Books with a sense of time and place

[jerrywesterby]

I love books where I can get completely immersed in a different place or time in history, don't mind when or where as long as it's somewhere new to discover!

I like crime genre so some of my recent favourites have been Jane Harper, set in the Australian outback and one I can't remember the author but set in East Berlin in the 1980s

Please give me your favourites I need some inspiration!

Ah I was going to suggest the Jane Harpers! I grew up in rural Australia and she really gets it right...

Not crime but I loved:
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Villa America by Liza Klaussman

A Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

Dark Matter, Thin Air, and Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver

Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell gave me that immersive feeling.

How about Scrublands by Chris Hammer?

Anything by John McGahern. Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer (Appalachians). Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September (1920s Big House Ireland) or The Heat of the Day (WW2 London).

'Don't Let Go' by Michel Bussi has a deep sense of place. It's set on Réunion.

Kristin Hannah really gets it right for me especially 'the great alone' which is set in Alaska. So immersive.

Agree re Michelle Paver

Also The Thorn Birds if you fancy an old fashioned saga. It made me want to go to Australia and the descriptions were spot on in terms of landscape.

Ooo! Love Michelle Paver. Off to Google thin air! Have read the other 2 but not heard of that one.

Look at Robert Goddard. Writes mysteries/thrillers but lots have a historical setting and a few are partly set in other countries (there’s a few featuring Japan and the latest was partly set in Algeria).

Try Pat Barker?

Dorothy L Sayers Murder Must Advertise.

London in the 1920s

Dorothy Dunnett Lymond books. Tudor England

Secret River by Kate Grenville would be my recommendation. Set in Australia and tells the story of a British prisoner transported there with his family and how they try to settle. Really evocative.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. Just lovely. Shortlisted for Booker 2012.

Her novel The Secret of Perfection, set in contemporary times, is also brilliant on smalltown Australia and the outback.

I was going to suggest this. I loved this book.
I'm another Michelle Paver fan.
Being more traditional I used to love getting lost in a good Cathetine Cookson.

If you like crime fiction as well, perhaps try Val McDermid’s new series about a reporter: they’re based in the UK (although in the second one she travels to Berlin). The first one’s called 1979 and the second one is 1989, so that gives you a clear clue to the time period 😂 I like them because of my age - I can remember all the cultural and political issues she describes (the second one touches on the horrific stigmatising of AIDS patients in the early years of the disease).

Definitely Wolf Hall

If you're willing to contemplate science fiction, and a time/place that never really existed, The City and The City by China Miéville would fit your description, and it's a brilliant book with a real sense of place. It's about a police officer trying to solve a murder in a twin city — where two different cities occupy the same place at the same time.

The Go-between by Hartley. Very evocative of a bygone time.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon was great for this.

The Ashes of London series by Andrew Taylor - Fire of London era crime

Still Life evokes Florence beautifully. I knew nothing about the floods there so that was fascinating, and I enjoyed the art references too, as well as it being a very readable story with interesting characters.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, set in the village of Eyam in Derbyshire and based on true events .. the vicar persuaded the inhabitants to isolate themselves to prevent the plague spreading and GB tells their stories.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. The story of the friendship between Lily and Snow Flower who are laotongs - friends with a special bond - in early 19th century China. I now know more about the barbaric process of foot binding than I ever wanted to, but there's much more to the book than that.

I can't be doing with navel-gazing books set in suburban London focusing on middle-class people and their relationships. Or pink shoes in the cupcake bakery in Cornish village sort of stuff. I'm with you OP. I really enjoy being transported to a different country, culture or time period. And I like a good straightforward narrative with no jumping about, hidden letters from a grandparent .. and no present tense!

I'm working my way through Alison Weir's Six Wives series and have just finished Anne Boleyn's story. Really absorbing and gives a different slant on her life. I'd also recommend the Shardlake Tudor crime series by CJ Sansom. And I love books set in the first half of the 20th century, often around WW2. LIssa Evans is worth a look.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is great for the vast expanse of Alaska

Hamnet had me able to picture every bit of that house, the woods - very evocative.

Agree with the Steff Penney recommendation.

Slow Horses by Mick Herron - you definitely get a sense of the sleazy, run down filth they work in, I could almost feel my shoes on the sticky carpet.