Well, I would have felt less self-conscious about picking this book ten years ago. Now that I'm 31, there's something slightly unseemly about it being a favorite of mine. Yet it's either this, or another equally scandalous (though far less known) Nabokov book.
With my second European pick, I'm selecting Vladimir Nabokov's brilliant and controversial work, Lolita.
note to self: don't type the word lolita into google image search while at work. Don't know how it never occured to me that it was a bad idea before I did it.
I'm a big fan of Nabokov's work; his complex plots, his brilliant lyricism, his vivid metaphors. Lolita tells the story of Humbert Humbert, a European intellectual, and his obsession with an American teenage girl. The plot is far more complex than simply a story of sexual obsession. Delores is actually a rather dull and typical girl, and is promiscuous even beyond the influence of Humbert, whom she seduces, and much of the story follows the rivalry for her affections between Humbert and a rival pedophile.
Edit: also, trades: I'm still looking for American, Canadian, or European lit, and willing to trade sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction biography, food & drink, and anthology.