I've just finished The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, as recommended on one of the previous threads by @highlandcoo!
I loved this.
It follows a heavy built, slightly awkward, journalist, named Quoyle, as he starts out in New York, gets married, has children. Then, tragedy strikes and he ends up moving with the children and an old aunt, to his family home in Newfoundland.
I found it quite hard to adjust to Proulx's style of writing to begin with. I had just read Thursday Murder Club, which was very easy reading, so I think anything would have felt like an adjustment after Richard Osman's easy going, chatty, conversational style.
I also felt as if maybe it was deliberately jumbled and opaque at the beginning, as it sort of reflected Quoyle's perspective. He struggles to 'get' things.
But things do change for him and I felt as if Proulx's writing style did a really good job of reflecting that.
I had to plough through some chapters, (I'm just tired at the minute, so anything remotely challenging or slow moving, I am struggling with a bit). But when it was good, it was really good. I was so rooting for Quoyle and his family. He was just so likeable. Most of all though, I loved the setting and it was very easy to invest in that world and really feel as if you were there.
I know it's one eleventy million prizes, so it shouldn't be surprising that it's a good book! But it was easy to see why. It was a really sensitive and accomplished bit of writing. Will look for more by the same author, definitely.