Read My Country

Hamid Ismailov, the BBC World Service writer in residence, launches the series with three books about Uzbekistan.

1.click The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor (Modern Library Classics)

2. Kalvak Mahzum by Abdullah Kadyri

3. click Soul by Andrey Platonov

In his latest click blog post Hamid is asking for the audience's help to write a short story...

Helon Habila is a Nigerian novelist and poet. His first novel Waiting for an Angel won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Best First Book, Africa Region) in 2003.

His three choices for Nigeria are;

1. click Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

2. click The Man Died by Wole Soyinka

3. click The Famished Road by Ben Okri

click Visit Helon Habila's website

Assaf Gavron is an Israeli novelist and writer. His novel Hydromania won the Israeli Geffen award in 2009.

His three choices for Israel are;

1. click Kneller's Happy Campers by Etgar Keret

2. click Esau by Meir Shalev

3. click The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

click Visit Assaf Gavron's website

Tamara Chalabi is an Iraqi writer. Her memoir, Late for Tea at the Deer Palace, was published in 2010.

Her three choices for Iraq are;

1) click The Epic of Gilgamesh

2) click The Letters of Gertrude Bell

3) Love Song for Words by Nazik Malaika

Mukoma Wa Ngugi is a Kenyan writer and poet. He is the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness, a poetry anthology published in 2006.

His three choices for Kenya are;

1. click What a Life - Mwangi Ruheni

2. click Not Yet Uhuru - autobiography of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga

3. click A Grain of Wheat - Ngugi wa Thiong'o

click Visit Mukoma Wa Ngugi's website

Yang Lian is a Chinese poet. He has held writers' fellowships in Australia and Germany and since 2005 he has been Professor at the European Graduate School in Switzerland.

His three choices for China are;

1. click Spider Eaters: A Memoir by Rae Yang

2. click The Ancient Ship by Zhang Wei (novel)

3. One Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems by Arthur Waley (collection of classical chinese poems)

click Visit Yang Lian's website

Miguel Syjuco is a Philippino writer hailing from Manila. His novel Ilustrado won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2008.

His three choices for the Philippines are;

1. Noli Me Tangere - Jose Rizal

2. America is in the Heart - Carlos Bulosan

3. Dogeaters - Jessica Hagedorn

Santiago Roncagliolo is one of Peru's rising generation of writers with novels such as Red April.

His three choices for Peru are;

1. Alfredo Bryce Echenique: A World For Julius click (Un Mundo para Julius)

2. Mario Vargas: The Bad Girl (click Llosa Travesuras de la nina mala)

3. José Maria Arguedas: Deep Rivers (click Los ríos profundos)