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thanks, will look it up

I'd recommend hotel du lac. It's years since I read any Brookner but I know I liked that one.

any particular recommendations by AB ?

Yep, another thumbs up for Alice Munro.

Never heard of Anita Brookner.... >>>heads to Amazon

Ah, melancholy and introspective...that would include all Brookner novels then.

I have recently discovered Alice Munro, and loved the Hateship, Friendship courtship one. Very beautiful stories. A bit sad, but somehow uplifting in its subtle humanity.

What is fortune's rock like?

I loved Fortunes Rock! One of my all time favourite books. Wasn't so amazed by the rest.

Helen Dunmore also does brilliant short stories which are perfect for reading imbetween every cocktail/dip in the pool on holiday

I recently reread "Love of Fat Men" and really enjoyed it again

I love all these. I like my fiction melancholy and introspective, much like the films I enjoy watching. I hate books/films with lots of action and loads going on. I still find these novels suspenseful even though not all that much happens, really

Nice to see someone else who likes the same books

I loved "Back When We Were Grown Ups." And most of Anne Tyler's books. I also liked "A Slipping Down Life" and "Ladder of Years." Anita Shreve's earlier books were better, I think, although I quite enjoyed "Body Surfing." Must try some Helen Dunmore.

gailforce, try The Patchwork Planet, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant or The Amateur Marriage as starters. I don't love every one of Anne Tyler's books but (puts on posey hat), I think she usually has something interesting to say about the human condition (takes off posey hat).

Also really enjoy Tyler and Dunmore. They're definitely not "mass appeal" fiction writers and their works are largely not plot driven - so not thrilling / overly romantic etc. Dumore is also a poet and you can see that in her work, its very lyrical. But both these writers qualify as "literature" and have won prizes accordingly. I do agree they are far more low key and probably don't appeal to everyone.

IMO her books have now become a bit tame and samey (tamey perhaps....)

Loved Fortune's Rock, Seaglass and The Pilot's Wife.

Thought pilots wife not really great so havent read any more don't feel she had really a grasp of the subject

I really liked "back when we were grown ups", I liked Rebecca and the book has one of the best opening lines :" once upon a time there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person."

If this sounds appealing, you will like the book. If yo think WTF, leave it be!

Anne Tyler does nothing for me either, thb. Or Helen Dunmore. All dull.

Thanks mimbleandlittlemy, is there one of Tyler's books I should try first?

gailforce, Anne Tyler is a very different kettle of fish to Anita Shreve. I don't think Anita Shreve is ever going to win a Pullitzer prize. Tyler has an incredible deftness of touch and certainly isn't hovering on the borders of the Shreve/Trollope saga style. Well worth a go.

I Love most Anne Tyler books.

She has a gentle sense of humour, a sense of the absurd in everyday life, always slightly odd characters that do not fit in, but that you really care for.

Then again, my best friend thinks her books are dull. They are very much about characters and relationships, not a lot of action. Anyone who likes Brookner would like Tyler too, I reckon. It is a subtle pleasure.

Off to google helen dunmore!

I've read several of her books and I'd say they're a good "easy" read, if you're on holiday for example and want to get immersed without having to concentrate too hard. Agree with Chandon that The Last Time They Met is definitely a notch above the rest, although the twist at the end is definitely a bit "marmite"!

Gailforce I have read and enjoyed many of Anne Tyler's who I think is slightly superior to Anita Shreve. I also LOVE Helen Dunmore's novels, her books are far grittier and more gripping than either Shreve or Tyler, IMO.

Not great. I was naffed off by the twist in The Pilot's Wife which I thought was pretty crass and romanticised without any real understanding of the issues. Trying not to give away the plot but suffice to say it would be ok for those Americans who don't have any information or understanding about politics outside the US.

I read Light on Snow which was ok and have Pilots Wife on my to read pile. Has anyone tried Sue Miller or Anne Tyler?

I've read two and thought they were very boring. One was recommended by a friend and the other I read in desperation on holiday when I'd read all my own books and was reduced to reading what people had left in the apartments.

Bland and pointless, I thought.

But I actually think that most modern female authors are the same, sadly.

Thank you, that's what I thought. But am waiting for my husband to finish reading Bringing up The Bodies - quite why I thought it was a good idea to let him read it first - and don't mind a quick read.

I think theat they are probably quite formulaic, but I have found them very readable - I got a set from the Book People and have read most of them

DD (12 at the time and her bf too) also enjoyed Light on Snow.