Can anyone recommend a book or writer not mentioned recenty in Adult Fiction?

[mmack]

I'm an avid reader and I've read a lot of the books that have been recommended on threads here recently. I've read most of the old and modern classics too. Would anyone like to recommend something obscure or forgotten? Any genre.

Bernice Rubens is brilliant, lots of gems. Five Year Sentence, I Sent a Letter to My Love, I Dreyfus, Sunday Best - all quirky but fabulous.

Robertson Davis is a Canadian author who is worth a look.
Have you read any of Tom Robbins' books? - Jitterbug Perfume and Another Roadside Attraction were my favourites by him.

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd.

This was recommended on the radio 4 media prog and sounds v good
www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Issy-Bradley-Carys-Bray-ebook/dp/B00IJZZGR0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403203566&sr=8-1&keywords=issy+bradley

Two I can think of - Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon. It's about the abduction of a child, but written before modern technology, so no mobile phones, no internet etc. Published by Persephone Books. I read it because I'd heard it mentioned on a book programme on Radio 4. Thought it very good.

Second suggestion - The Book of Ebenezer le Page by G B Edwards. It was the only book he completed and was published after his death. The narrator is an 80 year old man from Guernsey. Sounds a bit dull, but it is wonderful. Am planning a re-read of it soon. It begins just after the Boer War and covers the events in his long life, right through the German occupation of the Channel Islands up to his old age. Life, love, death, everything is covered.

What kind of books do you like, OP?

Anything published by Persephone Books. I've read some great books from them.

Ira Levin and Richard Yates are both excellent and I don't know many people that have read them.

Are you familiar with Isabel Allende?

Still Missing is very good. Another of Beth Gutcheon's books that I really liked is Domestic Pleasures.

John Niven. Very dark sense of humour, wonderful story telling. Start with Kill Your Friends or The Amateurs.

Elinor Lipman is a favourite. Not many people seem to have heard of her, but I love her - an American writer who writes lightly comic literary fiction. Intensely enjoyable.

Another vote for Elinor Lipman. The Inn at Lake Devine is my favorite.

Thanks everyone. I haven't heard of a lot of the writers suggested so I've had a very enjoyable browse on amazon. So far I've ordered Ira Levin's The Boys From Brazil, Beth Gutcheon's Domestic Pleasures and The Inn at lake Devine. Dozie, I read Any Human Heart recently and really enjoyed it so looking forward to Brazzaville Beach. Bernice Rubens and Robertson Davis look great too so they will be next on my list.

Cote, I mostly read literary fiction and crime. Some of favourites would be Lionel Shriver, Alice McDermott, Jane Urquhart, Wally Lamb, Dennis Lehane and John Connolly but I'm getting to the stage where I've read everything by my favourite writers. I used to get recommendations by looking at the 'People who bought this also bought' lists on Amazon but at this stage I rarely find new writers there.

Two that I reread recently were Object Lessons by Anna Quindlen (not much "happens" but it was just such a vivid picture of someone's life) and Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler.

I also love Jennifer Weiner. I suppose technically she's chick lit but I really like her work, especially Little Earthquakes. I just got her newest, called All Fall Down and was really gripped by it...about a naice suburban mother coming to terms with the fact that she is a (prescription) drug addict. Really made me think.

I also loved the Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Cheerful Yank, I think we have the same taste. I have an Anna Quindlen book checked out of the library at the moment and love Anne Tyler.

The Last Flight of the Flamingo by Mia Couto was obscure - but apparently now a film. Magical realism, if you're into that.

Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. A wonderful but overlooked classic. Set in the build up to WW2. If it doesn't make you cry, nothing will. It's heartbreaking and tender and awful.

OP if you like Anne Tyler I recommend Ann Patchett. Bel Canto and State of Wonder are particularly good. Also Sue Gee, a very under-rated writer who deserves to be more widely known. My favourites of hers are Earth and Heaven and The Mystery of Glass.

Have a look at the website literature-map too. You type in the name of an author you like and suggestions of similar writers come up. Fun to try and might give you some new ideas.

Was going to say Wally Lamb. Love everything he has ever written.

Also for a bit of vintage - and for the poster who liked Hangover Square - Norman Collins London Belongs to Me

I also loved Sathnam Sanghera's The Boy with the Topknot.

I just looked up Hangover Square and London Belongs to Me and want to recommend a book myself now-Pat Barker's Union Street. I cried buckets reading it.

Me too re Wally Lamb

I would like to recommend Love Life by Ray Kluun. It is wonderful but have never met anyone who has heard of it. I love Anne Tyler and Lionel Shriver btw.

I recommend Russell Banks "Continental drift"

Oh sorry, I have just read the list of your fav writers, OP. Not sure about my suggestion now!