SIGN UP! 
Books that Span Multiple Continents
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Greetings, our fellow armchair travelers! Throughout the year, the Book Voyage reading challenge has taken us to every corner of the globe. Now, we’re looking forward to reading books that span multiple continents. This is a great way to compare and contrast the scenery and lifestyles of different countries around the world from the comfort of one book!
We’ve compiled a list of some of the best books set across multiple continents, including a variety of titles to suit any reading mood. From harrowing non-fiction memoirs and family sagas to travelogues and even a light and enjoyable holiday novel, we hope you’ll find several books worthy of your TBR list.
Books Set in Multiple Countries
Black Cake
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
This novel opens in present-day California shortly after Eleanor’s death. She has left behind a voice recording for her two adult children – Byron and Benny. She’s also left them a traditional Caribbean black cake that she tells them to share “when the time is right.”
Her children, it turns out, only know a small part of their mom’s life story. Posthumously, Eleanor is finally ready to share her truth so that Byron and Benny can truly know and understand their family history.
As the story unfolds, everything that her children thought they knew about their lineage and themselves will be rocked to the core, and by the time they finally share the black cake, another person will be joining them at the table.
The Book Girls Say…
Although Eleanor has already died when this novel begins, through her voice recordings, this novel traces the story of her life and shows how the choices she made over the years impacted not only her future but also those of everyone in her family.
Angela rated this book five stars and highly recommends the audiobook version because the accents really bring the story to life.
Black Cake has been adapted into a steaming television series on Hulu.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Fiction Books Foodies Will Love
Books Spanning a Character’s Lifetime
14 Great Books About Swimmers
Book Club Books From 2022
The Hidden Book
Book Summary
In 1940s Austria, Spanish photographer Mateo Baca is imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Forced to document the camp’s atrocities for Nazi officials, he’s ordered to create just five photo books. Mateo, however, clandestinely creates a sixth photo album, aiming to expose the horrors inflicted upon the prisoners. With the assistance of a local woman, Lena Lang, the album is hidden, preserving evidence of the camp’s brutalities.
Decades later, in 1980s Australia, thirteen-year-old Hannah Campbell’s family is visited by her Yugoslavian grandfather, Nico. He arrives with a wrapped parcel that her mother quickly hides away. When the teen sneaks a peek at the mysterious package, she is horrified by the haunting images within. While she lacks context at the time, what she sees ignites a lifelong quest for understanding, leading Hannah through personal trials and academic pursuits. As she delves into her family’s past, Hannah uncovers the significance of the hidden book, illuminating the resilience of those who dared to bear witness.
The Book Girls Say…
Kirsty Manning grew up in northern New South Wales, Australia, but her travels have taken her across the US, most of Europe, and parts of Asia.
Of Marriageable Age
Book Summary
Spanning three continents and three decades from WW2 to the 1970s, this story follows three different characters in three locations.
Savitri is a servant girl in British-ruled India, Nat is the son of a small-town doctor in South India, and Saroj is growing up in the South American, British-ruled Guyana. Although the stories are far apart in both time and place, eventually, you’ll discover how their lives are intertwined.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
Nuri and his wife, Afra, live in the beautiful city of Aleppo, Syria. They have a great life as a beekeeper and an artist, until war comes to their doorstep. Like so many others, Nuri and Afra are forced onto the Syrian refugee trail. They travel through Turkey and Greece, even though Afra has been blinded, making their journey even more harrowing. The couple slowly works their way toward a cousin in Britain who has already started a beekeeping course for fellow refugees.
The author’s volunteer work with refugees gave her the background to write the realistic tale. While the book is often heartbreaking, it also includes messages of hope of love.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Three Weeks with My Brother
Book Summary
When a colorful mailer arrived from the Notre Dame Alumni Association advertising a tour of some of the earth’s most exotic locations, Nicolas Sparks was busy with a book deadline on top of a hectic family life with five children. However, he kept thinking about the trip and had an idea.
In January 2003, Nicholas set off on the trip with his brother. Only one year apart, the brothers were the only surviving members of their family. As they visited the wonders of the world, daredevil Micah and introspective Nicholas had a rare chance to escape daily life and focus on new adventures and childhood tragedies as they discovered truths about loss, love, and hope.
