Please recommend long books

[Rollermum]

Hello, I'm looking for a good long fiction book to get into or a series that reads chronologically.

The longer the better! Be good to hear why you liked it too.

[LordEmsworth]

Series - I love the Cazalets by Elizabeth Jane Howard, have read the original trilogy a few times. Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, I love.

Long books - I enjoyed A Suitable Boy, looking forward to the sequel. The Guardian had a "10 best long books" feature recently - www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2013/oct/12/the-10-best-long-reads

[CrocodileScream]

The Far Pavilions M. M. Kaye
The stand Stephen King

[BikeRunSki]

Douglas Kennedy has written a few doorstop page turners - State of the Union and The Pursuit of Happiness spring to mind. Although written by a man, the main protagonists are female and really well written! They are both set against an interesting socio-political background and deal with a few issues.

[decaffwithcream]

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is good and long. Well written, set in the Congo, very evocative and the story of a family (4 daughters) of missionaries. Covers many years.

[curlyclaz13]

Another one for The stand, huge but readable.
For a series the Rebus books by Ian Rankin 18 in total I think.

[berberana]

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson is fantastic - it's the story of the man who captained The Beagle which carried Darwin to Galapagos etc and their friendship but also the tension as the theory of evolution challenged his religious faith. I was really doubtful when it was recommended to me, thought it sounded dry, but was hooked within a chapter or two!

Also Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is (very) long and possibly an acquired taste. It's about magicians in the early 19th century and is just an amazing feat of imagination.

If you like historical fiction / saga, try Sharon Penman - medieval royal families and wars - Henry II and Richard Lionheart are the main characters in a lot but she's also written some others about lesser known monarchs, e.g. While Christ and His Saints Slept is about King Stephen and the first English Civil War in the 12th century.

And another which seems to divide opinion but I thought was riveting is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies.

[Feenie]

I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb

[Repeatedlydoingthetwist]

Fall of Giants and Winter of the World by Ken Follett. I enjoyed them because I love a good historical saga and they are set over the two world wars and I'm fascinated by that period of history.

[DuchessofMalfi]

How about Proust's In Search of Lost Time? I'm never going to be brave enough to tackle them, but did enjoy the Radio 4 Extra dramatisation of the novels recently. At just 6 hours, it was merely a flavour of them, but it was good.

[MerylStrop]

Wolf Hall and then Bring Up the Bodies

The Corrections, Jonathan Frantzen

Ursula le Guin

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

Ooh I love a good doorstop of a book to get lost in.

My favourites would probably be (in no particular order): The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (set in Victorian London, main character is a young prostitute); Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (American Civil War deserter makes his way home over the mountains to his sweetheart; his sweetheart back home is having to cope with running the farm and generally surviving in straitened circumstances); The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (set in 18th century Japan, utterly absorbing); A Prayer for Owen Meant by John Irving (can't describe it in a single phrase!) and as mentioned by others, The Poisonwood Bible and Wolf Hall. Oh and The Magus by John Fowles.

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

*Meany not Meant!

[Rollermum]

Thanks everyone! Some great ideas there :-)

[Rollermum]

One of my own to add The Quincunx by Charles Palliser is amazing and very long. One I can find it I will re-read.

[SlitheenInADwerfSkin]

A Song Of Fire And Ice (Game Of Thrones), the series is seven doorstoppers long so far.
Perdito street Station by China Melville, dark sci-fi/ fantasyish
I know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb is a great book, I opened the thread just to post that and someone beat me to it!
The Stand (unabriged) by Stephen King, Also 'It'.
The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King (eight books in that, varying lengths)
The Sookie Stackhouse series (True Blood) by Charlaine Harris is about a dozen long by now, pretty easy reading but lots of it.

[alcibiades]

For long books, I suggest James Michener, even if his writing style might seem a bit out-of-date.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Michener

In particular, "The Source", which starts with an archaeological dig in modern-day Israel, but then traces back through history, telling the stories of people who once lived there. Michener's books are a bit like a series, except you get all of it in one book.

[maillotjaune]

I second This Thing of Darkness and Proust (took me about 4 years to get through the latter reading other stuff in between but it was worth it).

Also enjoying The Luminaries a lot BUT although it's long, it's just a story (don't mean that disparagingly, it's just that it isn't obviously weird in structure etc) so it is an effortless long read as long as you don't try to fit it in your handbag.

[Sallystyle]

The Goldfinch- Donna Tartt's new book is awesome.

I second The Stand... amazing read.

Anything by Wally Lamb.

I also enjoyed Penny's No angel series.

This is the first book

www.amazon.co.uk/No-Angel-Penny-Vincenzi-ebook/dp/B002TZ3EIY/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1385232307&sr=8-9&keywords=penny%20vincenzi&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[ancientbuchanan]

Russian:.

And quiet flows the Don
War and Peace
Anna Karenina

French
Les Miserables

English historiecal fiction
The Lymond series, by Dorothy Dunnett

Non historical but 19 th century
The Barchester Novels, Trollope
The Palliser novels, Trollope

Vanity Fair, Thackeray
Henry Esmond, The Newcomes, Thackeray
I
The return of the native, Tess, both Hardy

Daniel Deronda, Eliot

Though I loathe it, Moby Dick. V v long.

[MiddleAgeMiddleEngland]

Lots of the above, especially Anna Karenina and the Hardy novels.

One of my favourites is Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas, really absorbing and relatively long - my edition is 623 pages.

[ancientbuchanan]

And A Bend in the River. Also outstanding.

Midnight's children goes on...

[TheWanderingUterus]

Edward Rutherfurd wrote several door stoppers -

London
Sarum
The forest
Russka

They track the story of four or five fictional families from the founding of a settlement until the present day. Not great literature in the sense of some of these recommendations but they captured my imagination

[Parliamo]

In the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is one of my all time favourite books. Clever and beautiful. Proust is going to be a lifetime's reading for me. And James Joyce is something I keep trying and think maybe one day... Has anybody suggested Henry James yet? Portrait of a Lady?

My requirements are a bit different these days, short and little concentration required. I get no sleep. Enjoy your reading...

[Parliamo]

How about the Mars Triology by Kim Stanley Robinson, I haven't read them as I overdid science fiction as a teenager, but some people whose opinions I respect really rate it.

[MiddleAgeMiddleEngland]

ancient yes, that's very good, too. I think Naipaul is a bit under-rated.