Books have long been celebrated for their power to transport readers to other worlds. While this is often associated with genre fiction like fantasy and sci-fi, contemporary literature also opens doors to new places—no passport required. Whether you’re gearing up for an international trip or simply curious about unfamiliar cultures, books offer a way to immerse yourself elsewhere, all from the comfort of your couch.
The following must-read novels, set in countries ranging from Ireland and Japan to Palestine and New Zealand, offer a wide spectrum of perspectives. Some are translated into English, like Kairos and Butter, while others follow characters encountering new places for the first time—like the Canadian exchange student exploring Scotland in The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus. Many of the books below revolve around deeply personal stories set in memorable locations: a house off the grid in rural Ireland, the high-pressure world of Los Angeles restaurants or a theater in the West Bank.
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All eight novels we’ve chosen to feature on this list center characters whose inner lives are inseparable from their environments, with growth shaped—sometimes irreversibly—by the places they inhabit.
To visit Ireland, read The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
The four orphaned Flattery sisters departed Wicklow for different parts of the globe when they reached adulthood. Olwen goes to Galway, where she teaches geology to college students. Nell, similarly, becomes a professor, teaching philosophy in Boston. Rhona heads to Dublin, where she teaches at Trinity College, specializing in politics, and Maeve takes off for London, where she blooms into an online sensation for her cooking videos. The sisters are forced to reunite and traverse the Irish countryside to find their once steady oldest sister when she disappears from her previous life without a trace. Told from the perspectives of all four sisters, this deeply thoughtful, richly descriptive novel offers insight into sisterhood and a connection to place while guiding the reader on a journey across Ireland.
To visit Japan, read Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton
Butter opens with the protagonist on a train to the suburbs to visit her newly married friend. Rika, a journalist, and her boyfriend both live to work, and Rika can’t fathom a life centered on cooking dinner for a husband—the path her friend Reiko has chosen. Her friend’s domestic pursuits, however, give Rika an in on cracking a tough story when Reiko suggests she try connecting with a famous serial killer—one who lured her victims with delicious food—by asking for a recipe. Suddenly, Rika has the alleged killer talking. But their exchanges begin to shift Rika’s own life in ways she never anticipated, forcing her to confront her relationship with food, her body and societal expectations. While far from a thriller despite the murderous edge, this Japanese novel that’s taken over the book world brings delectable culinary dreams to life and poses urgent questions about patriarchal views of women’s bodies.
To visit Germany, read Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck with Michael Hofmann (Translator)
Katherina locks eyes with a married man older than her father on the bus, and so begins the affair that defines the end of her youth. The relationship is recounted retrospectively by an adult Katherina, who reflects not only on the affair but also on life in East Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her naive perspective makes her a fascinating narrator, offering insight into what a divided Berlin was like, especially as she experiences West Germany for the first time on a hard-won trip to visit her grandmother. This must-read novel attracted international attention after winning the International Booker Prize in 2024.
To visit the U.S., read Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour
Nina LaCour has a gift for using subtlety to paint beautifully evocative pictures, and that comes through clearly in her depiction of Los Angeles in this love story about two women who have a chance meeting in a restaurant. Sara designs the drink menu for the trendy new spot, Yerba Buena, while Emilie arranges the flowers. Emilie is confronting her stalled-out life, entering her seventh year of undergrad at the start of the book, while Sara is still searching for the sense of home she lost as a teenage runaway, many years later. Los Angeles and its many layered neighborhoods come alive on the page as these two women struggle to fully situate themselves in adulthood.
To visit Palestine, read Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
Sonia steps away from her life in the London theater to return to her homeland and visit her sister, Haneen. While Haneen chose to teach at a university in nearby Tel Aviv, Sonia largely avoided returning to Palestine, caught between feelings of fractured distance and deep connection to the place. Through a friend of Haneen’s, Sonia finds herself pulled into a production of Hamlet staged in the West Bank. Rehearsing the play in Arabic and confronting firsthand the challenges and violence in the region, Sonia becomes more passionately connected to both the physical place and her heritage. The novel is lyrically beautiful and searingly honest as it creates a portrait of Palestine and a dedicated theater troupe bravely fighting against a stacked hand.
To visit Scotland, read The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight
Pen arrives in Edinburgh from Canada to start her first term at university, still mentally stuck at home in the middle of her parents’ divorce. She’s convinced there are family secrets she needs to uncover and that Scotland holds all the answers. This belief in the significance of the place comes from a family friend from her father’s university days, now a famous writer, who welcomes Pen into his family’s life and into their Scottish estate when she arrives in the country. Told through the perspective of two wide-eyed international students from Toronto, Knight immerses readers in university life in Edinburgh and the Scottish countryside as Pen explores the long-lost family friend’s estate.
To visit New Zealand, read Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly
Greta and Valdin come from a tight-knit Māori family in Auckland. Even after moving out of the house, the two siblings stay together and become roommates as they navigate their emerging adulthood in the city. While Valdin is nursing a broken heart after his boyfriend moves to South America, Greta is dealing with an unrequited crush and a rocky road through academia that might not have a light at the end of the tunnel. They contend with all this while managing family chaos, supporting their nephew through his own coming out and struggling with the inherent challenges of being in one’s twenties. This book transports readers to a setting not frequently captured in literature while exploring queerness, family and identity.
To visit Jamaica, read If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You leaves much open to reader interpretation. He presents the story of a family of Jamaican immigrants in Florida through multiple short stories that shift perspective. There’s the father who felt he had to leave Jamaica for the safety of his family, as well as the son who, despite being born in America, feels out of place among his peers and disillusioned with the American Dream, leaving him wondering if Jamaica would offer a better life. We also gain insight from a cousin who helps fill out the extended family tree. It’s a multi-part novel that can be deconstructed into a linked anthology, depending on how it is read. Regardless, the book creates a strong intergenerational portrait shaped by distinct experiences not shared across generations. Between Jamaica and Florida, Escoffery presents a family of characters rich in detail and utterly unforgettable.
