Not sure if this will work but here goes: I just read a novel by Edwidge Danticat, a young Haitian writer, currently living in the U.S. It was called The Farming of Bones. An amazing book set in 1930's Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Definitely worth a read.

Another recent read was the Governor General's award winner The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger. Beautiful story set in 1860's Egypt told in the voice of an English maid to a rich woman and their lives in Egypt. Definitely worth a read. Amazing sense of place and time.