Can anyone recommend some really decent (well written) etc novels that are also really positive, almost “feel good”

[NeverTwerkNaked]

Ideally more modern literature if possible, as reread most of the classics recently.

I’m in quite a fragile place still after so many difficult times in the last few years, and ongoing issues with abusive ex. The problem is my taste is generally for quite literary books and they nearly always seem to be on gloomy/ dark etc themes. And I just find these a bit too triggering.

I’m searching for something brilliantly written and thought provoking but also upbeat, almost comforting I guess.

Any recommendations welcomed

The keeper of lost things.
Well written and not necessarily cheerful but feel good.

'Heavenly Hirani's School of Laughing Yoga' is a great feel good book.

This is the synopsis from Amazon: Annie Jordan never wanted to go to India: there were too many poor people and the wrong sort of smells. But when she ends up there anyway, to her great surprise it is not the beggars who cling to her, it's the lessons in life - courtesy of Heavenly Hirani and her beachside laughing yoga. A sparkling, moving, utterly charming new novel from the incomparable Sarah-Kate Lynch,

Another vote for The Secret Life Of Bees.

Tales of the city are fun and well written. I will check out cold comfort farm. I enjoyed diary of an ordinary woman by Margaret forster. Not traumatic if I remember correctly and very interesting!

I like the Fredrik Backmann books, but they aren’t that highbrow or literary - just feel good.

Other Alexander MS books apart from no 1 detective agency also soothing, I like the Scotland St series.

I tend to read feel good books which means barely any modern literary novels.
The Enchanted April
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
My Family and Other Animals (or any Durrell)
Currently downloading quite a bit of YA / fantasy / sci-fi onto my Kindle, total comfort food, e.g. Deep Secret, Diana Wynette-Jones, Tamora Pierce's Alanna books, Naomi Novik, Becky Chambers and just finished rereading Lord of the Rings. Not sure if any of that would be your cup of tea.

Any of Matt Haig's books.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Possession

Well that was weird, PuffinsSitOnMuffins not only recommended the three very ones i’d logged into recommend, but also Tamora Peirce who i love but always feel no one except me has ever read.
downloads rest of her suggestions in totally non-stalkery way
I would also add Good Omens, Elizabeth’s German Garden, and Diary of a Provincial Lady if you haven’t already read them?

Thank you for all the suggestions -I know it sounds silly but I would just love to find something modern (ish - last 50 years or so) that is genuinely highbrow /literary but also feel good. So nothing that would appear on a chick lit list really.
I don’t mind books like that when I am ill but my brain is itching to really get stuck into something decent but at the same time I don’t feel emotionally capable of anything too dark. There’s a few on here I’ll check out though

I love David Nicholls for this kind of book. He's the author of 'One Day'.

I read 'Us' this year. It's better than 'One Day '. It's really an excellent book - funny, touching, life affirming and really well written. I laughed and I cried.
I think it was booker longlisted, but people were sneery about it because he's not considered highbrow enough. Brilliant writer.

The Dalia Lama’s Cat, David Michie.

Gilead
Secret life of bees
Alan Bennett

Travel literature was helpful for me when fragile and brain stretched - still evocative and literate but less demanding! e.g. Travels in a thin country, Bella Tuscany

x

Anything by Ali Smith or Sarah Waters also. High class literary fiction but easy to read as well, great characters.

Not particularly highbrow, but forgot to add that the Rumpole and James Herriot books, always make me feel good when i’m fragile.

That They May Face the Rising Sun
Four Letters of Love
Brooklyn
The Shipping News
Possession is a great read.

Ooh yes, the Shipping News has that sort of gentle feel about it. Enjoying this thread.

When you are feeling robust OP, I recommend 'All the light we cannot see'. I recommend it a lot - they should give me commission!

Tipping the Velvet should hit the spot. Also Fingersmith but not Affinity.

You’re right that modern novelists don’t seem to be able to avoid the grim.

Julian Barnes is worth a try I think although I’m not an expert in his stuff.

John Le Carre is a properly great writer despite the genre tag so well worth a try.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has some emotionally challenging elements but a resolution that will leave you feeling fine and it’s a brilliant book.

DH suggests Little Big by John Crowley. Lesser known but brilliantly written and uplifting (but lacking the narrative pizzazz of a Victorian triple-decker).

Loved the Shipping News

Just read The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes today evil and it was the book that prompted this thread! It’s probably the lighter end of literary but v interesting and thought provoking but a bit triggering /depressing too. I enjoyed his writing style though so would definitely attempt another one.

Lovely to see rumpole pop up, agree not exactly literary but incredibly clever and humorous nonetheless!

This thread has given me some interesting new books to try

NeverTwerk, if you like Annie Proulx, have you read 'That Old Ace in the Hole'? It's a very funny novel set in small-town America, almost like a collection of short stories. Feelgood reading, I'd say (I do have a weakness for this kind of American fiction).

I'm currently reading 'The End of Vandalism' by Tom Drury, which is similar in being small-town, quite eccentric and dryly funny - you have to tune in to the subtlety of the jokes. A bit more left-field than the Proulx, I guess, but good.

Anne Tyler?
I loved Jonathan strange and Mr norrell
Wolf Hall? Not feel good but very engrossing!

You could try out a couple of Tove Jansson books - she wrote for adults too, not just Moomins.

The Summer Book small girl and grandmother spend summer on island.
Fair Play older couple, both women, both artists, and their life together.

Both are quiet books - no big dramas, but beautifully observed.

Was going to recommend Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin, which is really interesting but on reflection, I think one of the narratives might be triggering for you (relationship gone bad).

The improbability of love is a really unusual read. Very well written and a slightly different “take” on a story.
I also enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. A feel good but interesting read. Hope you find some new treasures to savour!

I capture the castle?
Dusty answer
The Cazalet chronicles

84 Charing Cross Road