The Book Girls Say…
While Nicolas Sparks is most known for his fictional storytelling, this non-fiction book tells the true story of a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world with his brother.
A House in the Sky
Book Summary
As a child in an abusive houshold, author Amanda Lindhout used National Geographic magazine as her way to mentally escape to other parts of the world. At 19, she worked as a cocktail waitress, aggressively saving to visit the locations she had been dreaming of her entire life. But, unlike other teens who dream of backpacking through Europe, she had more dangerous sites in mind, even working as a TV reporter during her time in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2008, she took her journey to Somalia, where she was kidnapped on her 4th day in the country. For the next 460 days, she was held hostage. Her tale is harrowing and intense, and you may find yourself confused as to how she survived to write her story of compassion and perseverance.
The Book Girls Say…
Critics understandably chide the author for getting herself into such a dangerous situation, but there’s still value in the story beyond the poor choice.
My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy
Book Summary
As Presidental Secret Service Agent turned author Clint Hill turned 90, he prepared to sell his home. As part of the process, he found an old steamer trunk in the garage. Once it was pried open, Hill uncovered mementos that hadn’t been seen in over 50 years. From handwritten notes and photographs to personal gifts from trips with Mrs. Kennedy, the truck contained a treasure trove of memories.
This newly released non-fiction title gathers those memories into a heartwarming recounting of their travels around the world together. From humor and adventure to sorrow in the months following President Kennedy’s assassination, this book is even more candid and personal than his earlier books about his time with Mrs. Kennedy.
The Book Girls Say…
This memoir includes more than 200 rare photographs, so pick up a paper copy or view the Kindle version on a tablet or computer for the full experience.
The Signature of All Things
Book Summary
Spanning much of the 18th & 19th centuries, this book tells the story of the fictional Whittaker family. The patriarch, Henry, begins life as a poor Englishman before making his fortune in South America. He rises to be the wealthiest man in Philadelphia.
His daughter, Alma, gets his money and his great mind. She becomes a botanist who studies the mysteries of evolution while falling in love with a man obsessed with the spiritual realm. She is scientific while he’s an artist. Follow this unlikely couple as their story soars around the globe.
The Book Girls Say…
If you loved the writing style of Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls, pick up her 2013 return to fiction, The Signature of All Things. Like in City of Girls, you’ll find the side characters just as compelling as the main characters.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Best Books From 2013
Books Like City of Girls
23 Historical Fiction Books About Women in STEM
Cutting for Stone
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, their mother dies in childbirth and their father disappears, leaving the brothers orphaned.
The twins are adopted by two other surgeons from the hospital and come of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, but it’s love rather than politics that comes between them.
After finishing med school, Marion flees to America to intern at an overcrowded and underfunded hospital in NYC. Eventually, the past catches up with Marion. He must turn to the two men he trusts least – his father and his brother.
The Book Girls Say…
This is an epic saga (nearly 600 pages of small font) and can feel slow at the start, but it’s one worth investing time in! It received 5-star ratings across the board from Angela’s in-person book club. A tip, though – keep your dictionary handy if you’re a little rusty on your Latin or anatomy.
The author, Abraham Verghese, was born and raised in Ethiopia, where he attended medical school before completing his residency and fellowships in America. He is now a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. His medical expertise is apparent throughout the book. This makes this the perfect read for those who love hospital stories, but some readers may find the lengthy descriptions of surgical procedures a bit too drawn out.
The Christmas Swap
Book Summary
This festive, funny, and heartwarming Christmas novel is the perfect Hallmark-style armchair travel read that balances friendship and romance! Chloe, Jules, and Lucy met on vacation as kids. They’ve been best friends ever since, despite living on three different continents.
Twenty-two years later, they decide to swap homes for Christmas… Lucy travels to snowy Breckenridge, Colorado; Jules escapes down under for a summery Christmas in Melbourne, Australia; and Chloe travels halfway around the world for a quiet holiday in a quaint English village.
The Book Girls Say…
If you’ve seen the movie The Holiday, then the concept will sound familiar, but this book has even more to offer!
