Can somebody recommend me an epic?

[WhistlersandJugglers]

Hi, I'm in Ireland where the libraries have been closed all year and there is no sign of them opening any time soon. I want to buy a few long books to keep me going. I like family saga type books like Brick Lane, The Poisonwood Bible, Cutting for Stone, A Suitable Boy, Half of a Yellow Sun. If anybody has a suggestion I'd really appreciate it.

War and peace

@Eekay

When We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

My desert island book. There's not a week that I don't think about it

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, and I second Life after Life and A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

The Cole Trilogy. I've only read the first, The Physician, so far. It's excellent.

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif is sometimes described as Possession in Egypt. It's not quite that, there's a bit less romance (although the historical romance is wonderful) and a bit more politics. But I really enjoyed it last year, it's very evocative of Egypt. And also loved The Children's Book by AS Byatt so definitely recommend that.

@JaninaDuszejko

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif is sometimes described as Possession in Egypt. It's not quite that, there's a bit less romance (although the historical romance is wonderful) and a bit more politics. But I really enjoyed it last year, it's very evocative of Egypt. And also loved The Children's Book by AS Byatt so definitely recommend that.

I was going to say The Map of Love too but didn’t because I’d already suggested the Cairo Trilogy and it just seemed too Egyptian try-hard!

Loved it, but never got on with Possession.

Started reading the Balkan Trilogy last night on the back of this thread though, so thanks. 😀

Mumwon, I have lost most of today thanks to your recommendation of Czardos! Thank you! Free on Kindle Unlimited too

Pachinko - multi generational Korean family living through the twentieth century in Japan.

The Far Pavilions

Another vote for Possession and the Children’s Book.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is excellent. I was thinking of the characters long after I’d finished it.

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. Reread twice. I think I saw an advert for a tv adaptation a while ago but no idea if it's any good.

The Less You Know, The Sounder You Sleep. Incredible account of Russian conjoined twins born into Stalin's regime. So moving and stayed with me for a long time.

Another book that I can't find when searching online: it was a series of 3 or 4 novels set in a publishing family in London, running from maybe late 1800s to 1940's I think. Not heavyweight but I really enjoyed them. Maybe someone else will know what they were.

Ooh I'm just starting to reread Map of Love, so there's another vote for it .

@CatNamedEaster

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. Reread twice. I think I saw an advert for a tv adaptation a while ago but no idea if it's any good.

The Less You Know, The Sounder You Sleep. Incredible account of Russian conjoined twins born into Stalin's regime. So moving and stayed with me for a long time.

Another book that I can't find when searching online: it was a series of 3 or 4 novels set in a publishing family in London, running from maybe late 1800s to 1940's I think. Not heavyweight but I really enjoyed them. Maybe someone else will know what they were.

Were they huge books? It’s ringing a vague 1990s bell here but I couldn’t tell you much more than that.

Turns out I was remembering these:
www.amazon.co.uk/No-Angel-Penny-Vincenzi/dp/0755332407/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=penny+vincenzi&sprefix=penny+vinc&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1616008510&sr=8-3

East of Eden - Steinbeck

Womanity YES that was it! I really enjoyed them, I'll see if I can order them from my library. Thank you .

Also just started (about 10 pages in) Sarum by Edward Rutherford. It's set over 100 centuries around Salisbury, from the end of the Ice Age.

@CatNamedEaster

Womanity YES that was it! I really enjoyed them, I'll see if I can order them from my library. Thank you .

Also just started (about 10 pages in) Sarum by Edward Rutherford. It's set over 100 centuries around Salisbury, from the end of the Ice Age.

If I’m remembering them properly ‘not heavyweight’ is something of an understatement! 😀

Another Ken Follett one. The century trilogy. It follows five famillies through the 20th century. From the wars up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. American, Welsh, English, German and Russian families with amazing insight and detail. Very very good read.

Womanity I think you are right. Just read the details of them all on Amazon and I must have been reading the books at a low point when I needed light relief. I wonder if I'll enjoy them again as much.

Another vote for the Cazalets, A Suitable Boy and Wolf Hall
John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga
Paul Scott, The Raj Quartet
John Master's Savage series (Savage as a surname not adjective)
Middlemarch
Trollope's Chronicles of Barset and the Palliser series
I would read and reread all of these and be sorry to finish them!

A Dance to the Music of Time.

It doesn't quite fit with the genre you have indicated but it is epic - my recommendation would be The Stand by Stephen King 😇

I've never read The Stand but I've heard good things about it. It's definitely going on the list.
I loved all the Wally Lamb books. I think Mark Ruffalo won an award for the mini-series. I hope it pops up on Netflix or free to air at some point.

@Llyn, have you seen the series Lonesome Dove? I loved it so much. The characters really stayed with me.

I was just about to recommend some Stephen King. The Stand is indeed amazing and very pertinent right now. I reread at the start of last year for the third time - superb. Also his Dark Tower series. A wonderful story over 7 books. Completely gripping.