The World Cup fever in this house is unrivalled: there’s a duck wearing the Mexican national team’s shirt that has its own corrido, and FIFA has named him the official ambassador for the World Cup. If Merlín can main-character his way through this World Cup, books can have a moment too. ✨🪿✨

We're officially in the "someone has to go home" phase of the tournament, so here's my question: what are your favorite books from the three host countries?

🇲🇽 Mexico 🇨🇦 Canada 🇺🇸 USA.

Football-related or not, classics, literary fiction, fantasy, horror, nonfiction, children's books, whatever you've got.

Mine are, to just name a few:

🇲🇽 Mexico: Liliana's Invincible Summer (El invencible verano de Liliana), Cristina Rivera Garza

Quick context on that Mexico pick, because it's not just there for vibes: the book is Rivera Garza's investigation into her sister's 1990 murder and the decades of impunity that followed it. I'm bringing it up because Mexico is in the middle of a much bigger, ongoing crisis that deserves way more attention than it gets: over 130,000 people are currently registered as missing in the country. Most of the actual searching isn't done by the government, it's done by madres buscadoras ("searching mothers"), mostly mothers, who organize themselves to dig through fields and clandestine graves looking for their own children, because no one else will. Some of these collectives are using this exact World Cup to ask a hard question: how much is being spent on stadiums and security right now, versus on finding their families? If any of this is new to you, it's worth a search.

🇨🇦 Canada: The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

🇺🇸 USA: The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (yes, I still haven't read it. no, that won't stop me from loving half the quotes)

And because México and South Korea are having the most unexpected love story of the tournament, marriage proposals at the Ángel de la Independencia, flags everywhere, half of Jalisco adopting the entire Korean delegation, I'm adding an honorary pick:

🇰🇷 South Korea: The Vegetarian, Han Kang.

Now the real game: tell me who you're rooting for, but you have to recommend a book from that country too. Like:

🇲🇽 Mexico → Liliana's Invincible Summer 🇰🇷 South Korea → The Vegetarian 🇧🇷 Brazil → ? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England → ? 🇫🇷 France → ?

Fill in your own. Bonus points if you also say:

⚽ The team that's not winning anything but has your whole heart anyway ⚽ The country that's surprised you the most so far (hi, Cabo Verde) ⚽ A team that didn't even qualify and you're still grieving (I still haven't forgiven Italy)

Personally? I don't need Mexico to win the World Cup. I don't even need a semifinal. I just want the fifth match. Because if Mexico ever made a final, let alone won the whole thing, I genuinely fear what would happen to Mexico City.