All three of the locations in this book were already very near and dear to Angela’s heart, but the author captures each locale so perfectly that you’ll feel like you’ve been there, too!
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Best Christmas Books for Adults
Christmas Books Set in the UK
The Best Books Set in Colorado
Braver Than You Think: Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother’s) Lifetime
Book Summary
Maggie Downs was an award-winning newspaper journalist, but she didn’t have a long bucket list of travel destinations. Traveling was her mom’s dream. As a child, Maggie doubted she’d ever have the courage to travel to the destinations her mom hoped to one day see, but her mom would always insist: “You’re braver than you think you are.”
When Maggie’s mom was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, Maggie quit her job and set out to fulfill her mother’s bucket list. Along the way, she learned to make every moment count. Over the course of one year, she lost a parent while discovering the world.
The World We Found
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
This novel is about four women who began their friendship during college in Bombay in the 1970s. Initially drawn together by their revolutionary fervor, the friends drift apart over the next 30 years as their lives take very different paths. One married an American, while another was caught in a repressive marriage and forced to wear a burka.
Through their stories, the author paints a portrait of India from the 1970s through the early 2010s. Ultimately, the four friends are reunited when one of them falls gravely ill and requests to see her friends together one last time.
The Book Girls Say…
When Angela finished this book, she couldn’t stop talking about it for months. These women and their stories stick with you long after the last page!
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Best Books From 2012
Books Set in the 1970s
20+ Great Novels About India
In the Weeds: Around the World and Behind the Scenes with Anthony Bourdain
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
Written by the long-time director and producer of Anthony Bourdain’s travel food show, In the Weeds takes you on an adventure around the world. They filmed in dangerous locations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, and Iran.
The book covers what it was like to be on this journey, and how they managed to film in areas so hard for Westerners to visit. There’s a focus on what it was like traveling with Bourdain, on and off-camera.
The Book Girls Say…
Skip this one if you’re sensitive to the topic of suicide. Vitale shares some morbid comments Bourdain made over the years on the subject of death prior to taking his own life. There’s also plenty of adult content and language.
For a look at Bourdain’s life from his own point of view, try Kitchen Confidential or World Travel: An Irreverent Guide.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The Moon is Missing
Book Summary
Georgia has it all from the outside. She’s a wife, mother, and successful neurosurgeon in London and has been named the first female Director of her department. However, when her daughter Lara starts insisting on more information about her biological father, Georgia’s mostly under-control anxiety attacks return in full force.
Because Georgia’s memories of that portion of life are so repressed, she doesn’t know the answers to Lara’s questions. When therapy fails, she heads to across the sea to New Orleans where she met Lara’s father, and then to the small island in New Zealand where he died. Will she be able to piece together her own history and hold her family together?
The Book Girls Say…
If you read and enjoyed A Drop in the Ocean from our Australia list, this is the same author.
The Paris Library
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
Based on a true story, this novel will transport you to two vastly different time periods and locations. In 1939 Paris, Odile worked for the American Library. When Nazis arrive in Paris and threaten the library, Odile and her fellow brave librarians join the resistance.
Forty-three years later, in Montana, teenager Lily becomes interested in her widowed neighbor. As they begin to form a bond, Lily tries to learn more about how her French neighbor ended up in Montana. They have no idea that a dark secret connects them.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
WW2 Historical Fiction: The Resistance & Other Helpers
23 Books About Books – Must Reads for Book Lovers
Christmas at Tiffany’s
Book Summary
Despite the title, this book spans a full year and will whisk you through three of the world’s most glamorous cities: New York, London, and Paris. Christmas only plays a very small role in the overall story.
Cassie married young and now, ten years later, with a failed marriage and no career, she needs to find herself again. She leaves her quiet life in Scotland to travel for a year, staying with her best friends as she tries on each of their cities for size. Left to her own devices, Cassie is a jeans and sweaters kind of woman, but as she explores life in each of these glamorous cities, she puts herself in her friends’ hands. From hair and makeup to wardrobes and diets, they try to mold Cassie in their images. But before her globetrotting ends, she’ll have to find what makes her happy outside of anyone else’s expectations.
