Some books haven’t worked as well for us. My niece started “A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush,” by Eric Newby, and couldn’t get past the first section. I didn’t care for “Among Flowers,” by Jamaica Kincaid; it was too much about the author and not enough about Nepal. We shouldn’t have any trouble finding great books about Europe or the Americas, but we need help with Africa, the South Pacific, Central Asia and other places with fewer translated works.

ANNE JAWORSKI

SEATTLE

Dear Anne,

Bridging long distances — measured in actual miles or across cultural chasms — remains one of literature’s most reliably thrilling tricks. Reading books by local authors will edge you closer to the essential nature of lived experience. But be patient with storytelling that feels unfamiliar: Structure, pacing and style tell as much of the story as do facts about landscape or customs.

A handful of reading suggestions will take you only so far on your ambitious literary tour. To make up more ground, look toward bookish guideposts — publishers, international literary prizes and journals that specialize in global literature.

Pressed for Words

Bitter Lemon Press is one such resource, publishing crime books in translation that align with the scope of your project and your affinity for mysteries. I was introduced to their series through “A Crack in the Wall,” a deliciously slow burning, psychologically nuanced thriller by the Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro (translated by Miranda France), about an architect with a grim secret.

Peirene Press publishes only books with fewer than 200 pages. “The Dead Lake,” by Hamid Ismailov, is one of them. The piercing, fable-like novella (translated by Andrew Bromfield) starkly captures the damage wrought by Cold War-era atomic testing on the environment and people of the steppes of Kazakhstan.