Introduction -- E.M. Forster, A passage to India -- Ivo Andrić, The bridge on the Drina -- Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in stone: the costs of being small -- Gabriel García Márquez, The autumn of the patriarch -- Sahar Khalifeh, Wild thorns: the worst boundary problem in the world -- V.S. Naipaul, A bend in the river -- Nuruddin Farah, Maps -- Rhea Galanaki, The life of Ismail Ferik Pasha: the trouble with Crete -- Salman Rushdie, The satanic verses -- Orhan Pamuk, Snow -- Roberto Bolaño, 2666: apocalypse in a border town -- Khaled Hosseini, A thousand splendid suns: and some conclusions.