long, challenging novels not many people have heard of - recommendations please?

[highlandcoo]

I have a tradition going with my nephew .. he's very well-read and every year I take on the challenge of sending him something he hasn't already come across. I've often chosen English translations of books set in Eastern Europe or Russia but I don't always succeed in finding a book he hasn't read.

In recent years I've sent:

Second Hand Time
The Pear Field
The Tsar of Love and Techno
Angel Maker
The Gone-Away World
The Story of a Life

I wondered about Prophet Song this year but would like one or two other novels to add to it. Any suggestions gratefully received.

TIA 😊

I haven’t actually read Kristin Lavransdatter — I just saw it on a friend’s parents’ bookshelf years ago and was curious, and never quite forgot about it

The Lymond Chronicles (The Game of Kings, Queens’ Play, The Disorderly Knights, Pawn in Frankincense, The Ringed Castle, Checkmate) by Dorothy Dunnett.
Judging by the rash of Lymond-related user names, I think quite a lot of MNers have heard of these.

Maybe King Hereafter, by the same author, is less well known?

Life and Fate?

Would you be prepared to try something contemporary from the far east?

I can suggest Haruki Murakami - I am currently reading 1Q84 and have read The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and can recommend both!

Or a real classic gem that's challenging is Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić. However very difficult to understand if you are unfamiliar with geography and Slaving tribes and their neighbours.

Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer

I was going to suggest this but make sure you buy the more recent translation by Tiina Nunnally rather than the atrocious 'ye olde worlde' style one from the 30s.

Staying in Norway what about Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel? Recently reissued.

Or Childhood, Youth, Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen

What about Leïla Slimani's trilogy based on her family history. I adored The Country of Others which is the first.

And I've now realised I've just suggested nothing but trilogies!

The Little World Of Don Camillo

Anathem - Neal Stephenson

Great thread!

What about The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, or Kavalier and Clay (same author)?

The Man Without Qualities (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften)
Anniversaries (Jahrestagen)

The Story of Tonle by Mario Rigoni Stern, exploring the shifting border and the creation of the Italian nation state in the early C20th from the perception of a peasant farmer/smuggler (this is a translation so will lack something but I read it in the original at university and absolutely loved it.) Partly set in Central Europe where he goes when he falls foul of the military as a smuggler which might tick that box for you?

A Glastonbury Romance, The Brazen Head or Weymouth Sands, all by John Cowper Powys.

And another vote for A Fine Balance, which is a truly brilliant book.

In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - it covers one day in the Soviet Union (so fits the Eastern Europe / Russian theme) with so many different layers and characters.

Someone gave it to me and I was daunted at first as it's huge, but ended up loving it.

Moby dick- very tough to get through
Portrait of the artist- couldn't get further than chapter three
Alias grace- Atwood fan and this is one of the more factual ones

And genuinely serious, the bible very interesting from a totally different view, perhaps parts to skip though

The Luminous Novel - Mario Levrero (Uruguayan meta-fiction)

Traveller of the Century - Andres Neuman (set in Europe, but author is Argentinian)

The Last Samurai - Helen Dewitt (not set in Japan, but the original film of the same title is a theme)

The People's Act of Love - James Meek (stranded soldiers, shamans, a Siberian castration cult and other oddities based on actual early 20th century history)

The Industry of Souls - Martin Booth (Englishman emerges from the gulag after a long imprisonment)

By the way, thanks to whoever recommended Leica Format upthread: that book has been on my wishlist for ages, ever since I read a review of it, but I don't think it ever made it into paperback print in English. Seeing the name prompted me to check, and it is now available on kindle, so I have just bought it. Thank you for the reminder!

I'd second The People's Act of Love, and Life and Fate, and chuck in the Klemperer Diaries - Victor Klemperer a jewish academic kept a diary all his life and the ones between 1920s to end of WW2 are absolutely amazing. Your nephew will thank you

I had a huge Musil thing in my youth.

OP, Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane (though I’ve never read it in translation so don’t know if there are good ones), for late 19thc Baltic adultery, or Thérèse Desqueroux by Mauriac for a spot of French gloom?

Or if you want something more contemporary Jonathan Littell’s Les Bienveillantes/The Kindly Ones. Gloomy giant tome about an SS killer, won the Prix Goncourt.

Has he read much Irish writing?

I also fancied myself as a bit of a Musil fan in my youth, but never quite made it through the trilogy. Maybe I now have the stamina to try again. I did however spend a lot of time in my late teens writing aphoristic diaries and looking pensive in Austrian cafes after reading everything Elias Canetti ever wrote...

Which reminds me, if your nephew hasn't read Auto da Fe by Elias Canetti, that would definitely fit the bill too.

Our Share of Night by Marina Enriquez.

That was another teenage favourite of mine, though I will admit I only read it because Pål Waaktaar from A-he said it was his favourite novel…😀

I served the king of England by bohumil hrabal - it's Czech. Very funny and interesting.

The Luminous Novel by Mario Levrero

Wow! I've just come back from an evening meeting to find 44 replies.

Some really interesting recommendations which I'll explore tomorrow and I'm sure will come up with a couple of unusual and challenging reads. And I'm going to compile a list for future years too .. that will be incredibly useful.

It's great to see the love for A Fine Balance as it's one of my all-time favourite books. I'm pretty sure I gave him it five or six years ago.
Mention of The People's Act of Love triggered a memory of someone giving it to my mum who, in her 80s, favoured Catherine Cookson and Miss Read as authors. TPAOL couldn't have been much further out of her comfort zone. I don't think she got as far as the castration bit; a scene which made quite an impression on me. The novel also introduced me to the idea that you have to escape from the gulag with a companion, both knowing that only one of you will be able to survive the incredibly long winter journey by killing and eating the other at some point. Grim. It really wasn't Mum's cup of tea.

I can't reply to everyone individually but really appreciate all your suggestions - thank you 😊

Is Tomb of Sand too basic?