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.

Another vote for Shantaram... very good read

Thank you all.

The Book Thief - read / like
The Road - read/nowhere near as good as The Stand!
What about The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - read

Really don't like Kate Atkinson.

Game of Thrones - read the 1st 2 and like the idea but hate the writing.

Read most of Peter Carey's, and The Iliad. Read (and hated) A Fine Balance and The Quincunx. Read one of the Shakespeare ones and didn't get on well with it.

Googling the rest now. Agh - I have read too many books and I am too bloody awkward.

The corrections? Can't actually remember any 'big books' that I've read- I tend to read about 5 normal ones on holiday.

Please OP could you list your top 10 or 20 modernist novel recommendations if you wouldn't mind as I like your selectivity ;)

Stone's Fall by Iain Pears? www.amazon.co.uk/Stones-Fall-Iain-Pears/dp/0099516179. He also has an earlier book which I found hard to put down.

The Passage - Justin Cronin?

Read all three of those. Didn't like The Corrections much, Stone's fall had a stupid ending, liked The Passage and The Twelve.

EvelynJ - what do you mean by modernist? A lot of my v favourites are classics (Austen, Wilkie Collins) and my other favourites involve quite a few Stephen King books, plus Lolita and A Clockwork Orange. Tbh though, I'm preferring non-fiction more and more.

Have read, "An Instance of the Fingerpost" too, but found it all rather wearing and didn't feel it offered a great deal for the investment in it. A shame, as it should have been right up my street.

I'm coming late to this thread which I have really enjoyed reading but could I second the nomination of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life? I didn't enjoy Behind the Scenes but Life After Life is extraordinary and plays with your mind. Please give it a go - it's genuinely unputdownable.

Can't remember the author (it was a while ago) but loved Skippy Dies about a boys school. Very big tome, funny and heartbreaking.

enjoy your hols!

Just had another thought - I'm reading Dave Eggers' The Circle. Everyone I know has loved it - and it is most definitely dystopian. Can't put it down - it's so sinister.

Ben Aaronavitch books, Rivers of London is the first one I think.
Jasper Fforde -Shades of Grey.
Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. If you got all them you would read them all in one week they are all awesome!

And what about Curtis Sittenfeld? All of hers are fantastic. Prep and American Wife are amazing; The Man of My Dreams is a bit like Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot (but better, imho). Haven't read Sisterland yet but it's next in line. She's definitely one of my favourite authors. I'm know she would be described as literary, but she's so so readable - pure pleasure.

I am holiday and reading Donna Tartt's Goldfinch. It's brilliant!

What about the Gormenghast trilogy?

my suggestion:

North and South trilogy by John Jakes...amazingly written, historical, gorgeous characters...really one of the best books i've read all year.

S

Oooh I nearly picked up The Goldfinch in the library yesterday! Unfortunately it was a weekly loan and not renewable and I knew I wouldn't get through it that quickly! Definitely on my list of must-reads!

I'll offer 'London' or 'New York' by Edward Rutherfurd.

Thanks all.

Have read:

The Patrick Ness ones - liked
The Rivers of London ones - 1st one okay; didn't like the others
Shades of Grey - didn't like it
American Wife - disliked
I tried Gormenghast but didn't manage to finish it.

Thanks for the reminder about, 'The Circle.' I loved, 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" so, "The Circle" is now definitely on my list.

Googling the others now, thanks.

Likewise with Gormengast. You know I meant shades of grey by jasper Fforde not the salacious one?! Just checking.

A dystopian adult book I liked was called Divided Kingdom by Robert somebody, really good, a bit disturbing.

I know you said you weren't sure about YA but Blood Red Road is really good. By Moira somebody (have been to the pub and can't remember surnames)

Bit cheesy but have you read any Ken Follett? Pillars of the earth is properly epic.

Did you read The crimson Petal and The White? It's historical and it's long :)

Game of Thrones and all the sequels?

Gone With the Wind? I didn't like it much but again it's long!

Wilbur Smith? Lots to lose yourself in there....

I was going to rec heartbreaking work-I loved it but seemingly it's a bit marmite -couldn't get into you will know our velocity but what is the what is worth reading.

Have you read Cloud Atlas? Sorry if it's been mentioned.

The line of beauty
Midnights children
Fatherland

I was looking for recs from the last 10-20 years really :)

what did you decide in the end?