quest that will unearth the mysteries of her family's past, from secret romances to lives derailed by war. Bridging three continents, Cherry's journey reveals the forces that both separate and bind families across geography and time.

Cherry's parents have sent her obstinate brother away from Los Angeles to live with distant relatives in Vietnam.

At #6 is "Losing My Religion" by Vishwas Mudagal. Entrepreneur Rishi Rai's life changes forever when he meets Alex, a hippie from the United States. Rishi decides to ditch his plans for a life in the gaming industry and sets off with Alex on an impromptu trip across India. Their adventure is curtailed, however, when Rishi comes across fellow gamer Kyra, and friendship turns to passion. But who is this Kyra, and why is she being pursued by the paparazzi?

For #7 we have "The Boy Next Door" by Irene Sabatini. After her neighbor is burned alive, Zimbabwean Lindiwe Bishop grows fascinated with prime suspect Ian McKenzie, a young enigmatic white man who is soon exonerated of the crime. The two become close, but political upheaval and the stigma of their interracial relationship eventually force them apart. Returning to the country years later to find Lindiwe as a cosmopolitan woman, Ian discovers a major secret that will alter both of their lives.

Coming in at #8 is "Swallow" by Sefi Atta. Bank clerk Tolani and her mercurial roommate Rose are trying to make ends meet in 1980s Lagos, Nigeria, where the government's austerity measures are making life for women especially arduous. After Rose is fired for hitting her predatory boss and Tolani is suspended from work, the women are persuaded by Rose's new boyfriend to traffic drugs for quick cash. But Tolani, who is already dealing with her ailing mother and questions of her lineage, struggles with swallowing this immoral proposition.

After Rose is fired for hitting her predatory boss and Tolani is suspended from work, the women are persuaded by Rose's new boyfriend to traffic drugs for quick cash.

For #9 we get "What We Were Promised" by Lucy Tan. Disillusioned with life in America, the Zhen family returns to Shanghai and settles into a lavish apartment. But after wife Lina finds that one of her childhood totems has gone missing, anxiety falls over the group. Husband Wei, a marketing strategist, begins to feel guilty for not having chosen a nobler job, while Lina obsesses over the circumstances of their arranged marriage and her lingering crush on Wei's gangster brother, Qiang. When Qiang resurfaces in the city after years on the lam, the Zhens are finally forced to come to terms with the pasts that haunt them.

Finally, at #10 is "Animal's People" by Indra Sinha. Animal has walked on all fours for as long as he can recall. His back irreparably warped by an accident at a nearby factory, the now seventeen-year-old street urchin spends his time spying on village officials, caring for the nun who raised him, and pining after local girl Nisha. The arrival of American doctor Elli Barber sparks hope for the infirm young man. But as her free health clinic draws the ire of the suspicious townsfolk, Animal finds himself negotiating a web of political intrigue.