Please help me find some literary(ish) page turners!

[FatCatSkinnyRat]

Dear readers,

In the next month I will be spending 70+ hours on planes as I jet around the world for a couple of family events.

I am loading up my kindle with some novels I have not read - so far I have Frankenstein and Half of a Yellow Sun waiting to go. Am considering Lessons in Chemistry but can see it divides the masses...... I think I need at least five more.

Can anyone recommend some more page turners please - quality fiction that you can't put down? I will definitely make good progress with the two above but might need to switch to something different at some stage - esp on the 13 hour flights!

Not really into thrillers unless it's something like A Secret History (part thriller).

Thanks everyone! Dreading the flights but looking forward to reading time.....

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

A few years old now but Notes on an Exhibition by Patrick Gale fits the bill for me. Loved that book.

Anything at all by Kazuo Ishiguro

Enjoying Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver right now. Not quite sure if it hits your brief but it's quite different.

Trollope. Barchester chronicles

The Cazalet books by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

That is all you will need!

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock -- Imogen Hermes Gowar
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine -- Gail Honeyman
Gone Girl -- Gillian flynn

(the above are all well written, "literary" books that I coudn't put down, but they're also light enough that you CAN put them down if you have to, and restart them easily!)

My daughter has very different tastes from mine and would probably suggest:
100 years of solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Milan Kundera
The Time Travellers Wife -- Audrey Niffenegger

I'm not sure what the crossings out above are supposed to mean, but Elinor Oliphant and Gone Girl and both are both a very long way away from being literary. Elinor is quite a long way from even being readable, imo.

Recently I really liked ‘The Muse’ by Jessie Burton.

The Night Circus

There are no "crossings out" showing on my screen!

None on my screen either. But these fall into the beach read category for me too - not literary(ish) page turners.

I’d second the Cazalet Chronicles and Life after Life.

The Children's Book by AS Byatt

Wolf hall
Hamnet
Days without end
Olive kitteridge
The nickel boys
The Dutch House

Anything by David Mitchell - the author not the comedian

Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange
The Eyre Affair and the rest of the series (literary in a different sense of the word)
Something by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

I adore Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee, about a young curate taking up his first placement. Set in 1860 and the writing is exquisite:

“Written with the delicate fluency of a storyteller utterly at ease with her craft ― Times Literary Supplement”

Dickens. Just let him work his magic. I recently read Great Expectations and David Copperfield and was gripped from beginning to end. Wonderful, wonderful man, and wonderful writer. He has stood the test of time for a reason.

Pride and Prejudice
Kipling’s Kim
Wolf Hall
Edward St Aubyn: Melrose novels
Brideshead Revisited
In Cold Blood
Silas Marner
Picture of Dorian Gray

All of the above are beautiful, wonderful books. Personally, I cannot overpraise Dickens. I’m also a huge fan of Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, the Brontes, Graham Greene, Herman Hesse, Aldous Huxley and Anita Brookner.

Cazalet Chronicles are amazing.
Demon Copperhead I found so profoundly depressing I gave up.

Wow thank you everyone - I am so thrilled I submitted my post, went to bed, and overnight you have all worked your magic :-) I have just had a great time looking up things on Goodreads and have compiled the list below to get my thoughts together. I am taking this very seriously as it is rare for me to get this much time away from home and work obligations and the chance to read read read. Any further suggestions? Keep em coming!

ALREADY READ:
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (loved - actually a perfect example of what I want!)
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
Gone Girl
100 years of solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez (loved)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Milan Kundera
The Time Travellers Wife -- Audrey Niffenegger (loved)
The Night Circus
The Dutch House (loved! - but might look to see if I still have any unread Patchett, thanks for reminding me)
Wolf Hall (loved in the end but I did find it needed concentration)
Olive kitteridge (but not any sequels so that’s a good prompt - thank you)
Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Pride and Prejudice
Kipling’s Kim
Brideshead Revisited (loved - named my son after a character!)
In Cold Blood

CONTENDERS:
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (is it achingly depressing?)
Notes on an Exhibition by Patrick Gale
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cazalet Chronicles
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
The Muse by Jessie Burton
The Children's Book by AS Byatt (thought I had read this but Goodreads says I haven’t!)
Hamnet
Days without End
Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee
Carlos Ruiz Zafon (have read Shadow of the Wind and yes that’s a great example also of what I’d like so will look at what else he has)
Edward St Aubyn: Melrose novels
Silas Marner
Picture of Dorian Gray

PROBABLY NOT FOR THIS TRIP BUT GOING ON TBR / MAYBE ONE DAY LIST:
Kazuo Ishiguro - recently read Wind Up Bird so will have a break from KI
Barchester Chronicles - Trollope - Never read any Trollope! Must remedy this ….
Dickens (I read one per year to make up for educational failings - already half way through Great Expectations in paperback at home)
The Nickel Boys (have this at home in paperback but not read yet)
David Mitchell (my DH has all these in paperback - I have only read Cloud Atlas)
The Eyre Affair and the rest of the series - not sure if this is my thing but I have a friend who lives for them so might try one some day

If you enjoyed Fingersmith you'll enjoy Sarah Waters' other novels - definitely fit your brief of literary page turner.
Also The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell.

Also The Siege, and Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore

If you liked Fingersmith, maybe try The Little Stranger. I loved this.
I also liked Piranesi.

The Circle - Maggie Shipsted

wind up bird is Murakami! Ishiguro is a different writer.
Never Let Me Go is wonderful and so is The Buried Giant.