Looking to add some new names to your must-read list? Perhaps you’d like something a little different to take you out of your literary comfort zone? We present our list of some of the best European prize-winning female novelists and poets – all of these ladies come with a critical stamp of approval!

Hella Haasse: The Grand Old Lady of Dutch literature

Hella Haasse – Holland

Hella Haasse is often called the ‘Grand Old Lady of Dutch literature’; a title which she certainly merits when one considers how many prizes she has been awarded plus her impressive body of work. In her native Holland she has won both the P. C. Hooft Award and the Constantijn Huygens Prize and more recently the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren; proving that she is still a relevant literary voice, despite having published her first novel in 1948. Further afield in France, Haasse has been named an ‘Officier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur’.

Haasse mainly writes historical novels, but has also produced short stories and autobiographical works. Her novels present epic historical landscapes, rich with fascinating characters and captivating storylines. Her 1949 work In a Dark Wood Wandering is an entrancing and detailed account of the Hundred Years War between France and England, filled with royal feuds, crazy kings, murders, rivalries and revenge. It’s a page-turner, but Haasse succeeds in setting her work apart from other historical novels through her intelligent, sensitive style.

Marie NDiaye – France

Marie NDiaye published her first novel when she was just 17 although she actually began writing at the tender age of twelve! NDiaye grew up in France, although her father is Senegalese, and multiculturality and the idea of being ‘different’ are themes that often feature in her novels. NDiaye has won both the Prix Femina and the prestigious Prix Goncourt in France. In addition, her dramatic work Papa doit manger has been taken into the repertoire of the Comédie française; the second play by a female writer to be included.

Her prize-winning novel Rosie Carpe is a story filled with twists and turns, dark characters and beautifully tender moments. The gripping tale centres on the eponymous heroine and her journey to Guadeloupe with her fatherless son to find her brother, Lazare. Rosie’s life is recounted through flashbacks and along the way considers the relationship between parent and child and the important role family plays in our lives.

Olga Tokarczuk – Poland

A trained psychiatrist and Jungian disciple, Olga Tokarczuk’s sensitively-written works have met with both critical acclaim and commercial success. Tokarczuk has won the NIKE Literary Award four times to date; on three occasions she claimed the Audience Prize and in 2008 finally received the vote of the award’s jury for her novel Bieguni (Runners).

Tokarczuk is inspired by Carl Jung’s psychology and her novels consider human interaction and feelings, yet often have a mythical, folkloric tone to them. Published in 1998,  House of Day, House of Night was a best-seller in Poland and offers a dreamy, engaging story of the lives of the inhabitants small country village. Tokarczuk weaves together history, nature and individual narratives to create a captivating, magical work of prose that reads like poetry.

Novelist and poet Pia Tafdrup

Pia Tafdrup – Denmark

Danish writer Pia Tafdrup has had her work translated into more than twenty languages and has published both novels and collections of poetry. Tafdrup is best known as a poet and was awarded the Nordic Council’s Literary Prize in 1999 and the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize in 2006. She was elected as a member of the Danish Literary Academy in 1989 and has also been appointed a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog.

Tafdrup’s Tarkovsky’s Horses and Other Poems combines two of her poetry collections: The Whales in Paris and Tarkovsky’s Horses. This anthology, translated into English by David McDuff, provides an excellent introduction to Tafdrup’s work and the important themes she addresses, such as love, desire and death. It is a particularly touching collection of poems, in which Tafdrup addresses her father’s mortality and writes about the disintegration of identity as dementia takes hold and this important figure begins to slip away from her.

Herta Müller – Romania/Germany

Recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature as well as various literary awards both in Germany and internationally, Herta Müller’s literary works have been widely translated and include novels, poetry and essays. Müller was born in Romania and grew up in Germany and her books are often set in Communist Romania during the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu. Her experience of both Romanian and German cultures has also coloured her writing and the subjects she addresses.

The plot of her 1993 novel The Land of Green Plums takes place in Romania during Ceauşescu’s reign of terror. Narrated by a young woman of the German minority (much like Müller herself), the story follows four young people’s daily lives and struggles and under the dictatorship. Considering friendship, fear, power and survival, the novel is partly autobiographical. Müller dedicated The Land of Green Plums to her Romanian friends who died during the regime.

Ángela Vallvey – Spain

Best-selling writer Ángela Vallvey has published poetry and books for children as well as adults and her smart, funny style won her the Nadal Prize as well as a nomination for the Premio Planeta. Her novel Hunting the Last Wild Man, a quick, humorous study of a Spanish working-class family ensured her name on bestseller lists around the world.

Her second work to be translated into English, Happy Creatures, again considers a modern Spanish society with values in flux. The novel centres on the lives of a husband and wife; Penelope, a successful fashion designer and Ulysses, a struggling artist and serial adulterer. Both are trying to work out how to be happy and what happiness really means. Vallvey’s refreshing view on contemporary society and philosophy makes for a chick lit-style novel with a difference.

Controversial Austrian novelist Elfriede Jelinek

Elfriede Jelinek – Austria

Another Nobel prize-winner, Elfriede Jelinek is a controversial and outspoken Austrian writer, reputed feminist and political activist. Before winning the award, she was relatively unknown outside Austria, where her political stance as well as her writing have made her a household name. She has also won the Franz Kafka prize, which is awarded to German language novelists. Her literary works often concern sexuality and the themes of power and control in relationships.

Her dark, sexually-charged novel The Piano Teacher focuses on Erika Kohut, a young woman who works at the Vienna Conservatory during the day and spends her evenings visiting the city’s porn shows. Central to the work is Erika’s difficult relationship with her controlling mother, and how this has affected her behaviour patterns and moral code. Unsettling, often graphic and filled with suspense, The Piano Teacher was made into a film directed by Michael Haneke.

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen – Portugal

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen is a Portuguese poet and writer who has won numerous awards for her novels, books for children and poetry. Her work has been translated widely and she is a well-loved and respected writer in her native country. Her most recent award was the Reina Sofia Prize for writers from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, and she was also the first woman to win the Camões Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Portugal.

Shores, Horizons, Voyages is a collection of  Andresen’s poetry and shows just why she is one of the most popular Portuguese poets. The verses take the sea as principle theme, something which Andresen has often looked at in her writing. Both the sea and poetry play an important role in Andresen’s life, the writer referred to the latter as: “my understanding with the universe, my way of relating to things, my participation in reality, my encounter with voices and images.”