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Original poster

trying to find well-written challenging fiction that isn't widely known

57 replies

highlandcoo · 29/04/2021 09:27

I have a very well-read young friend, who lives abroad, and traditionally I always send her books on her birthday.
It's getting harder and harder to find something she hasn't read, but sending her a book token just wouldn't be the same.
She has read many of the classics, as well as a huge amount of contemporary literary fiction. I know ahe has enjoyed Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Zola, Gunter Grass, Herman Hesse, Murakami, Paul Auster, David Mitchell ...
I wondered about books in translation that she's less likely to have come across. Open to any suggestions though.
TIA Smile

OP posts:
supercritter · 01/05/2021 11:29

Hopscotch by Julio cortazar

JaninaDuszejko · 01/05/2021 11:01

@madamehooch

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. She's an International Man Booker prize winner so should tick your boxes.
She's also got the Nobel prize for literature.
madamehooch · 30/04/2021 22:09

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. She's an International Man Booker prize winner so should tick your boxes.

TressiliansStone · 30/04/2021 20:57

Prompted by the mention of Tim Pears... Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost. Wonderful C17th mystery set in the aftermath of the English Civil War, depicting the emergence of the modern scientific method and the work of Bacon – and shamelessly poaching William Harvey's laurels.

His modern detective series with an art historian is much less meaty. I enjoyed them, but they're not in the same class as An Instance.

TressiliansStone · 30/04/2021 20:45

Virago Modern Classics might be another imprint to check out.
wiki.librarything.com/index.php/User:Christiguc

TressiliansStone · 30/04/2021 20:42

The African Writers' Series might offer some ideas and take you off the beaten track. Some names you'll recognise there, many not. I like Dambudzo Marechara and Musaemura Zimunya.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Writers_Series

André Brink is another African writer, and Coetzee's already been mentioned.

VS Naipul from Trinidad.

TressiliansStone · 30/04/2021 20:23

If you and she like magical realism...

If On a Winter's Night A Traveller, Italo Calvino, or actually any Calvino.

The Last Flight of the Flamingo, Mia Couto

Making Love, Marcus Brill

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Frogsonglue · 30/04/2021 20:22

Are they an English ex-pat? Not that this really matters, but if so they might enjoy something that casts England in an interesting and timeless light. I absolutely love Tim Pears' books, he paints rural England in a really beautiful but slightly disturbing way, and he's a wonderful storyteller. "In the place of fallen leaves" is brilliant, so is the Horseman trilogy.

mateysmum · 30/04/2021 20:11

Anthony Trollope
Edith Wharton
Georgette Heyer for something lighter

SkepticalCat · 30/04/2021 20:09

As you said that she has read Murakami and Auster, my suggestion is Braised Pork by An Yu.

www.amazon.co.uk/Braised-Pork-Yu/dp/1787301877?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

RudeAF · 30/04/2021 19:01

I second the recommendation to have a browse of Persephone Books’ collection.

Original poster
highlandcoo · 30/04/2021 14:51

Thank you so much everyone. Some brilliant suggestions above, particularly the novels in translation which she is less likely to have encountered before.

Re Isabel Allende, I just finished The House of the Spirits last night and found it an unforgettable read.

And have added a few of the above ideas to my own TBR pile too Smile

OP posts:
lancashirebornandbred · 30/04/2021 14:08

How about choosing some books from the Persephone website. They have a great selection of “forgotten” classics. Worth a browse.

JaninaDuszejko · 30/04/2021 13:55

@SJaneS49

And on that note, ‘The girl with the loading voice’ might be another good choice? It’s set in Nigeria and is one girls story to escape small village politics and poverty and carve a life for herself.
I enjoyed The Girl with the Louding Voice but I've just read Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga which covers some of the same ground but blows it out of the water. It is widely considered an African classic. It's the first in a trilogy and the final part, This Mournable Body was nominated for the Booker last year. All three in the trilogy have been republished with matching covers by Faber and Faber which would make a nice set.

If you're interested in novels in translation then the following are well worth a read:

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (Japanese novella on grief)
The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod (Surinamese historical novel about the sugar plantations)
Bright by Duanwad Pimwana (Thai novel about a working class community)
Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi (Russian memoir about the refugee experience following the revolution)

Agree with the PP about Allende and Garcia Marquez.

WellIWasInTheNeighbourhoo · 30/04/2021 11:18

I enjoy this type of book, some others are:
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Famished Road - Ben Okri
The Volcano Lover - Susan Sontag
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

RampantIvy · 30/04/2021 07:21

Has she read anything by Carlos Ruis Zafon? The Shadow of the Wind is a slow burner, but I thought The Angel's Game was much better.

Is Philippa Gregory too mainstream?

bibliomania · 30/04/2021 07:08

I loved The Fall of the Stone City, by Ismail Kadare (translated from Albanian).

mstrotwood · 29/04/2021 17:45

a few more:

Dorothy M. Richardson - Pilgrimage 1
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Shahrnush Parsipur - Women Without Men
Tarjei Vesaas - The Ice Palace
Sara Stridsberg - The Faculty of Dreams

livingonpurpose · 29/04/2021 17:20

She may well have read it, but I've just finished Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and it's incredibly well written, with wonderful word play. Get the annotated version so you look up the meaning/themes etc. as you go through it - it really enhances the reading experience.

Cowbells · 29/04/2021 16:06

Anything by Marquez or Allende - the South American magic realists are outstanding. (Especially Allende in my opinion. The house of Spirits is a classic. And her new one looks wonderful; A Petal of the Sea.

Has she read Graham Greene? He is outstanding and luckily has written loads. The End of the Affair, The Comedians, The Third Man.

Steinbeck is also jaw-droppingly good. Try Of Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath or Cannery Row.

Toni Morrison is a wonderful classic contemporary novelist. So are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, J M Coetzee, George Saunders (better at short fiction imo). If she can bear the darkness at the heart of them, Edward St Aubyn's autobiographical novels are stunning. He really can write.

noblegiraffe · 29/04/2021 16:00

The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg (translated from Swedish). Considered one of the best pieces of Swedish literature, the men from ABBA wrote a musical based on it.

slug · 29/04/2021 15:57

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Science Fiction book originally written in Chinese. It's complex and definitely a Chinese/mathematics mindset is involved. My DD who is currently studying physics found it compelling.

Original poster
highlandcoo · 29/04/2021 15:43

Thank you all, particularly for the suggestions of authors I haven't already heard of. As she's very well-read I need to go for books away from the mainstream. It's become a bit of a yearly challenge!

I'm working just now but will be investigating some of your recommendations tonight, thanks

OP posts:
SJaneS49 · 29/04/2021 13:55

And on that note, ‘The girl with the loading voice’ might be another good choice? It’s set in Nigeria and is one girls story to escape small village politics and poverty and carve a life for herself.

SJaneS49 · 29/04/2021 13:53

Why not try and get her on to Edith Wharton? She’s less well known and perhaps interesting to read about the challenges & restrictions faced by young women in another age in a fictional context?