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Original poster

Lit Fic for ME please

232 replies

Hullygully · 28/06/2013 08:38

Any recommendations? Need lots of books for hols. I want lit fiction eg I do not want Khaled Hossein, Harold Fry, JoJo Moyes etc etc (nothing wrong with them, but I don't want them).

I want Mantel/Mitchell/Houllebecq type stuff please and thank you.

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greenhill · 28/06/2013 11:26

Do you like Sarah Waters? I've just read "The Little Stranger" a ghost story / psychological drama about societal changes in the 1940's.

And I'm half way through Janet Davey "On Battersea Bridge" it's about family identity and losing yourself.

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 11:19

All Rohinton Mistry

Satanic Verses

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 11:18

Ballard: Cocaine Nights

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 11:17

Have ordered 3 Bailey Whites

American Ghost too expensive

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 11:11

AM Homes' latest (appalling memory, soz)

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 11:10

Oh the Towers of Trebizond...

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 11:09

exexpat, I recommend in no order, just what I loved what pop to mind:

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

Hell at the Breech - Tom Franklin - you might like that, Mig, if you haven't read it. Splendid southern gothic (and true story)

Houllebecq's latest and Atomised/Platform if not read

Dorothy Whipple (for weeping)

will think of more

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 11:06

Read most of Shriver - really recommend the healthcare one exexpat

Don't like Coe or Meek

read Cutting for Stone (ok)

Read Hensher (about to start King of Badgers) LOVED Northern Clemency

Read all of Mantel

Mignonette - good suggestions, will look.

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MooncupGoddess · 28/06/2013 11:06

Anyone who hated Saturday is a friend of mine Grin

I read Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians recently and thought it was amazing.

You probably know all the great post-war fiction but Rose Macaulay, Elizabeth Bowen, Marghanita Laski, Iris Murdoch etc always worth going back to.

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 11:04

I really liked Swamplandia!

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exexpat · 28/06/2013 10:59

Reading all this with interest as I also want to load up my kindle for a trip to Cuba.

Hully, we seem to have similar-ish tastes - what would you recommend?

eddiemairswife · 28/06/2013 10:56

have you read 'A Place of Greater Safety' by Hilary Mantel, set during the French Revolution?

mignonette · 28/06/2013 10:55

The garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Swamplandia by Karen Russell (magical realism crossed with Southern Gothic set in Florida- one of my favourite books ever) here

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
An engrossing novel inspired by a true event about unresolved family history and racial tensions that threaten a Florida community.

American Ghosts by Janis Owens -
"With American Ghost, Janis Owens offers an evocative southern novel continuing in the tradition originally established by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and brought into the new millennium by writers like Karen Russell and Kathryn Stockett"

Anything by Barbara Kingsolver (new novel is 'Flight Behaviour' but also 'The Bean trees' 'Pigs In Heaven')

'Mama makes Up Her Mind' or 'Sleeping At The Starlite Motel' or 'A Good Year For Plums' by Bailey White (modern southern gothic fiction in longform and short stories-adore this writer) Read about her here

'Souffle' by Asli Perker here. A wonderful newly published book garnering great newspaper reviews. Am reading now.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros here

Shanghaidiva · 28/06/2013 10:52

Some authors to consider:

Lionel Shriver - think she has a new book out
Jonathan Coe - any
Philip Hensher - The Northern Clemency
Abraham Verghese - cutting for stone
James Meek - the heart broke in

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 10:50

I loathe Ian McEwan and thought Saturday was utter wank. And STUPID Atonement

Will look at Lanchester

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exexpat · 28/06/2013 10:49

I just read Capital, which was good, but reminded me a lot of Saturday by Ian McEwan. My favourite Lanchester ones are Debt to Pleasure and Fragrant Harbour.

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 10:48

School hols long

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 10:47

VV long...

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 10:47

Like the look of Hungry

Have ordered Makioka

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exexpat · 28/06/2013 10:47

How long is your holiday? Grin

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 10:46

I've read all Mitchell, Kingsolver, Boyd and Patchett and not keen on Carol. Which Lanchester?

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exexpat · 28/06/2013 10:45

Everyone I know who has read Fraction has loved it - but it may take a while to get into.

My favourite authors at the moment are probably David Mitchell, John Lanchester, William Boyd, Barbara Kingsolver (Prodigal Summer etc), Ann Patchett (Bel Canto etc), Carol Shields - have you read much of them?

Oh, one more idea: Hungry the Stars and Everything

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 10:41

More please

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Hullygully · 28/06/2013 10:41

Have ordered 7 Types, Generosity and Lost Dog

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