I was eating a bookstagram type video where this American woman listed her “god tier” books and it made me wonder what I would choose as mine. I have narrowed it down to 5 but when I thought about it I realised my 5 have a lot in common.
the 5 are
The Lacuna by Barbrara Kingsolver
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
i have realised they all share certain characteristics. They are all pretty long (except for atonement, all are over 600 pages). They are all large in geographical and/or historical scope and often follow a main character through their life. They all have some sort of interesting narrative structure and/or a twist or clever ending.
Can anyone think of any others that would match this criteria? I have read all of the other books by these authors.
some that come close but not quite which I also enjoyed are:
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Hamnet
The marriage portrait
Everything ever written by William Boyd, Margaret Atwood and Clare Chambers
The Goldfinch
Caledonian Road