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.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles brilliantly captures a sense of place and time. Set in Moscow’s Hotel Metropol, it’s the story of a man trapped for years by a threatening and repressive regime. But it is, nevertheless, a story of hope and resurrection.
The Hotel Metropol was a real hotel, look online for photos of its stunning architecture, and its spectacular interiors.

Of course the Metropol was not an island, but with its enforced isolation, its staff hierarchy, its rules traditions and customs, its temporary visitors, it is a metaphor for an island.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles brilliantly captures a sense of place and time. Set in Moscow’s Hotel Metropol, it’s the story of a man trapped for years by a threatening and repressive regime. But it is, nevertheless, a story of hope and resurrection.
The Hotel Metropol was a real hotel, look online for photos of its stunning architecture, and its spectacular interiors.

Of course the Metropol was not an island, but with its enforced isolation, its staff hierarchy, its rules traditions and customs, its temporary visitors, it is a metaphor for an island.

Ishiguro is quite good for unreliable narrators - subtly unreliable! Very literary of course. e.g. 'A Pale View of Hills' or 'Remains of the Day'.
For something more commercial, maybe something like 'Elizabeth is Missing'? Or the one by Mohsin Hamid... 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist'.

For sense of place, and being set on an island - 'Golden Child' by Claire Adam. The island is Trinidad in the Caribbean, and the landscape is lush and beautiful, but my god, it's a wild place! Harsh book. But great for sense of place.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver set in the Congo in the 60's told by the daughter/ wife of a Missionary. Very evocative of place arriving from the States. The language, people, food, market life, the river.

Would also agree with Like water for chocolate for bringing food and cooking into the story, with lots of magic realism a dreamy read.

This is a lovely read. I went to spinalonga after I read it. It didn't disappoint, was very emotional.

I third (or forth) The Magus.

I'm a third of the way into Summerwater at the moment, and so far it's fabulous - terrific sense of place.

Non-fiction - The Salt Path. I loved it.

One I personally didn't enjoy, but you might like it, OP, as it's very food-heavy (even contains recipes) and it has an unreliable narrator - The Debt to Pleasure.

Late Call by Angus Wilson. It's set in one of the new towns of the 1950s, and the sense of place is absolutely terrific; so much so that you will feel you have been transported back in time. Besides which, it's a masterpiece - it's tragic that Angus Wilson is so little-read now, and Late Call is his best novel, in my opinion.

The Beach, Alex Garland, for an Island.
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, for a strong sense of place and possibly some of your other boxes.

Seven Gothic Tales, Karen Blixen (who wrote Out of Africa and Babette's Feast). I'm sure I remember at least one tale has an unreliable narrator, and she has a very strong sense of place.

Behind The Scenes at the museum. You'll have to work out which category it fits though

Love after Love by Ingrid Persaud - strong sense of place (Trinidad) and mouthwatering descriptions of the local food.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters for unreliable narrator.

A bit of a different spin, but Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver. Partly set in the Virginia mountain/forest wilderness. It's very immersive, sensual and lush.
And, an old one now, but The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy. Also sensual, languid, wonderful sense of the heat but the lushness too of south India's waterways.

And The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry. Fantastically vivid sense of the Essex marshes in the 19h century. I think it's a bit of a masterpiece all round, actually; wonderful central character and story.

This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart - set on Corfu, and like many of her novels set in or around the Mediterranean, very evocative of the location.

The Debt to Pleasure, by John Lanchester - I'm not saying anything about it other than it will tick a couple of your boxes and it's a sheer pleasure to read.

Island Dreams, by Gavin Francis is good non-fiction about, surprise surprise, islands.

The island - Victoria Hislop was my first thought.

All Creatures Great and Small

Bill Bryson books

Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe

Island in the Sun Alec Waugh

Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys

My Family and Other Animals Gerald Durrell

Still life by sarah Winman - loads of lovely descriptions of Italy and Italian food

Another food book, A Curious Absence of Chickens: A journal of life, food and recipes from Puglia, by Sophie Grigson

I've just finished The Singer's Gun by Emily St John Mandel, which is very descriptive and strong in terms of sense of place. There are shifts in what we know about characters too, which sort of fits in with unreliable narrator.

My Cousin Rachael, Daphne Du Maurier

Unreliable narrator, but you have to spot that for yourself.

The Mint Lawn by Gillian Mears. Particularly good evocation of Australian country towns in summer - the somnolence, lazy rivers. Food? She's very good at describing childhood sweets - definitely not gastronomy though.

An oldie but Hugh Walpole's Rogue Herries, really atmospheric descriptions of 17 and 18 century Borrowdale in the Lake District. Shows the remoteness of the place when there was little transport.

The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill for the food of England over the course of a year.

Lillian Beckwith. Her books about the Hebrides from an outside viewpoint, and her semi autobiographical 'About My Father's Business' about growing up in her parent's grocery shop in the Black Country of the 1920s.

Winifred Foley's Child in the Forest about the Forest of Dean in the 20s and 30s.

Cider with Rosie.

Sense of place: Donna Leon's Brunetti books evoke Venice as strongly as anything I've ever read evokes anywhere.

Ruth Park, a New Zealand writer who wrote about depression era Australia and New Zealand - a couple of her books have a certain magic realism about them, and I can 'hear' her characters when I read them, especially The Witches Thorn'.

Another good book for sense of place, Sydney in the 1940s is Come in Spinner.

Agatha Christie The body in the library is an unreliable narrator which gives the game away a bit

Hahaha, well, yes, but I did ask.

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy for sense of place (Spain and Greece)
The woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe, you can taste sand in your mouth when reading
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by Maarten Troost, very misleading title 😀but the action takes place on Kiribati