Summer Challenge 2026: A Real Place You've Never Heard Of

Looking for help completing your Summer Challenge Bingo Card? Here are some suggestions for books that are set in real places you might never have heard of!

Updated June 27, 2026
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Greater Victoria Public Library Greater Victoria Public Library
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Summer Challenge 2026: A Real Place You've Never Heard Of

Looking for help completing your Summer Challenge Bingo Card? Here are some suggestions for books that are set in real places you might never have heard of!

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A separation
Kitamura, Katie M.
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK Named a best book of the year by the New York Times, NPR, Huffington Post, The A.V. Club, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, Refinery29, Town & Country, Harper's Bazaar, NYLON, BookRiot. "Kitamura...
Tall Is Her Body
Chevotiere, Robert de la
Paper Book
Readers of Black Cake and Family Lore will be captivated by this sweeping, multicultural family story of keen observation and the supernatural in which one man's journey to wholeness-both emotionally and physically-is shaped by the lands of his childhood and those of his...
She Who Remains
Angel, Izidora
Paper Book
Shortlisted for The International Booker Prize 2026 She Who Remains,Rene Karabash's landmark Bulgarian queer novel, secrets readers into a rural Albanian village where, to this day, the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini--a collection of archaic laws--looms over the lives...
The mercies : a novel
Hargrave, Kiran Millwood
Paper Book
After the men in an Arctic Norwegian town are wiped out, the women must survive a sinister threat in this "perfectly told" 1600s parable of "a world gone mad" (Adriana Trigiani).   Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on...
The lightkeepers : a novel
Geni, Abby
Paper Book
A nature photographer's residency among the harsh natural beauty of the Farallon Islands takes a startlingly violent turn in this debut eco-thriller with echoes of Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer. CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED BY- People Magazine, Marie Claire...
Moloka'i
Brennert, Alan.
Paper Book
This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off...
The island of sea women : a novel
See, Lisa
Paper Book
A new novel from Lisa See, the New York Times bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island. Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come...
We do not part : a novel
Han, Kang
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD IN FICTION NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE...
North sun, or, The voyage of the whaleship Esther : a novel
Rutherford, Ethan
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE 2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION From "one of our great artists of catastrophe" (Laura van den Berg) comes North Sun, or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther--an allegory of extraction and a tale of adventure and endurance during the waning days of the...
Sunburned : a novel
Wood, Katherine
Paper Book
St. Barth's has a murder rate of zero. But that's about to change. "Utterly delectable and addicting . . . Sunburned is what happens when Agatha Christie meets a thoroughly modern, sexy sensibility."-Ashley Winstead, USA Today bestselling author of Midnight Is...
A Far-Flung Life
Stedman, M L
Paper Book
From the mega bestselling and acclaimed author of The Light Between Oceans, a global phenomenon, comes a magnificent and spectacularly moving new novel about family secrets that must never be revealed, and what the heart can endure for the sake of love. When we do...
Watch us dance
Slimani, Leïla
Paper Book
The rebellions within an interracial family play out against the countercultural rebellions of the 1960s in this sexy, stylish, sophisticated new novel by the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny and In the Country of Others. It's...
White Nights
Honek, Urszula
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE  In a village in the remote countryside of southern Poland, it's as if the poverty and brutality emanate like mist from the cursed dirt. The thirteen interconnected stories in White Nights tell of families,...
The director : a novel
Kehlmann, Daniel
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE * A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR * AN NYPL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK * A LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT BOOK CLUB PICK "Nothing short of brilliant." --The...
Cantoras
De Robertis, Carolina
Paper Book
"Cantoras is a stunning lullaby to revolution--and each woman in this novel sings it with a deep ferocity. Again and again, I was lifted, then gently set down again--either through tears, rage, or laughter. Days later, I am still inside this song of a story." --Jacqueline Woodson, National...
The whisper on the night wind : the true history of a wilderness legend
Shoalts, Adam
Paper Book
In the 1900s, the isolated town of Traverspine was the scene of an extraordinary haunting by large creatures. Strange tracks were found in the woods. Strange cries were heard in the night. Sled dogs went missing. Children reported being stalked by a terrifying grinning animal. Families slept with...
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