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Original poster

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

117 replies

highlandcoo · 12/12/2023 17:54

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 😊

OP posts:
XelaM · 12/12/2023 23:39

Thomas Mann - The Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain

Has he read War and Peace? It has to be the most famous novel in the world but not many people have read it. Alternatively, Crime and Punishment?

PermanentTemporary · 12/12/2023 23:39

Life and Fate
The Narrow Road to the North

Ducks, Newburyport? I haven't read it.

And has he read Middlemarch?

Peasnbeans · 12/12/2023 23:49

The Miner
Novel by Natsume Sōseki (translation from Japanese)

calmyourham · 12/12/2023 23:54

Saving this thread. I was going to go for Life and Fate, I have a deep and abiding love for it. Alternatively, though they’re not all that long, The Leopard, by Lampedusa, Pale Fire, by Nabokov, The Tunnel, by William Gass and Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.

Wednesday6 · 13/12/2023 00:00

There book of disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

exexpat · 13/12/2023 00:04

@highlandcoo Did someone think The People's Act of Love was a romance novel? Oops...

I did find a copy of it on my late mother's shelves while clearing her house; she was fond of re-reading Georgette Heyer novels towards the end, but her tastes were rather broader (and gorier) than that on the whole.

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 13/12/2023 00:06

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Not QUITE on the scale of challenging but a dense and complex novel dealing with difficult themes.

Steelasprey · 13/12/2023 00:31

Rotherweird trilogy by Andrew Caldecott

PoppyCup · 13/12/2023 00:44

The Last Man by Mary Shelley

Tristram Shandy (well known but he may not read novels written that far back in time)

Snoopsnoggysnog · 13/12/2023 02:15

Germinal or la bete humaine by Zola

maybe a Balzac?

Scarlet and Black by Stendhal

all favourites of mine from university

Alchemistress · 13/12/2023 04:30

Another vote for The Quincunx from me.

What about Underworld -Don DeLillo?

MilkChocolateCookie · 13/12/2023 04:36

The Children's Book by AS Byatt

LickleLamb · 13/12/2023 05:25

I loved this thing of darkness -the one about Captain Fitzroy, historical book.

WhickDittington · 13/12/2023 06:08

The Unconsoled by Ishiguru

The Way We Live Now - Trollope

Romola - George Eliot

Riverlee · 13/12/2023 06:09

Brazil - read this back in the late 80s and loved. Not read it since (but still have the book).

Riverlee · 13/12/2023 06:10

Sorry, forgot to mention the book!

long, challenging novels not many people have heard of - recommendations please?
FestiveFruitloop · 13/12/2023 06:17

Lanark by Alasdair Gray, but only if he likes weird/surreal.

Wronginformation · 13/12/2023 06:22

Was also going to mention Sigrid Undset. Nobel prize winner.

Kittensat36 · 13/12/2023 06:30

Let me recommend the Rougon-Macquart series by Emile Zola. 20 books about a family originating in the town of Plassans and covering a wide range of issues: miners and working conditions (Germinal), life in a department store (The Ladies Paradise), a glorious description of the food markets of Paris (The Fat And The Thin).... Currently reading The Human Beast about a man who wants to commit a murder (only 2 chapters in, so don't know how that will pan out). That would give op's nephew plenty to chew on. Obv best on kindle, as 20books is quite a stack.

Rozbos · 13/12/2023 06:46

How about Ayn Rand. Quite a slog but I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead.

Funderthighs · 13/12/2023 06:49

Is the Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon too lightweight? It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Delpf · 13/12/2023 06:57

The Journal Of Albion Moonlight by Kenneth Patchen. Not super long, but by nature of its format does take quite a while to read. I think it's pretty niche.

DoverWight · 13/12/2023 07:10

The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

Moglet4 · 13/12/2023 07:25

highlandcoo · 12/12/2023 17:54

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 😊

What a great tradition! I would be tempted to go straight for an Orhan Pamuk novel - My Name is Red, maybe? Or Snow?
For something a bit more mainstream but still great, what about Vikram Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy’? Or maybe Susannah Clarke ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell’. You said he likes Russian texts- has he read Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov?

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