Lit Fic for ME please

[Hullygully]

Any recommendations? Need lots of books for hols. I want lit fiction eg I do not want Khaled Hossein, Harold Fry, JoJo Moyes etc etc (nothing wrong with them, but I don't want them).

I want Mantel/Mitchell/Houllebecq type stuff please and thank you.

It doesn't have to be contemporary and I have read a lot (not boasting, just a fact), so will have read all the obvious stuff.

three from my wish list

Lost Honour

woman upstairs

flappers

Thanks - have ordered the first two.

Interesting recommendations TheFoosa

How about JG Farrell's Empire Trilogy? I enjoyed The Siege of Krishnapur and looking forward to the other two in the series.

I read mainly Japanese literature earlier this year, my favourite being The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki Junichiro. Japanese version of Pride and Prejudice/ A Suitable Boy. Might be worth a look.

I LOVE JG Farrell LOVE LOVE LOVE

Will look at Makioka, thanks

A few slightly off-the-beaten-track suggestions:

The Last Samurai

Seven Types of Ambiguity

Generosity

A Fraction of the Whole

The Lost Dog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Loved the Last Samurai (and quite liked Lightening Rods)

Couldn't get on with Fraction, should I try again?

Have read Hedgehog and can't remember it.

Will look at others and thank you!

Have ordered 7 Types, Generosity and Lost Dog

More please

Everyone I know who has read Fraction has loved it - but it may take a while to get into.

My favourite authors at the moment are probably David Mitchell, John Lanchester, William Boyd, Barbara Kingsolver (Prodigal Summer etc), Ann Patchett (Bel Canto etc), Carol Shields - have you read much of them?

Oh, one more idea: Hungry the Stars and Everything

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather.

www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Lady-VMC-Willa-Cather/dp/184408373X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372412619&sr=1-2&keywords=a+lost+lady+cather

I've read all Mitchell, Kingsolver, Boyd and Patchett and not keen on Carol. Which Lanchester?

How long is your holiday?

Like the look of Hungry

Have ordered Makioka

VV long...

School hols long

I just read Capital, which was good, but reminded me a lot of Saturday by Ian McEwan. My favourite Lanchester ones are Debt to Pleasure and Fragrant Harbour.

I loathe Ian McEwan and thought Saturday was utter wank. And STUPID Atonement

Will look at Lanchester

Some authors to consider:

Lionel Shriver - think she has a new book out
Jonathan Coe - any
Philip Hensher - The Northern Clemency
Abraham Verghese - cutting for stone
James Meek - the heart broke in

The garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Swamplandia by Karen Russell (magical realism crossed with Southern Gothic set in Florida- one of my favourite books ever) here

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
An engrossing novel inspired by a true event about unresolved family history and racial tensions that threaten a Florida community.

American Ghosts by Janis Owens -
"With American Ghost, Janis Owens offers an evocative southern novel continuing in the tradition originally established by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and brought into the new millennium by writers like Karen Russell and Kathryn Stockett"

Anything by Barbara Kingsolver (new novel is 'Flight Behaviour' but also 'The Bean trees' 'Pigs In Heaven')

'Mama makes Up Her Mind' or 'Sleeping At The Starlite Motel' or 'A Good Year For Plums' by Bailey White (modern southern gothic fiction in longform and short stories-adore this writer) Read about her here

'Souffle' by Asli Perker here. A wonderful newly published book garnering great newspaper reviews. Am reading now.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros here

have you read 'A Place of Greater Safety' by Hilary Mantel, set during the French Revolution?

Reading all this with interest as I also want to load up my kindle for a trip to Cuba.

Hully, we seem to have similar-ish tastes - what would you recommend?

I really liked Swamplandia!

Anyone who hated Saturday is a friend of mine

I read Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians recently and thought it was amazing.

You probably know all the great post-war fiction but Rose Macaulay, Elizabeth Bowen, Marghanita Laski, Iris Murdoch etc always worth going back to.

Read most of Shriver - really recommend the healthcare one exexpat

Don't like Coe or Meek

read Cutting for Stone (ok)

Read Hensher (about to start King of Badgers) LOVED Northern Clemency

Read all of Mantel

Mignonette - good suggestions, will look.