Recommendations: books set on islands or a sense of place; unreliable narrators; food; music

[StColumbofNavron]

A bit of a list of requirements. Fiction and non-fiction welcome.

I am looking for books that evoke a real sense of place e.g. like Wuthering Heights makes you feel as though you are on the Moors, or A Theatre for Dreamers makes you feel like you are on a Greek island and the sun is burning your skin. Anything involving an island is even better but not essential.

Then, anything with an unreliable narrator(s).

Anything involving food where it is visceral and where music is used cleverly.

We were liars is amazing and fits some of your boxes. I couldn’t put it down .

The Magus. It's set on Spetses, a Greek island. Everyone seems to be an unreliable narrator. It was written in the 1950s so expect some old-fashioned attitudes. John Fowles did describe it as a novel of adolescence, written by a retarded adolescent, but it's a fun read.

Thanks - added them.

Non fiction - Ring The Hill, by Tom Cox. Beautiful nature writing, title comes from an old name for the hare.
Fiction - When The Lights Go Out, by Carys Bray. The dampness of the West Lancs coastal plain seeps through it.
Andrew Michael Hurley writes unsettling tales with a strong sense of place. The Loney (Morecambe) and Devil’s Day (Langden Valley, Trough of Bowland).

These fit the music requirement and are both extremely good, but I read them both a long time ago so not sure how well they'll satisfy the rest of your wishlist. Music and Silence; Rose Tremain. Orfeo; Richard Powers.

A Kind Of Intimacy, debut novel by Jenn Ashworth has an excellent unreliable narrator. Set in Morecambe(or Fleetwood). Excellent sense of place. Dark humour.

Thanks @heldinadream - I'm not trying to find all of the elements in one book so that is fab with the music suggestions, thanks you.

Morcambe seems a popular place :-)

I'm sure you've already read it but And Then There Were None is atmospheric.

Helen Dunmore is fantastic about food - Talking To The Dead is good for this and has a creepy, menacing, nostalgic feel.

A S Byatt is good on food, too, but a much crisper feel and not necessarily as likeable if not quite your thing.

Great question, OP! I can readily imagine those being good criteria for a reading list.

@StColumbofNavron have you read any Richard Powers? I think he's a genius (and I don't say that lightly). I have a massive writerly crush on him. 😂

I second the Magus

Captain Corelli is the obvious island read

Mister Pip

Laura Esquivel - Like Water for Chocolate.

The Scorpio races by Maggie Stiefvater is set on an island (the fictional island of thisby) and has a great sense of it being a place. It’s also got food - November cakes.

I love Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, set in India. Amazing read, gripping story and loved by anyone I have recommended it to.

@Palavah I am taking your suggestion very seriously as I have read and loved Captain Corelli (in fact, I have read everything LdB has written) and Mister Pip.

Thanks all - really useful, keep them coming. I have a spreadsheet :-)

Wide Sargasso Sea has a fantastic sense of place, too.

In that case I'd add Tracey Chevalier - her novels are very evocative, though not island-based her narrators are often isolated in some way.

Circe by Madeline Miller - mostly on an island.

Fabulous suggestions. I’m down a huge rabbit hole.

Unreliable narrator (altho knowing the narrator is unreliable is a big spoiler!):

Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Fingersmith, Sarah Waters

Strong sense of place:

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell - I found this really evoked Corfu (so also set on an island!)

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell - you’re right back in Tudor England. Huge sense of place.

Food: Toast by the chef Nigel Slater - his memoir, featuring a lot of good memories. Nice book.

Why do you have this slightly random collection of book requirements, OP?

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Sort of island, sense of space and some really intetestng utopian thought. Old, but quite modern language, so it's easy to sink into.

Piranesi? But probably too obvious and popular.
Wakenhyrst - unreliable narrator

Babette's feast ( the short story) for food.

You, me and the sea by Elizabeth Haynes is set on a remote Scottish island.

@Wigeon I don’t need them all in one place and I just enjoy all these things separately, but I also want to write something. It’s really just for me because I used to really enjoy writing creatively but I’ve been in the academic world for a bit and I feel like I’ve lost my ability to write passable, creative words so want to be inspired. My ideas are around these themes so I want to read more around them - and I just love a book on an island.