It's All In Their Heads

First-time novelist Stef Penney won Britain's Costa Book of the Year award this month for The Tenderness of Wolves, a vivid portrait of life in snowswept Canada. The book's realism is particularly impressive since Penney has never visited the country. Suffering from agoraphobia, she could only make it as far as London's British Library to do her research. But fictional fudging is an illustrious tradition (Shakespeare almost certainly never left England, either) — and other acclaimed modern authors have gotten by with less meticulous research.

Graham Greene
Stamboul Train
This thriller follows travelers on the Orient Express from Ostend, Belgium, to Constantinople. But railway officials rejected Greene's request for a free ride, and he could afford the trip only as far as Cologne. He extrapolated the rest, setting the last chapter near tourist sites featured in books.

Jonathan Franzen
The Corrections
Franzen had never been to Lithuania when he described it as a land of "chronic coal and electricity shortages, freezing drizzles, drive-by shootings and a heavy dietary reliance on horsemeat." A Lithuanian ambassador took exception — and invited him for a visit.

Saul Bellow
Henderson the Rain King
Bellow's tale about a millionaire on a spiritual journey in central Africa has been hailed as a feat of vivid imagination. Other critics called his vision of the continent just plain silly, or even racist.