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.....

Jane Eyre. Total page turner.

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier.

The Moonstone, Wilke Collins.

Wilkie

+1 for the circle (Shipstead) which I’m reading atm, and for the Childrens book (Byatt). Lots of other favourites already on your list and a few I will add to mine.

I also love the Evangeline Gower trilogy by Louisa Young. They are brilliantly plotted page turners and beautifully written, but never seem to get mentioned - I first picked one up in a book
swap. My guess is they’ve been almost discarded as chick lit but they’re an all time favourite for me with wonderful evocations of Cairo.

This!

@Luckingfovely, with you on the Oliphant, unreadable!
(Glad it wasn't just me who thought that)

OP, would anything set in or about the destinations you are heading for be perhaps more relevant?

I found The Unconsoled completely unreadable! Did others enjoy it? Other than that, yes to Ishiguro!

Another vote for the Cazalet Chronicles and The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Also, how about:
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

The Shardlake Chronicles are excellent. Book 1 Dissolution by CJ Samson. Crime and historical both genres I actually don't like but I couldn't put down this series it's so well written.

Cazalets - definitely my Desert Island choice!

The Facts of Life by Patrick Gale, definite page turner beautifully written (although if male gay sex scenes are likely to offend maybe give it a swerve, it’s quite explicit!)

Also pretty much anything by William Boyd

Wild swans Jung Chang

Also not fiction Empireland by Santhnam Sangeera

fiction The likely pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Utterly amazing and has stayed with me ( it's a bit over written though)

Daphne du Maurier.

It's one of my favourite books ever 😁

Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Larchfield - Polly Clark

...while Goldfinch is one of my least and should have had a severe pruning

Have you tried Dorothy Dunnet? Incredibly rich historical dramas.
There is a very striking Viking one called King Hereafter, then two series- the Lymond and the Nicollo chronicles.

They are long too, which is great if you get into them!

Convenience store woman by Sayata Muraka

Milkman by Anna Burns. It won the Booker prize. I’m sure the style is not for everyone but i loved it.

eleanor oliphant - amazing!

a thousand splendid sunsets or anything by Khalid Hosseini.

A Man Called Ove

Same, absolutely loved it!

Isn’t King Hereafter about Macbeth? (Long time since I’ve read it, so I could be wrong.)

I’d suggest Possession, by AS Byatt, rather than the Children’s Book.

I love it but recognise it is very much a Marmite book. Would not recommend for a long flight.

Other favourite literary (ish) page-turners are

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
A crime in the neighbourhood by Suzanne Berne (long time since I read this)
Notes on a scandal by Zoe Heller

I'd like to read Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid and No One Is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood - they might fit the bill?

I found the Wolf Hall Trilogy utterly gripping.
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. I don't really enjoy fantasy but this kind of straddles fantasy and not.
Joanne Harris - Gentleman and Players (plus sequels)
John McGregor - Reservoir 13; and Lean, Fall, Stand
Jonathan Coe - The Rotters Club (and sequels)
Rose Tremain - Restoration; and Merival
Claire Fuller - Unsettled Ground
Anthony Quinn - London, Burning; and Curtain Call
Sarah Moss - The Fell; Summerwater

Yes, great choice. My mother is obsessed with these books and prefers them to Hilary Mantel.

Yes, more good choices. ^^

I’m surprised you haven’t read Wilde’s Dorian Gray OP. From what you write, I’m sure you’d love it. I’m obsessed with the Victorian/Oxford aesthetes - with Pater, Ruskin, Beardsley, etc. Wilde captures the way they spoke, and the dialogue in Dorian Gray will make you shiver.

Also, if you like Evelyn Waugh (who identified as an Oxford aesthete btw) you will love St Aubyn’s Melrose novels. He is kind of similar, but more compassionate and humane. Imagine Waugh with a softer heart.