Book Bingo 2026: World Cup Country
Here are some suggestions for your 2026 Book Bingo NW category: World Cup Country, selected by library staff at The Seattle Public Library. Book Bingo is our annual adult summer reading program presented in partnership with Seattle Arts & Lectures and King County Library System.
Note-- there are 5 countries in the World Cup not included on this list as the Library does not have any recent books published by authors from these countries:
Cabo Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, Paraguay, and Qatar
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Aya
Côte d'Ivoire. Fiction Graphic Novel. Aya and all her friends greet the bigger, bolder world of the 80s in true Abidjan style, delighting fans both old and new with vibrant but too often unseen depictions of middle-class life in Africa. (Publisher description)
Format: Graphic Novel
Availability: All copies in use
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Battle Songs
Croatia. Fiction. Throughout, Drndic juxtaposes seemingly disparate subjects to make emphatic statements about the wartime struggles of Croatians, both refugees in 1990s Canada and those who confronted the Nazis during WWII. The author’s distinctive style makes these refugee stories sing. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Playing Wolf
Czechia. Fiction. Ríhová makes her English-language debut with a devilishly creepy work of folk horror set in rural Czechia. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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We Will Be Jaguars
Ecuador. Nonfiction. A young woman’s life among her people in the Ecuadorian rainforest, battling the onslaught of bulldozers and oil wells. An essential memoir of Indigenous resistance to economic subjugation and cultural extinction. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Sleep Phase
Egypt. Fiction. The story of a translator released from prison who wants little more than to resume his work, Mohamed Kheir's latest is a tale of returning to a home you do not recognize, a place where the forces of capital, nostalgia, and trauma violently collide. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The in Crowd
England. Fiction. When two bodies, linked to two different cold cases, are found, Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp, along with his associates, investigates these parallel missing persons cases, finding himself ensnared in the unexpected political machinations of a duke-in-waiting. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Ubac and Me
France. Nonfiction. Celebrates the bond between a solitary mountain climber and his Bernese Mountain Dog, tracing thirteen years of companionship, adventure, and love in the French Alps while reflecting on the beauty, heartbreak, and meaning found in a shared life with animals and nature. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Director
Germany. Fiction. Kehlmann offers a clear-eyed and propulsive chronicle of Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst (1885–1967), whose achievements included launching the careers of Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks before he reluctantly collaborated with the Nazis. It’s a searing look at the mechanics of complicity. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Whitewashed Tombs
Ghana. Fiction. Quartey’s most personal crime novel asks Emma Djan and her colleagues at the Sowah detective agency to figure out who’s running through Accra’s LGBTQ+ community silencing its loudest voices. (Kirkus).
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Cécé
Haiti. Fiction. Haitian diplomat and novelist Prophète delivers a winning narrative of an enterprising woman seeking to maintain her independence in her poverty-stricken neighborhood on the edge of Port-au-Prince. Her arresting and lyrical chronicle amounts to an astonishing and deeply human story of resilience. It's unforgettable. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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