Properly literary fiction vs just fiction

Sue Gee- all her books have been special to me.

I've been thinking a lot about this. Books that have stayed with me, made me think:

Every Last One
A Brief History of the Dead (my desert island book!)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Sonotkylie - I liked Golden Hill too - I thought the writing was good and the book was a really interesting portrait of Colonial America/NYC. A bit of a "boys' book", though - the female characters were rather flat. I don't know Elizabeth Strout so thank you for the recommendation.
I can't believe I left brilliant Hilary Mantel off my earlier list!

Love this thread. Added some to my wish list.

Thinking about stuff that I'm just hob smacked by the writing I would say

Wolf Hall

Or

A spool of Blue Thread

Really want to try A Little Life but need to wait for a holiday or good chunk of reading time!

John McGahern, Anne Enright, , Hugo Hamilton (fiction and memoirs), Claire Kilroy? Sara Baume?

If you haven't read Miriam Toews' All My Puny Sorrows, do. She's a Canadian Mennonite novelist, and all her novels are good, but this one manages to be definitely literary, thought-provoking and hilariously funny and sad simultaneously I think it's its light-footedness that's so impressive. Another writer would have made the same subject matter a woman whose brilliant, suicidal concert-pianist sister wants her to help her die -- deeply gloomy, but this is very funny, brilliantly-written, and compulsively re-readable.

(Hanya Yanagihara and her 'let me see exactly what gruesomeness I can now put my tormented protagonist through' A Little Life should take note.)

Can highly recommend All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - can guarantee you will enjoy everything about it. The prose, plot, characters etc. His writing really makes you feel you are taking the journey too. All our book club scored it over 9 out of 10.

Also as someone has mentioned Pat Barker books are a close 2nd choice.

Thank you. This is a great thread.
I too loved Americanah, Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Bone Clocks. I would also recommend Ali Smith and my great find of this year, Elizabeth Strout. I found Golden Hill by Francis Spufford absolutely fantastic on the language, character and observation front, but I suspect it could irritate ... I thought it was wonderful! The best 18th century novel since the 18th century!

I find Maggie O'Farrell unreadable

Definitely try Margaret Attwood, I hadn't read anything of hers until I read The Handmaid's Tale a few months ago. I have read another three of her novels since and have become a huge fan.

Also agree about Rohinton Mistry

I loved the writing style of Wild Swans (Jung Chang) - I know it is a family history/ biography but it is heart-achingly, beautifully written too.

I also like Umberto Eco for the quality of the writing not just the story.

Barbara Kingsolver
Tracey Chevalier
Kate Atkinson
David Mitchell

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides, Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliott Perlman, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, Oscar & Lucinda by Peter Carey...

I loved The Corrections, but thought Freedom was "meh". Loved two thirds of The Poisonwood Bible and then it dropped off a cliff. Just no need for the last segment. Do publishers tell writers to make their books fat? Less is often more, chaps!

I agree I do love a book which I admire and know I could never write. That's why I dislike The Gruffalo so much... not the illustrations, but the rhyme and idea - yeah, I could have knocked that off. Life of Pi is a book that for me is a modern classic. I know it's become fashionable to knock it, but I still think it is so inventive.

Kate Atkinson was my first thought too.

AS Byatt is excellent. My favourites are Possession and the much more recent The Children's Book. Also, though you've probably already read them:

Umberto Eco (I especially like Baudolino)
Chimamanda Adichie
Barbara Kingsolver
Jonathan Safran Foer

Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections and Freedom both made me think 'oh my god, I could never write this in a million years' -totally in awe of him as a writer. Very few books make me feel like that, and I read quite a lot. Kasuo Ishiguro when on form is the same.

Pop, you are a reader after my own heart. Michael Chabon and Chimamanda Adichie are excellent writers.
I found We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves a pleasant surprise - very well written. Took my breath away in a couple of places.

How about Zadie Smith? Some of her books are better than others - I find her work quite uneven - but she is always interesting. The same is true of Rachel Cusk. And Barbara Kingsolver.

YY to David Mitchell and Chabon (Kavalier and Clay still active in my week to week life despite having read it 20 years ago) and will add to the list
anything by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah)
Kazuo Ishiguro
I did enjoy We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and the Atkinson I've read but I dont think they are in the same category in that I don't think people will be reading them in 100 years time.

Ive just started reading Neil Gaimon - had only read his children's work before - and think he and Pullman are also in this category, but only if you are up for fantasy I suppose.

Some great suggestions..,.have added (too many!) to my 'to be read' list

Tldr, Love this: 'I've lived many lives through her writing'

PP beat me to it, but I came on the thread to say Annie Proulx also.

Meets all your criteria plus absolutely readable and transporting. I've lived many lives through her writing.

Accordion crimes is an absolute favourite, with The old ace in the hole a close second.

The Goldfinch
Cloud Atlas
The Luminaries
1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
This Thing Of Darkness

YYY to The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet (David Mitchell) - a great entralling story, beautifully written.

A book I read that has stayed with me was The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, which won the Booker a couple of years ago. It's not an easy read but I found it a worthwhile one. Have received entry read His Bloody Project which I loved, and have just started Do Not Say We Have Nothing which I'm enjoying so far.

Also love All the Light we Cannot See but I think that has had mixed reviews on here.