Going Abroad Novels – for Those of Us With or Without Travel Plans

No travel plans this year? Take a book to another country. Of the following reads, the golf trip to Scotland is my favorite. Bamberger writes with such love for the people he meets, the courses he visits, and the game of golf. Still gives me a warm feeling.

The Book of I by David Greig (Europa Editions, 2025)

Short and beautiful – a gem of a book. I is the name of the holy Scottish island now called Iona. The time is the ninth century. There are three survivors of a brutal Norse raid: a teen monk, a beekeeper who is the abused wife of the local butcher, and an aging Viking left for dead by his cronies. This mismatched trio finds happiness of a sort. The writing is smooth, refreshingly honest, and poignant. Recommended.

This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Knopf, 2026)

I picked this book because it’s written by and about Pakistanis. There are many excellent East Indian writers; not so many available to us from Pakistan. This is a story of crime and caste, immigrants and emigrants, poor and rich, and still feudal Pakistan. The male characters are all well-developed; the female less so. Perhaps because this is the way it is in Pakistan. The saga is well told, a good read from start to finish.

A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel (Picador, 1996)

A wonderful book! I picked it up at the library in my senior living building, as our local public library is having trouble with book deliveries. I am only familiar with Mantel because of her famous trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. What a writer. Her descriptions are lyrical, her characters substantial, and her plot amazing. In interviews at the time of release, she commented that bringing together the various threads of this story was one of her greatest writing challenges.

Set in the 1980s around Norfolk, England, and the 1960s in South Africa, the book expands the story of the Eldred family and their tradition of good works. Of course, good work never goes unpunished. It’s also a story of sin and redemption, and the toll that all of this takes on the characters.

Flesh by David Szalay (Scribner, 2025)

Winner of the 2025 Booker Prize, this is a novel pared to the bone. The protagonist, Istvan, has no inner life; things just happen to him. But the writing is so starkly engaging that I wanted to shake Istvan to wake him up to danger or opportunity. He doesn’t wake up. Like many Booker winners, this is not a fun read, nor a rewarding one. But the writing style is brutalist, compelling, and worth exploring.

To the Linksland by Michael Bamberger (Avid Reader Press, 1992, 2005)

Recently, The Wall Street Journal featured five of the best books on the soul of golf, selected by Gene Wojciechowski. I had my romance with golf in the 1990s and gave it up because of an allergy to grass and the tendency to hit long balls down the wrong fairway. But I love the game, and several of my family members are real golfers. I selected one book from the five.

To the Linksland (I read the 30th anniversary edition) tells the warm story of a newly married couple, Michael, with an addiction to golf, and Christine with an addiction to travel. They give up their lives in the U.S. and go on the road show that is the European Golf Tour in 1991. Michael is a good enough golfer to qualify as a caddy on the tour, teaming with a pro who plays for money on which to live and not much more.

There’s hardly anything about Christine’s adventures, but we stand with Michael as he survives six months of labor on the tour. The saga is full of wonderful stories, especially for golfers. At the end, he and Christine take several months with Michael working solely on his golf, touring across Scotland. It’s a paean to the Scots and their beloved game, that only slightly resembles the sanitized and exclusive U.S. version. Highly readable, but you need to at least enjoy golf.

The Unspeakable Skipton by Pamela Hansford Johnson (McNally Editions, 2025, originally published 1959)

Delightful satire in the Evelyn Waugh tradition, roasting an impoverished British author eking out a life in Bruges. He swindles trusting tourists out of drinks and dinners, setting them up for larger schemes. Ultimately, he is hoisted on his own petard. Recommended light reading.

Let’s Talk Books:

Which is your favorite book about travel? Where is it set and why do you love it? Have you picked up a book just because it was set in a particular location? Did it turn out a good read?