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

Barbara Pym and Barbara Comyns are two which lift my spirits. I've just read Vinegar Girl by Ann Tyler which is not her best but cheered me up.

A Suitable Boy By Vikram Seth.
Very long, fascinating, feel good. I read it every 5 years or so.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and most of his other books too.

Amy Tan is fab!

Agree about A Short History of Tractors.

Thank you for these

stopmakingsense A Suitable Boy is a great suggestion! I love that book and haven’t read it for years.

A Month in the country by jl Carr - literary and if not feelgood, certainly escapist.

As others have said, Kate Atkinson or Isabel Allende, I liked house of the spirits and daughter of fortune.

I really, unexpectedly, enjoyed The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert recently. She wrote Eat Pray Love, but it’s nothing like that at all. Loved it.

Any human heart by William Boyd is one of my favourites. Also Julian Barnes - quite a few lovely reads in his catalogue. Sense of an ending is wonderful but Arthur and George is also brilliant.

I know you said you had recently gone back to the classics and you want to go a bit modern. But...

Middlemarch

You can’t get better - a fantastic novel about being grown up, having compassion and forgiveness. That’s a wonderful feel good book. Honestly that’s the one book I feel everyone needs to read before they die.

Isabel Allende - house of spirits, daughter of fortune, portrait in sepia

Isabel Allende - sum of our days

This is non fiction - I really enjoyed it: Elif Batuman
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

As I walked out one midsummer morning - Laurie Lee

Mind has gone blank! Loving this thread :)

Accordion Crimes - Annie Proulx

Wallace Stegner = Crossing to Safety. It's about friendship. Still grateful to the person who put this up for sale at a flea market.

And I also looked through some of those "100 best books of all time" lists and found some gems from the 70s and 80s.

reading-well.org.uk/books/mood-boosting-books

Man at the Helm, Nina Stibbe. Hilarious, terribly clever and utterly charming. As is Love, Nina, but that’s a memoir. I’ve given copies to friends and they’ve all loved them

Agree wth whoever said Robertson Davies, his books are a treat. Makes me want to read them all over again now.

Plainsong - Kent Haruf. I loved this.

A Suitable Boy. I pick this up and read random sections when in need of comfort and reassurance.

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson it’s the companion book to Life After Life and is fantastic in every way.

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell is brilliant - and for audiobook fans this is superb, the narrator is wonderful.

The Boy Made of Blocks
Moving - Jenny Eclair

thanks for that link flakebaby, I've ordered a poetry anthology

Life of Pi is a fantastic read. The film is on E4 now, which reminded me.

I wish there were more happy/uplifting literary novels! I don’t see why literary nearly always seems to equal gloomy.

What about Barbara Kingsolver? Prodigal Summer and Flight Behaviour we’re both quite uplifting.

Were!

How about David Lodge's novels? Al funny, feel good, quirky with proper literary references (try Paradise News, which is a funny academic road trip meets TS Eliot?)

Or Headllong by Michael Frayn? About a couple of sleuths trying to find a lost Breughel painting. I loved it!

Alexander McCall smith is great. Love all his books.

So pleased to see more suggestions on here, glad it’s not just me hunting for the rare gems that are literary but uplifting!