During the past month, the world has turned its attention to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup. This quadrennial celebration of soccer/football/futbol/futebol/Fussball inspired us to hold a World Cup of our own. For each match, we presented a book from a writer representing each of the competing nations. We got to show off how your library has a wide variety of writers that literally span the globe. We found authors from far away places like Australia and Cameroon, and even places not quite as far away, like the USA and Mexico.

We know that books are just as popular, and probably even more popular, than soccer. We were happy to give everyone the exposure to the great writers of the world. (And we were even happier that two countries with great literary traditions in Germany and Argentina made the final!)  Now, you can check back on some of the authors we featured during the past 30 days. These books are just a small fraction of what you can find in your library.

So whether or not you wanted to say Los geht's Deutschland, kämpfen und siegen! or Vamos, vamos, Argentina! today, you cannot lose if you read any of the following great authors.

Literary World Cup Countries and Authors

Algeria	Assia Djebar Mohammed Dib Yasmina Khadra Rachid Mimouni	Greece	Nikos Kazantzakis Sophocles Stratis Myrivilis Apostolos K. Doxiadēs
Argentina	Ernesto Sábato Isol Adolfo Bioy Casares Manuel Puig Julio Cortázar Jorge Luis Borges César Aira	Honduras	Ramón Amaya Amador Roberto Sosa Roberto Quesada
Australia	Patrick White Hannah Kent Markus Zusak	Iran	Mahbod Seraji Roya Hakakian Abolqasem Ferdowsi
Belgium	Maurice Maeterlinck Hugo Claus Hergé Georges Simenon Kitty Crowther	Italy	Dante Alighieri Luigi Pirandello Giorgio Bassani
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Aleksandar Hemon Ivo Andric Semezdin Mehmedinović	Ivory Coast	Marguerite Abouet Ahmadou Kourouma Bernard Dadié
Brazil	Paulo Coelho Clarice Lispector Manuel Antônio de Almeida João Ubaldo Ribeiro Jorge Amado Machado de Assis Ana María Machado	Japan	Banana Yoshimoto Haruki Murakami Yasunari Kawabata
Chile	Pablo Neruda Nicanor Parra Gabriela Mistral Isabel Allende	Korea Republic	Kim Young-Ha Kyung-sook Shin Kang Sŏk-kyŏng
Cameroon	Patrice Nganang Ferdinand Oyono Mongo Beti	Mexico	Carlos Fuentes Octavio Paz Laura Esquivel Juan Rulfo
Colombia	Juan Gabriel Vásquez Gabriel García Márquez Laura Restrepo Jorge Franco Ramos Héctor Abad Faciolince	Netherlands	Cees Nooteboom Herman Koch Willem Frederik Hermans Guus Kuijer Saskia Noort Hella S. Haasse Annie M.G. Schmidt
Costa Rica	Carlos Luis Fallas Alfonso Chase Carlos Gagini Fabián Dobles Carmen Naranjo	Nigeria	Chinua Achebe Wole Soyinka Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Helon Habila
Croatia	Slobodan Novak Miroslav Krleža Ivan Kozarac	Portugal	António Lobo Antunes José Saramago Fernando Pessoa
Ecuador	Jorge Carrera Andrade Jorge Icaza Demetrio Aguilera-Malta	Russia	Boris Pasternak Leo Tolstoy Mikhail Bulgakov
England	Geoffrey Chaucer George Orwell Charles Dickens	Spain	Miguel de Cervantes José Manuel Caballero Carlos Ruiz Zafón
France	Victor Hugo Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Honoré de Balzac Jules Verne Jean-Claude Mourlevat	Switzerland	Max Frisch Johanna Spyri Robert Walser Albert Einstein
Germany	Heinrich Böll Cornelia Funke Thomas Mann W. G. Sebald Sebastian Fitzek Günter Grass Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	United States	Ken Kesey Willa Cather Philip Roth Joan Didion
Ghana	Kwei Quartey Taiye Selasi Amma Darko	Uruguay	Eduardo Galeano Juan Carlos Onetti Cristina Peri Rossi Mario Benedetti

Blog post by Bob Timmermann and Madeline Peña.