A book (or a series of books) to get lost in

[AKAmyself]

I desperately need something chunky and absorbing to get lost in. A book that will make me call in sick from work and hide in the loo when my in-laws are here.

I adore multigenerational family sagas, I love romance when it's well written and the characters are strong, I love historical books.

I love both high literature and more commercial fiction, not fussy or snobbish about it... have loved everything from War and Peace to Outlander!

Basically I want to fall in love with a world and a set of characters and forget all about the shitty world we live in.

not asking too much, am I? please hit me with your recs!

thanks!

[MegBusset]

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

[MermaidofZennor]

The Cazalets series by Elizabeth Jane Howard is very good as is the Shardlake series by C J Sansom.

[Sleeperandthespindle]

Harry Potter!
I hadn't read them since I read each one as they were released (was a teacher so had an excuse). I have just finished listening to all of them read by Stephen Fry (sharing the first few only wirh DC) and have been utterly lost in them.

Failing that, CJ Sansom or Ken Follett (Pillars of the Earth).

[YesILikeItToo]

You've read A Suitable Boy, though, haven't you?

[festiveleadballoon]

Game of thrones

[serialbunburyist]

If you're into fantasy at all I'd highly recommend Brian Staveley's Unhewn Throne trilogy. Or Robin Hobb, starting with the Farseer Trilogy. Total escapism with excellent writing.

[LadyMetroland]

Trollope. Barchester Chronicles.

Pg Wodehouse, Blandings stories for pure escapism

Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy

[rugbychick1]

The Bronze Horseman trilogy by Paulina Simons. A romance featuring strong characters, but not conventional, and starts in Russia around the time of WW2

[Allthebestnamesareused]

The Clifton Chronicles - a Jeffery Archer series following family/business empire etc. total holiday type read!

[Patsy99]

Another vote for the Cazelet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Hilary Mantel named the first instalment- The Light Years - as the novel everyone should read and I couldn't put it down.

[Patsy99]

Ps. It's a multigenerational family saga.

[MummyStep123]

Huge fan of women of the other world by Kelley Armstrong, have just finished the series. It's more of a supernatural read x

[GreengrocerMortificado]

The Wilbur Smith Egyptian books are wonderful

[AKAmyself]

So many great suggestions, thanks all! And keep them coming!

[Kuriusoranj]

I have a huge soft spot for Susan Howatch - The Rich Are Different and Sins of the Fathers. Multi-generational single story arc told from multiple perspectives. Yum.

[auberginesrus]

Yet another vote for the Cazelet chronicles - I found out about them on here and have read them all twice. Just marvellous.

[GeorgeHerbert]

Cazalet again. Or Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet - I literally could not pull myself away, read one after the other!

[Sosidges]

RF delderfield. Writes great sagas

[Shitonyoursofa]

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Totally absorbing.

[BoreOfWhabylon]

Mary Stewart's Merlin/Arthurian series:

The Crystal Cave
The Hollow Hills
The Last Enchantment
The Wicked Day

[80sMum]

A Fine Balance is indeed a great book shitonyoursofa but I wouldn't recommend it for the OP at present! It's not a good book to read if you want to escape from "this shitty world" for a while, as it depicts an even shittier one!

[exWifebeginsat40]

the Dark Tower. wait, I know it's Stephen King. hear me out.

7 books, some breathtaking, others not so much. it has problematic characterisations, plot holes you could drive a truck through and a world I would still prefer I had inhabited.

and at the end I felt bereaved. as I did the second time it ended. I'm about halfway through a sloooow re-read and it's still as rich as the first time.

so, yeah. bit of a curate's egg, but I love it.

[exWifebeginsat40]

ugh. italics fail.

[camtt]

Fay Weldon, the Love and Inheritance trilogy, loved it!