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.

I suggest trying one or two of the Russian classics...Dr Zhivago (my favourite) or Anna Karenina

Also, Thomas Hardy - Far from the Madding Crowd is wonderful, as is Tess of the D-Urbervilles.

Also, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

and yes to Steinbeck - the Grapes of Wrath is amazing

Cloud street Tim winton

And Wally lamb but I can’t remember the name of the book. Might be I guess this much is true? Or similar

This thread is taking me back to my teenage years. I loved Thomas Hardy and Rebecca. Somehow I never got around to reading anything else by Daphne du Maurier. I also was fond of a bit of Somerset Maugham. (I must check the spelling of his name). Current teenagers are never going to be bored enough to do that level of epic reading.
I also loved A Town Like Alice - I don't think it's been mentioned yet. And Brideshead Revisited.

@pollywollydoodler

I loved The Bean Trees (then Pigs In Heaven) are Barbara Kingsolver's early saga type novels. A teenager breaks away from her stifling hometown and a stranger presses a baby on her..

Yes, I much prefer either of those earlier Barbara Kingsolver novels to The Poisonwood Bible. (I’ve always wondered whether BK ever planned to return to the world of those novels and write something about Annawake Fourkiller...)

Her Prodigal Summer is also hefty and involving.

@FourteenthDoctor, I picked Cloudstreet up at random in a secondhand book shop last year and I really enjoyed it. I bought Dirt Music earlier in this lockdown and it's totally different, much darker but very well written.

Came on to recommend Outlander but someone already has. Very inpatiently waiting for book number 9, so currently reading the Lord John spin off books.
All the light we cannot see is another good one.
Have bookmarked though as I've read nothing but outlander for about 2 years now

I had a load of recommendations for you but they've all been mentioned! Have just finished the Cazalet series as recommended by MN

I'm also working my way through Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin & thoroughly enjoying them.

Not sure if Alice Hoffman has been mentioned or Elizabeth Strout? Not quite the epic proportions of Pillers of
The Earth & Lonesome Dove (on my kindle waiting for a holiday) but great reads nonetheless

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

and

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Are both brilliant and Epic.

@Themarvellousmrsm, I'm a big Alice Hoffman fan. Here on Earth was the first one I read about 20 years ago and The Dovekeepers was probably my favourite. I love the film Practical Magic and the related books too.

Norah Lofts Sussex trilogy: Knight's Acre, The Homecoming, The Lonely Furrow.

If you've never read it, I can recommend Peyton Place, by Grace Metalious. It's a fantastic book, and you can really understand why it caused such a storm when it was published.

And thanks to this thread, I've also discovered that there's a sequel - Return to Peyton Place - which I've never read - deep joy!

If you've never read them, I can heartily recommend the Poldark series

12 books in all - I mourned when I'd finished the last one!

Any of the Edward Rutherford like London or Sarum. Take you through the history of the places from foundation through the stories of interconnected families.

For anybody who likes 19th century novels, I recommend The Quincunx by Charles Palliser. Published in 1989, very long. It's a novel set in the early 19th century, written in the style of the mid-19th century, but putting in topics that could only have been hinted at in a mainstream novel of the time. I thought it was marvellous.

Oh, and one more - Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series. Another long series I read in one go. If you've seen the Peter Weir film (recommended) you'll have some idea of what to expect.

Oh, has anyone suggested Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese?

Havent RTFT, and I'm sure it's been mentioned, but The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne is brilliant.

Lonesome Dove. Don't be put off by the cowboy theme. It's gritty and brilliant.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Quincunx was far and away the grimmest book I’ve read. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, hey ho, it’s down we go. Beautifully written Victorian pastiche, but as miserable as life in a coal mine.

Well, yes! Can't argue with that. I suppose I came to it after a quarter of a century immersed in 19th century novels and 20th century crime fiction, and I was mesmerised by the re-imagining of the 19th century novel with some of the real life issues that Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Eliot et al had to leave out.

Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. 848 pages of epic fantasy. Great world building and great story! And there's a queendom rather than a kingdom, very feminist!

The Wide Acre trilogy by Phillipa Gregory - back when she wrote well and before she started churning out a shit book a year.

Robertson Davies is amazing and not often recommended. The Deptford trilogy and The Cornish trilogy are both great.

The Crimson Petal & The White? Michel Faber.

OP have you downloaded the 'borrow box app' to your phone or tablet? That connects to the Irish online library. So you could get either online e-readers or e-audiobooks. You might be able to get some of those books there. Could tide you over until the lockdown ends.