Surreal books?

[scentednappyhag]

I'm looking for some suggestions for fiction that makes you concentrate IYSWIM?
My favourite books over the last year have been The House of Leaves and The Raw Shark Texts, and I've enjoyed books by Jasper Fford- looking for something along these lines... Aware this is probably a bit vague, but any suggestions would be highly appreciated!

Ooh, I've just started The City and The City. You have read very attentively, I find so far, but I'm enjoying it, having read so little except for work far ages.

Wow, just caught up in all of these replies, my summer To Read list is looking fab! Thank you all

I also recommend Murakami. We read the Wind Up Bird Chronicles at my local book club. I thought I would hate it but I loved it.

I would also add Vurt and Pollen by Jeff Noon, and the Shadow Line by Amitav Ghosh.

And in the spirit of Murakami, try Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled. If you can work out what is happening in that one, you'll be way ahead of me!

Another vote for The Unconsoled - reading it is like stepping into a dream

I read a lot of speculative fiction, most of it quite "unreal" and some of it requiring serious brain power but I'd like to understand what you mean by "unreal" and "fiction that makes you concentrate" to suggest some books.

Also, how old are you? (If you are over 25, maybe Sophie's World will be a bit boring, for example) Do you like sci-fi? If yes, which sci-fi authors have you read & enjoyed? Would you be interested in reading about difficult topics like madness? Or books that are so challenging that they are brain-hurty? :-)

Off the top of my head, you might enjoy:
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Vermillion Sands by J G Ballard

These are "unreal" but not sci-fi, as well as fairly inoffensive and easy to read.

Neuromancer by William Gibson. It's where they got the idea for the matrix!

Not sure about inspiring the matrix, but in that book William Gibson invented the word "cyberspace".

cote they both use a virtual reality program referred to as "the matrix" which is accessed using a brain-computer interface...

It's been about 20 years since I read Neuromancer so don't remember if the word "Matrix" was used in it, but I remember that it talked about a virtual environment people stepped in and out of voluntarily, rather than kept sedated within by hostile machines.

Anyway, Neal Stephenson did it better in Snow Crash, imho

Try the otherland series by Tad Williams too, but be warned, it's a 4 book series and they're big books! They go in the same vein of transferring conciousness into computer worlds.

Have you seen Neal Stephenson's Anathem? I'm not afraid of big books

Thanks for the recommendation. I will take a look.

If you are into that kind of thing, Richard K Morgan's Altered Carbon is dark and interesting. It's about downloading consciousness into bodies.

cote cheers. Am shamelessly pilfering the suggestions here to populate my kindle

Have I mentioned Diamond Age? Another fantastic book by Neal Stephenson.

Louis de Bernières - honestly! Try this trilogy by him, it's in the best magical realism tradition of South American writers: "The War of Don Emmanuel?s Nether Parts", "Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord" and "The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman".

Isabel Allende's early work and "A Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Garcia Marquez.