World

Yemen is a stunningly beautiful country with a rich cultural heritage but its recent history has been marred by internal conflicts, outside interference and poor governance. Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, recommends books that bring to life Yemen's traditional culture and give insight into what makes the country tick.

Wendy Law-Yone says the same blend of megalomania and mysticism inherent in Burmese despots and witnessed in 17th-century Burma, that dynastic lunacy with delusions of divinity, is still in florid evidence today

Booker Prize-winning translator David Bellos says Les Misérables is the greatest novel of all time. When it came out, "it was an event bigger than the launch of Titanic and Avatar put together." He picks the five greatest French novels.

The former Rio de Janeiro bureau chief for the New York Times, Larry Rohter, discusses five books that explore the strain of tragedy lurking just beneath Brazil's 'happy' image.

Author and founder of Virago Press decries the absolute silence of the church during the Holocaust, and discusses five books on the "dark and murky side" the French have now "faced up to"

The Pakistani author and professor describes the past and future of Pakistan, the influences of India, Britain, the US and Islam, via two seminal non-fiction works and three sweeping Pakistani works of fiction

Author and journalist Fatima Bhutto says that to understand Pakistan you must first fully appreciate the devastating impact of American foreign policy on the young nation.

The renowned sinologist and holder of the Legion D'Honneur reflects on Chinese attitudes towards life. Discusses the five books she feels gives the reader the best all-round appreciation of Chinese society

Israeli lawyer and politician says the Zionist revolution sought to turn Jewish civilisation into a nation-state like all nation-states under the rule of international law

The author and academic says the global financial meltdown has shattered the apparently sophisticated, but in fact conceptually hollow, foundations upon which "self-regulated" markets were built