Recommendations please for noble-minded and literary nephew 20

[traviata]

My DN is captivated by noble tales of self-discovery and a search for authenticity, especially against a wild or epic backdrop, and he is nurturing a dream of discovering life's truths through 'life on the road' instead of buckling down to his mundane studies. Americana features strongly.

What else might he enjoy reading?

He has read all of Cormac McCarthy, William Maxwell, Faulkner, 'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer, 'Stoner', 'On the Road' & 'Motorcycle Diaries', George Orwell 'Down & Out in Paris & London', and he has probably read Camus and Sartre.

Yes yes yes to Nan Shepherd!

Also,
Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit
Anything by Robert Macfarlane - The Old Ways is my favourite but he might be more interested in The Wild Places

Passage to Juneau by Jonathon Raban
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson

The Colour by Rose Tremain
The Secret River by Kate Grenville

He will probably love Steinbeck-that's about as American as they come-East of Eden is where I would start him off.

And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Fabulous, thank you.

Anything by Mark Twain...start with Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.

What about Georgina Howell's book about Gertrude Bell 'Queen of the Desert'. Some amazing true life adventure.

Into the Silence
The Worst Journey in the World
Into Thin Air
Travels with Charley

Yes to This Thing of Darkness

Has he read Gatsby?

How about The Way Winter Comes by Sherri Simpson. It is an extraordinarily well written series of long articles about life in Alaska. There is one about spending time with wolf hunters and another about spending time alone on an island. Highly highly recommend and he is unlikely to have heard of it/read it plus nice to get a book by a woman in there!

Thank for such amazing suggestions, I will work my way through them all.

certainly lots about the meaning of life there BrandnewHouse

(but is there a touch of the watching paint dry about it?...must confess I haven't read any, only reviews)

Has he read A Testament of Youth by Vera Brittean

This Thing of Darkness.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Anything by Steinbeck.

Bless him.

I should have read the thread !

Patrick Leigh Fermor's trilogy about his tramp across Europe as a young man in the 1930s - A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water and the last one whose name escapes me at the moment.

Larry McMurtry lonesome dove

Laurie Lee As I Walked out one Midsummer Morning.

I'd definitely back Kavalier and Klay by Chabon and the Deep Road to the South or whatever its called by Richard Flanagan. A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel is very good too. I loved Knausgard too but its a bit marmite!

Great thread! Some awesome book suggestions.

If he wants to read some travel writing I would suggest the books of the indomitable Dervla Murphy.

Engine Summer by John Crowley fits your brief and is the most elegiac book I've ever read.

Call of the Wild by Guy Grieve - non fiction but highly atmospheric

Le Grand Meaulnes (The Wanderer) by Alain-Fournier sounds right up his street! Very elegiac. I loved it when I was his age www.theguardian.com/books/2012/apr/13/grand-meaulnes-wanderer-julian-barnes

Henry David Thoreau's Cape Cod too.