Finn Family Moomintroll is a 1948 children’s book by Tove Jansson, the creator of the beloved Moomin creatures. The Fish Can Sing (1957), World Light (1969), Iceland’s Bell (1943), and Under the Glacier (1972) are all by Laxness.

Like Water For Chocolate is a 1989 novel by the Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. Of Love and Other Demons was published in 1994, One Hundred Years of Solitude was published in 1967, Chronicle of a Death Foretold was published in 1981, Love in the Time of Cholera was published in 1985, and “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” was published in 1955 – all by Gabriel García Márquez.

Gabriel García Márquez is known primarily as a magical realist writer, and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), one of his most famous novels, is no exception to this blend of everyday realism and unexplained magical events.

The poet, playwright, and fiction writer Halldór Laxness (née Halldór Guðjónsson) wrote the novel Independent People (1934), a two-volume work about the difficult lives of impoverished Icelandic farmers in the early 1900s.

Tove Jansson wrote Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland) (1946), Stieg Larsson wrote Män som hatar kvinnor (literally translated as "Men Who Hate Women," published in English under the title The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) (2005), Karl Ove Knausgård wrote Min Kamp (My Struggle) (2009-2011), and Henrik Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt (1867).

Halldór Laxness published Independent People in two parts in 1934 and 1935.

Published in 1994, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is Haruki Murakami’s eighth novel.

Ha Jin wrote In the Pond (1998), David Mitchell wrote Cloud Atlas (2004), Banana Yoshimoto wrote Hardboiled & Hard Luck (1999), and Yu Hua wrote Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995).

Haruki Murakami is a contemporary Japanese novelist. He was born in Kyoto. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was published in 1994.

Chronicle of a Blood Merchant is a 1995 novel by the Chinese author Yu Hua. The other titles are all novels by Murakami, who is also a short story writer.

Kafka on the Shore was published in 2002, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was published in 1985, 1Q84 was published in 2009, and A Wild Sheep Chase 1982.

Murakami’s fiction is distinguished by his mingling of realism and fantasy, with that realism often touching on dark aspects of contemporary society. Strange characters and coincidences are also hallmarks of Murakami’s novels. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle does not, however, contain an attack on a bird sanctuary.

The Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez wrote Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), a novel about a secret relationship and a love triangle based in a city inspired by Cartagena.

Isabel Allende wrote La isla bajo el mar (Island Beneath the Sea) (2010), Jorge Luis Borges wrote Historia universal de la infamia (A Universal History of Infamy) (1935), Octavio Paz wrote Raíz del hombre (1937), and Gabriela Mistral wrote Lecturas para Mujeres (Readings for Women) (1923).