I want to read something really intelligent and beautifully written

[SalveRibena]

I have been reading crap on my Kindle for too long and now want to go back to reading Proper Books. Past favourites include Atonement, Bring Up The Bodies, The Poisonwood Bible, The Sea and The Line of Beauty.

Any advice?

A fine balance, rohinton mistry. beautifully written.

Oh, The English Patient, of course. And I suppose other Ondaatjie, though I haven't read any.

And any Nadine Gordimer or Andre Brink.

Regeneration by Pat Barker knocks spots off Birdsong, imho but I can't stand Faulks anyway, so don't listen to me.

Sunnysummer, loved Gilead too. Also Home and Housekeeping by the same author.

Alice Munro
John Banville
Marylinne Robinson

Tender is the Night - F Scott Fitzgerald. One of my favourite books in the world.

I'd like to second (or even third?) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. My favourite book

The first in the Regeneration trilogy is good, but the other two (especially the 2nd) are terrible. Not as bad as Life Class though, which is embarrassingly awful.

Ooh lots of my favourites in your OP - specially Atonement and The Poisonwood Bible. Have you read Blind Assassin - Margaret Attwood. That would certainly fit alongside those two, also Alias Grace too.

I hated hated hated A Fine Balance. It makes Jude the Obscure look like a picnic in the park on a sunny day! I have travelled in India and loved the country, but am not sure I could ever go back now!!

Ah, thank you for the warning, Remus, I shan't bother with Life Class then.

How about some old classics? I find Russian literature beautiful to read, especially Anna Karenina, Dr Zhivago or, if you've got stamina, War and Peace which I've still not finished, 7 years after starting

Has no one suggested Rose Tremain yet? Restoration is an obvious one but Music & Silence is wonderful, as is The Colour.

Have you read Possession by A S Byatt or Headlong by Michael Frayn? Both mysteries of a sort, very readable, with very vivid passages and the depiction of worlds you really want to live in.

I was also going to suggest A Fine Balance. And pretty much anything by Margaret Atwood. Feel really unoriginal now...

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson is good.

I've just finished re-reading Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. Might not be serious enough for you, but it's really beautifully written, and a cracking read.

She's Come Undone, The Hour I First Believed, and I Know This Much Is True - all by Wally Lamb

If you like Ian McEwan, you might also like Graham Greene. Maybe: The End of the Affair, Travels With My Aunt, or Brighton Rock to start. The Heart of the Matter is my personal fave...

I second Rumer Godden. And throw in Barbara Pym - Excellent Women.

clare messud - the last life.

Not fiction, but a memoir: What to Look for in Winter by Candia McWilliam

Donna Tart - The Secret History, she has a new book coming out soon also..

Elegance of the Hedgehog, can't remember who it is by, but everyone in my book group loved it.

Another vote for AS Byatt's Possession. This is my favourite book; lyrical, passionate, learned, scholarly, a mystery, a love story, just beautiful.

If you want something longer in the same vein, Robertson Davies The Cornish Trilogy is good.

Yes yes YES to Possession.

I prefer The Little Friend by Donna Tartt to the Secret History.