Help me decide on a book to take on holiday next week

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

A real, live book - not Kindle. Has to be one I've not read before and has to be big. Ideally it will - be well written without being literary, have either a who-dunnit or historical or dystopian or apocalyptic element to it, or indeed all of those.

Things that would tick those boxes but that I've already read are:
Anything by Wilkie Collins
The Passage / The Twelve
CJ Sansom's Shardlake books
This Thing of Darkness

Don't fancy sci-fi at the moment and don't want anything in the best seller lists.

Thanks in advance.

[Kasterborous]

What about Dominion by C J Sansom?

[overthemill]

I've just started and am loving Middlesex by Jeffrey eugenides. It's huge! Also chimera by John Barth was a jolly good read though a while ago

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Read em all - but thank you. :)

[MrsBungle]

I don't know if this will be up your street at all but it is historic! Mary queen of scots by Antonia Fraser. It's a big book and I found it riveting!

[Dwerf]

Swan Song - Robert McCammon, it's like Stephen King's 'The Stand'

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Have read the Antonia F one. Not read, 'Swan Song' and have been meaning to, so thanks for the reminder about that.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Blimey - Swan Song is £18 on Amazon!!! Won't be buying that then. :)

[CoteDAzur]

Is it that time again, Remus?

[CoteDAzur]

How do you reconcile "Don't want to read sci-fi" with "Want to read dystopian or apocalyptic"?

[Cheboludo]

You've probably read these already but I'll suggest Flicker by Theodore Roszak and/or James Ellroy - the Dudley Smith trio comes in one edition or The Cold Six thousand and Blood's a Rover are both pretty long.

I didn't like House of leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski but loads of people rave about it.

[CoteDAzur]

Swan Song is £6.17 on the Kindle. Just sayin'

[DuchessofMalfi]

You've probably already read it but - Restoration by Rose Tremain, and the sequel Merivel? Very interesting period in history.

Just read Restoration and enjoyed it, planning to read Merivel shortly.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Read, 'Restoration' but not the follow up. Not sure I fancy Rose T right now though.

Not read any of those, Cheb. Will look.

Cote - fancy more sort of urban dystopia than sci-fi right now, I think.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

And it is ALWAYS that time - have avoided it for ages by only reading non-fiction and re-reads.

[CoteDAzur]

By "urban dystopia", I get the feeling that you are referring to something YA and terribly juvenile but if you would like to read from a master before he went senile, read some of the earlier books of William Gibson: Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, and Idoru are some of the best. Very urban, near future, dark, gritty. The books that started the genre.

I can't quite fit it into a genre, but I would also recommend for you J G Ballard's book of short stories called Vermillion Sands.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Can't read Ballard. Tried two and thought they were both awful. Don't want YA now either. Fed up of just about everything; don't really know WHAT I want.

[Dilidali]

Something funny? Sue Townsend-the woman who webt to bed for a year?
Just bought Rachel Joyce: Perfect (I adored her previous one: the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry)

[Dilidali]

*went to bed for a year

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Didn't like Harold Fry, though tbh I only tried it because a friend lent it to me. Not my sort of thing, but thanks for trying. No to Sue T - deffo not what I'm after. Want dark, gritty, maybe Victorian-esque, deffo no fluff.

Thanks for trying - am bloody awkward, sorry.

[MrsMystery]

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Description:

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize 2013.

Alaska, the 1920s. Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a remote homestead, but the wilderness is a stark place, and Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years before. When a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder, but also foreboding: is she what she seems, and can they find room in their hearts for her?

So beautiful to read, I recommend it!

[Finickynotfussy]

I loved The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon and it fits your criteria, I think. Or how about some more Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone is the best, in my opinion.

[CoteDAzur]

Remus - Give that book a chance. Borrow it from the library, read a few pages. It is very different than Ballard's usual weirdness.

[Parliamo]

In the name of the rose by Umberto Eco? Is literary, but I don't remember it being heavy going.

[evelynj]

The wind up bird chronicle? I love Murakami & this is my fave, fantastic translator & sort of book where bits of it will stay with you forever.

Liked the snow child but it's not that long iirc. Yy to Middlesex

[CoteDAzur]

Remus - You need to read The Luminaries.