trying to find well-written challenging fiction that isn't widely known

[highlandcoo]

I have a very well-read young friend, who lives abroad, and traditionally I always send her books on her birthday.
It's getting harder and harder to find something she hasn't read, but sending her a book token just wouldn't be the same.
She has read many of the classics, as well as a huge amount of contemporary literary fiction. I know ahe has enjoyed Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Zola, Gunter Grass, Herman Hesse, Murakami, Paul Auster, David Mitchell ...
I wondered about books in translation that she's less likely to have come across. Open to any suggestions though.
TIA

Sorry have totally messed up the title

Hopefully you get the gist though

What about Daunt Books - they are beautiful editions for gifts. I enjoyed Cassandra at the Wedding which isn’t challenging to read but reads like a classic.

I’d take a look at books that Backlisted have focused on. They aren’t generally contemporary as they focus on “bringing new life to old books”. Almost all of them are excellent reads.
Or a book subscription via someone like Heywood, who will talk to her then post her a book regularly based on what she likes?

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. Shades of King Lear in there.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

(There's a theme emerging here!)

have a look at these:

classics:

Cora Sandel - Alberta and Jacob

Laxness - Independent People
Christina Stead - The Man Who Loves his Children
Doris Lessing - Martha Quest (or The Golden Notebook)
Dorothy B. Hughes - In a Lonely Place
Grace Paley - The Collected Stories

contemporary:

Sofi Oksanen - Purge
Herta Muller - The Land of Green Plums
Hanna Ørstavik - Love
Han Kang - Human Acts
Ilya Kaminsky - Deaf Republic (poems that read as a play)
Anne Carson - Autobiography in Red (poem)

correction:

Anne Carson - Autobiography of Red
Christina Stead - The Man who Loved Children

Perhaps some antipodean authors?

Janet Frame; Keri Hulme (The Bone people is a wonderful book); Katherine Mansfield; Elizabeth Jolley; Thea Astley; Gerald Murnane; Patrick White; David Malouf (if she likes the Europeans White or Malouf might appeal); Randolph Stow (a personal favourite);

Why not try and get her on to Edith Wharton? She’s less well known and perhaps interesting to read about the challenges & restrictions faced by young women in another age in a fictional context?

And on that note, ‘The girl with the loading voice’ might be another good choice? It’s set in Nigeria and is one girls story to escape small village politics and poverty and carve a life for herself.

Thank you all, particularly for the suggestions of authors I haven't already heard of. As she's very well-read I need to go for books away from the mainstream. It's become a bit of a yearly challenge!

I'm working just now but will be investigating some of your recommendations tonight, thanks

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Science Fiction book originally written in Chinese. It's complex and definitely a Chinese/mathematics mindset is involved. My DD who is currently studying physics found it compelling.

The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg (translated from Swedish). Considered one of the best pieces of Swedish literature, the men from ABBA wrote a musical based on it.

Anything by Marquez or Allende - the South American magic realists are outstanding. (Especially Allende in my opinion. The house of Spirits is a classic. And her new one looks wonderful; A Petal of the Sea.

Has she read Graham Greene? He is outstanding and luckily has written loads. The End of the Affair, The Comedians, The Third Man.

Steinbeck is also jaw-droppingly good. Try Of Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath or Cannery Row.

Toni Morrison is a wonderful classic contemporary novelist. So are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, J M Coetzee, George Saunders (better at short fiction imo). If she can bear the darkness at the heart of them, Edward St Aubyn's autobiographical novels are stunning. He really can write.

She may well have read it, but I've just finished Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and it's incredibly well written, with wonderful word play. Get the annotated version so you look up the meaning/themes etc. as you go through it - it really enhances the reading experience.

a few more:

Dorothy M. Richardson - Pilgrimage 1
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Shahrnush Parsipur - Women Without Men
Tarjei Vesaas - The Ice Palace
Sara Stridsberg - The Faculty of Dreams

I loved The Fall of the Stone City, by Ismail Kadare (translated from Albanian).

Has she read anything by Carlos Ruis Zafon? The Shadow of the Wind is a slow burner, but I thought The Angel's Game was much better.

Is Philippa Gregory too mainstream?

I enjoy this type of book, some others are:
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Famished Road - Ben Okri
The Volcano Lover - Susan Sontag
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

@SJaneS49

And on that note, ‘The girl with the loading voice’ might be another good choice? It’s set in Nigeria and is one girls story to escape small village politics and poverty and carve a life for herself.

I enjoyed The Girl with the Louding Voice but I've just read Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga which covers some of the same ground but blows it out of the water. It is widely considered an African classic. It's the first in a trilogy and the final part, This Mournable Body was nominated for the Booker last year. All three in the trilogy have been republished with matching covers by Faber and Faber which would make a nice set.

If you're interested in novels in translation then the following are well worth a read:

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (Japanese novella on grief)
The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod (Surinamese historical novel about the sugar plantations)
Bright by Duanwad Pimwana (Thai novel about a working class community)
Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi (Russian memoir about the refugee experience following the revolution)

Agree with the PP about Allende and Garcia Marquez.

How about choosing some books from the Persephone website. They have a great selection of “forgotten” classics. Worth a browse.

Thank you so much everyone. Some brilliant suggestions above, particularly the novels in translation which she is less likely to have encountered before.

Re Isabel Allende, I just finished The House of the Spirits last night and found it an unforgettable read.

And have added a few of the above ideas to my own TBR pile too

I second the recommendation to have a browse of Persephone Books’ collection.

As you said that she has read Murakami and Auster, my suggestion is Braised Pork by An Yu.

www.amazon.co.uk/Braised-Pork-Yu/dp/1787301877?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Anthony Trollope
Edith Wharton
Georgette Heyer for something lighter

Are they an English ex-pat? Not that this really matters, but if so they might enjoy something that casts England in an interesting and timeless light. I absolutely love Tim Pears' books, he paints rural England in a really beautiful but slightly disturbing way, and he's a wonderful storyteller. "In the place of fallen leaves" is brilliant, so is the Horseman trilogy.