Help me decide on a book to take on holiday next week

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

A real, live book - not Kindle. Has to be one I've not read before and has to be big. Ideally it will - be well written without being literary, have either a who-dunnit or historical or dystopian or apocalyptic element to it, or indeed all of those.

Things that would tick those boxes but that I've already read are:
Anything by Wilkie Collins
The Passage / The Twelve
CJ Sansom's Shardlake books
This Thing of Darkness

Don't fancy sci-fi at the moment and don't want anything in the best seller lists.

Thanks in advance.

It isn't a bad novel , but I know what you mean. I don't think I'd spend that much money on a novel I wasn't sure about. Getting it from the library is a good alternative, if you do, make sure that you get the Tina Nunnally translation, there is another translation of the novel, but it is a bit dated.

:) Cheers. It may well not be a bad novel, but so many of them are so, so bad! Thanks for the translation info.

I would recommend The little Stranger by Sarah waters or My Cousin Rachel by daphne du Maurier.

I agree that there are many bad novels, but this one isn't one of them, a last quote from wikipedia then I'll stop

"Kristin Lavransdatter was notable and to some extent controversial in its time, for its explicit characterization of sex in general and female sexuality in particular; and its treatment of morally ambiguous situations.
It was the main basis for Undset being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Lavransdatter

Am loving PaperClip's driving of the point home.

Don't like Sarah Waters, although, "The Little Stranger" was better than the others (absolutely hated, "Nightwatch" and didn't think much of, "Fingersmith" either).

Du Maurier good, but have read them all - and they are short.

Mary Renault? I've read The King Must Die and The Persian Boy, both good.

Mark Lawson's The Deaths.

Not in the slightest bit Historical - but i suppose a bit of a whodunnit in a darkly disturbing way.

Got it all - well written. witty, black humour, great characters, plenty of Red herrings throughout and keeps you guessing.

Loved it.

But it's not that big so you would have to take something else too.

Think I'll take one big one and then buy another one when I get to the airport.

I'm sure you've read it, but Vikram Seth's "A suitable boy"? Not particularly literary but well written are Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti books, suspect they don't meet your criteria though.

What about 'The Night CIrcus'? I loved this. Otherwise I would go for The Goldfinch or 'Life after Life' Kate Atkinson

The Book Thief.
I guess you've already read The Road, and way too short anyway...
What about The Suspicions of Mr Whicher?

You didn't like The Crimson Petal and the White, did you?

I'm assuming you've done Game of Thrones et al...eye-wateringly manly

Or something by Peter Carey? Oscar and Lucinda is historical and harrowing but not hardgoing.

Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth?

Or The Iliad? They don't get bigger, more historical or more manly. The Song of Achilles is a likeable read but the original is the best. (The fact that it repeatedly refers to Hector's flashing helmet is in no way the best thing about it. Oh no.)

I dislike the same books as you - have got through The Goldfinch but don't recommend it!

For big books, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is amazing (though not cheery) and based in 70s India. Or Devil's Acre by Jonathan Bastable - for a mix of Russian history, a Cold War love story and beautiful writing.

I love the shardlake books and wanted something similar as Samson takes so long to write a book, lol. I tried the Shakespeare books by Rory Clememts, the first book wasn't great but they just keep getting better, I thoroughly enjoy them. There's 6 books now.

The Quincunxes by Charles Palliser - an absolute doorstop of a book. One of my absolute faves.

Sorry that should be The Quincunx (spell check wants to make it plural for some reason!).

Remus- I don't have a suggestion abd I see MrsBungle loved The Lighthouse, but erm it was dark boring the saving grace was that it was short and different.

My suggestion would be Darkmans by Nicola Barker. Although it's written by a woman, it's long (838 pages) and definitely has supernatural elements to it without being sci-fi. It was shortlisted for the Booker in 2007- does that necessarily make it too literary?!

Review in the Guardian www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview3

Darkmans is a good choice.