Ukraine

Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer (2002). Foer's bestselling debut novel follows a 20-year-old Jewish-American named Jonathan Safran who is writing a fable set in 1791 Trachimbrod, a Ukrainian shtetl (village) where his grandfather grew up. In search of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis, Jonathan sets out across rural Ukraine with young Ukrainian translator Alex, a dog named Sammy Davis Junior Junior, and Alex's war-haunted and psychosomatically blind grandfather (as the driver).

Moonlight in Odessa, by Janet Skeslien Charles (2009). In her debut novel, Skeslien Charles explores the emotional landscapes of cosmopolitan, corrupt Odessa and alluring, unknown America. Daria finds herself frustrated with her job as a secretary whose primary role is that of mistress, and turns to the possibility of finding love in California. But just as she is about to leave, a part of Odessa makes her falter and question what kind of love she is really looking for. (Reviewed in Trip Lit.)