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Loved Michal faber's The Book of Strange New Things.

A Fine Balance is full of horrors but life-affirming all the same.

I've just recommended Any Human Heart by William Boyd on another thread, I saw the C4 adaptation of it first and loved it so much that I got the book and even though I knew what happens still got lost in it. It's really just the story of one man's life but a great read.

I've just started Sebastian Barry's The Temporary Gentleman and I find I'm getting completely lost in his lovely way of writing and his beautiful words.....ive just watched To Walk Invisible about the Brontes so after this I'll definitely be reading Jane Eyre & Wuthering Heights again..nothing like getting lost in the moors

That should say 're-reading'!!

Middlemarch.

Recently, and shorter, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, but be prepared for it to be slow and meandering.

Bit different, and more harsh in content, but one I actually loved recently was True Grit - the western novel. Didn't put it down until I finished it and was unexpectedly moved by it.

The Last Tiger by Tony Black.

Based on the hunting to extinction of the Tasmanian tiger, and one boy's quest to save "his" tiger against all odds, including the wishes of his father and the rest of his family.

Highly recommended.

I can recommend Mussolini's Island

www.amazon.co.uk/Mussolinis-Island-Sarah-Day/dp/1472238192?tag=mumsnetforum-21

PS I wouldn't say it's the most beautiful or life affirming but it is a beautiful and moving read.

The Night Circus was beautiful and ethereal.