Loved The Goldfinch, what next?

[VivaLeBeaver]

It's been a long time since I read a book which has made me so sad to get to the end. I don't think I enjoy "heavy" books......but maybe I do as a some people seem to think The Goldfinch is heavy going? I haven't at all.

So, what next?

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

Thanks. Was looking at the Luminaries but was put off by all the reviews from people who gave up. Will give it a go.

I have just started The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton which is great so far (Dutch theme, family story...blurb says if you liked The Goldfinch you'll like this)

I think that is slightly self-aggrandising of JB's publicist... It's nothing like The Goldfinch but I would suggest The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (in fact, anything by Sarah Waters).

Two non-fiction books that I have found really satisfying since finishing The Goldfinch are Damian Barr's Maggie & Me about his spectacularly dysfunctional childhood growing up in (post) industrial Lanarkshire and Ben Watt's Romany and Tom about his parents and their not-so-gentle slide into old age.

If you liked the american part of The Goldfinch I could recommend Lean on Pete – by Willy Vlautin

The main character is 15 years old and IMHO has a lot in common with Theo.

Much shorter book, under 300 pages, I read it yesterday and loved it.

I second The Paying Guests, which came very close to being the all-consuming read that The Goldfinch was. It's just £2.99 on Kindle, btw.

The Paying Guests is a really good story, lots of twists and turns and historical detail. I preferred it to The Goldfinch, which I found dragged quite a bit. Was rather disappointed that I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as The Secret History and The Little Friend.

If you're looking for something a bit different then you might like to try The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. It's quirky and I rather enjoyed it.

Sorry to be obvious but The Secret History.

Should have said that ive read Secret History already. Will check someof these out, Paying Guests sounds good.

I found The Luminaries completely tedious and gave up. I've just read All the light we cannot see, which I absolutely adored and was very sad to finish, I'd thoroughly recommend it.

I know people who have given up on The Goldfinch as well. Give The Luminaries a go, OP.

Have you read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova? It's a Dracula book but beautifully written and very engaging.

A Place in the Hills by Michelle Paver is also a superb read. I had it sitting in my wishlist for ages, then read it on holiday and beat myself up for not reading it sooner.

See also:

An Instance of the Fingerpost and Stone's Fall by Iain Pears.
The Bone Clocks/Cloud Atlas/Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

Also by Michelle Paver, Dark Matter. It's very much more of a creepy ghost story but I loved it.

Fab, am adding all these to my Amazon wish list.

I love creepy ghost stories so Dark Matter sounds good.