During her four months in Paris, a lot of Cassie’s experiences reminded us of Emily in Paris. Cassie takes on a challenging job in the world of high-fashion, explores the city, and discovers French cooking from a chef who takes her under his wing.
The Book Girls Say…
The first thing you need to know is that this book is long (582 pages), but Angela read it last year and the story kept her engaged throughout. All of the characters in this book are flawed, and at times too judgmental, but it creates a realistic and layered view of friendship that develops and changes throughout the story. While this novel may sound fluffy chic-lit, it actually delivers quite a bit more depth and emotion.
Note that there is another book by this same title, but written by Marianne Evans. While it sounds like a very fun Christmas novella, it won’t transport you to Paris. So be sure to pick up the version written by Karen Swan.
Fall of Giants
Book Summary
This epic story of love, hatred, war, and revolution begins in 1911 on the Coronation Day of King George V. The timeline continues up to and through the major events of WW1.
The complex plot of this nearly 1,000-page epic includes many intertwined characters, including a Welsh coal-mining family, the aristocratic coal-mine owners, a spy at the German Embassy in London, an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, and two orphaned Russian brothers. Book two in the series, Winter of the World, picks right up with the same families and follows them through WW2.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Book Summary
They say that behind every great love song is a great love story, but this is the story of song that winds its way around the world, telling more than one love story.
Concert pianist Diana has long been engaged to Arie. The two are finally ready to marry, but not until Diana returns home to Australia from her world tour. While on tour, she composes a love song for Arie.
Late one night, her love song is overheard. Tragedy strikes before Diana can play it for Arie, but the song is already on its own journey across the world.
In Scotland, Evie has been drifting for years since leaving Australia with a dream of becoming a poet. Now she spends her days making coffee, her nights serving beer, and she questions her relationship with her boyfriend.
Then one day, through a twist of fate, she hears an exquisite love song… Diana’s love song that has been passed from musician to musician. Will this song ultimately bring two lost souls together?
The Book Girls Say…
This book is recommended for fans of Jojo Moyes and Josie Silver. Reviewers say it has a Love Actually quality.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
This novel begins during the Spanish Civil War. When Franco succeeds in overthrowing the government, thousands flee to the French border, including Roser, a pregnant young widow, and Victor, an army doctor and brother of Roser’s deceased love. In order to improve their chances of survival, Roser and Victor must marry despite neither wishing to do so.
Together with thousands of other refugees, they board the SS Winnipeg bound for Chile, leaving behind a Europe erupting in WWII. While starting over on another continent, both hold onto hope that they’ll be able to return to Spain one day. But as they witness the battle between freedom and repression across the globe, Roser and Victor discover that home is closer than they thought.
The Book Girls Say…
Melissa recently watched an interview with author Isabel Allende, and found her utterly hilarious and charming. We both look forward to reading this one, and expect that if her writing is anything like her speaking, Allende’s novel is sure to jump to the top of our favorites list.
You are welcome to choose any book that you’d like to read for the challenge, but we hope that this list of books has given you a good starting point.
Sign Up for the Book Voyage Reading Challenge
Sign up for our email list below to receive a free printable tracker for the Book Voyage Reading Challenge. Our weekly email newsletter helps you stay on track with friendly reminders while still allowing you the flexibility to read at your own pace.
Printable Version This Book List
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists. As we update each book list throughout the year – following the monthly reading challenge schedule – each list will be available in a single-page printable format for our BMAC members.
We offer two membership levels. Both our BFF members and our Inner Circle members get access to the single-page printables for the year-long reading challenges. Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
Book Recommendations for Other Regions
Find more recommendations for other regions of the world using the links below.
- Books Set in Asia: Southern Countries
- Books Set in Australia and New Zealand
- Books Set in South America
- Books Set in North America
- Books Set in the Middle East
- Books Set on a Form of Transportation
- Books Set in Asia: Northern Countries
- Books Set in Eastern Europe & Russia
- Books That Take Place On an Island
- Books Set in Africa
- Books Set in Western Europe
- Books Set in Antarctica and the Arctic
- Books that Span Multiple Continents
