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Original poster

long, challenging novels not many people have heard of - recommendations please?

117 replies

highlandcoo · 12/12/2023 17:54

I have a tradition going with my nephew .. he's very well-read and every year I take on the challenge of sending him something he hasn't already come across. I've often chosen English translations of books set in Eastern Europe or Russia but I don't always succeed in finding a book he hasn't read.

In recent years I've sent:

Second Hand Time
The Pear Field
The Tsar of Love and Techno
Angel Maker
The Gone-Away World
The Story of a Life

I wondered about Prophet Song this year but would like one or two other novels to add to it. Any suggestions gratefully received.

TIA 😊

OP posts:
Riverlee · 13/12/2023 06:10

Sorry, forgot to mention the book!

long, challenging novels not many people have heard of - recommendations please?
Riverlee · 13/12/2023 06:09

Brazil - read this back in the late 80s and loved. Not read it since (but still have the book).

WhickDittington · 13/12/2023 06:08

The Unconsoled by Ishiguru

The Way We Live Now - Trollope

Romola - George Eliot

LickleLamb · 13/12/2023 05:25

I loved this thing of darkness -the one about Captain Fitzroy, historical book.

MilkChocolateCookie · 13/12/2023 04:36

The Children's Book by AS Byatt

Alchemistress · 13/12/2023 04:30

Another vote for The Quincunx from me.

What about Underworld -Don DeLillo?

Snoopsnoggysnog · 13/12/2023 02:15

Germinal or la bete humaine by Zola

maybe a Balzac?

Scarlet and Black by Stendhal

all favourites of mine from university

PoppyCup · 13/12/2023 00:44

The Last Man by Mary Shelley

Tristram Shandy (well known but he may not read novels written that far back in time)

Steelasprey · 13/12/2023 00:31

Rotherweird trilogy by Andrew Caldecott

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 13/12/2023 00:06

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Not QUITE on the scale of challenging but a dense and complex novel dealing with difficult themes.

exexpat · 13/12/2023 00:04

@highlandcoo Did someone think The People's Act of Love was a romance novel? Oops...

I did find a copy of it on my late mother's shelves while clearing her house; she was fond of re-reading Georgette Heyer novels towards the end, but her tastes were rather broader (and gorier) than that on the whole.

Wednesday6 · 13/12/2023 00:00

There book of disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

calmyourham · 12/12/2023 23:54

Saving this thread. I was going to go for Life and Fate, I have a deep and abiding love for it. Alternatively, though they’re not all that long, The Leopard, by Lampedusa, Pale Fire, by Nabokov, The Tunnel, by William Gass and Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.

Peasnbeans · 12/12/2023 23:49

The Miner
Novel by Natsume Sōseki (translation from Japanese)

PermanentTemporary · 12/12/2023 23:39

Life and Fate
The Narrow Road to the North

Ducks, Newburyport? I haven't read it.

And has he read Middlemarch?

XelaM · 12/12/2023 23:39

Thomas Mann - The Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain

Has he read War and Peace? It has to be the most famous novel in the world but not many people have read it. Alternatively, Crime and Punishment?

TheTurn0fTheScrew · 12/12/2023 23:37

Is Tomb of Sand too basic?

Original poster
highlandcoo · 12/12/2023 23:36

Wow! I've just come back from an evening meeting to find 44 replies.

Some really interesting recommendations which I'll explore tomorrow and I'm sure will come up with a couple of unusual and challenging reads. And I'm going to compile a list for future years too .. that will be incredibly useful.

It's great to see the love for A Fine Balance as it's one of my all-time favourite books. I'm pretty sure I gave him it five or six years ago.
Mention of The People's Act of Love triggered a memory of someone giving it to my mum who, in her 80s, favoured Catherine Cookson and Miss Read as authors. TPAOL couldn't have been much further out of her comfort zone. I don't think she got as far as the castration bit; a scene which made quite an impression on me. The novel also introduced me to the idea that you have to escape from the gulag with a companion, both knowing that only one of you will be able to survive the incredibly long winter journey by killing and eating the other at some point. Grim. It really wasn't Mum's cup of tea.

I can't reply to everyone individually but really appreciate all your suggestions - thank you 😊

OP posts:
elizzza · 12/12/2023 23:24

The Luminous Novel by Mario Levrero

NoCloudsAllowed · 12/12/2023 23:20

I served the king of England by bohumil hrabal - it's Czech. Very funny and interesting.

HomburgandTrilby · 12/12/2023 23:15

exexpat · 12/12/2023 23:11

I also fancied myself as a bit of a Musil fan in my youth, but never quite made it through the trilogy. Maybe I now have the stamina to try again. I did however spend a lot of time in my late teens writing aphoristic diaries and looking pensive in Austrian cafes after reading everything Elias Canetti ever wrote...

Which reminds me, if your nephew hasn't read Auto da Fe by Elias Canetti, that would definitely fit the bill too.

That was another teenage favourite of mine, though I will admit I only read it because Pål Waaktaar from A-he said it was his favourite novel…😀

Creepybookworm · 12/12/2023 23:13

Our Share of Night by Marina Enriquez.

exexpat · 12/12/2023 23:11

I also fancied myself as a bit of a Musil fan in my youth, but never quite made it through the trilogy. Maybe I now have the stamina to try again. I did however spend a lot of time in my late teens writing aphoristic diaries and looking pensive in Austrian cafes after reading everything Elias Canetti ever wrote...

Which reminds me, if your nephew hasn't read Auto da Fe by Elias Canetti, that would definitely fit the bill too.

HomburgandTrilby · 12/12/2023 23:06

Quickredfox · 12/12/2023 21:30

The Man Without Qualities (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften)
Anniversaries (Jahrestagen)

I had a huge Musil thing in my youth.

OP, Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane (though I’ve never read it in translation so don’t know if there are good ones), for late 19thc Baltic adultery, or Thérèse Desqueroux by Mauriac for a spot of French gloom?

Or if you want something more contemporary Jonathan Littell’s Les Bienveillantes/The Kindly Ones. Gloomy giant tome about an SS killer, won the Prix Goncourt.

Has he read much Irish writing?