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 😊

S. by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams

It’s quite gimmicky but an interesting and challenging read. The actual story happens in margin notes and you probably need to read it more than once to get it all.

Cloud Atlas or The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon? Challenging, but rewarding if you can work out what the hell is going on.

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban is not especially long, but it's challenging in a different way and absolutely fantastic.

I'm so glad you mentioned Alberta and Jacob , my old copies are disintegrating so badly that I hardly dare read them. I didn't know they'd been reissued - definitely on my wishlist now!

Lawrence Durrell and Ford Madox Ford have both been recommended, so I'll just add my vote.

George Eliot's Middlemarch is a biggie. Martin Amis thought it was the best novel in English. Eliot was a serious intellectual as well as a great artist. She translated books from German and Latin. She also knew Spanish, French and Italian, and had read widely in philosophy and science. Amazing woman.

Henry Fielding: Tom Jones (possibly the first great novel in English).

Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain

Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game

Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

Anthony Burgess: Earthly Powers

Came on to suggest A Fine Balance, but I see you're already a fan. Totally absorbing isn't it? How about the A Dance to the Music of Time series by Anthony Powell?

Second that!

Ridley Walker is indeed a fantastic book.

If we're doing shorter ones, then The Waves by Virginia Woolf is just absolutely beautiful.

How old is the nephew? If he's 50 then the older but not yet classic books that he's read will be very different to if he's 25.

Presumably he's already read everything by Dostoyevsky and Nabokov?

Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage series, republished by Virago.

The Water Margin - Chinese classic

@JaninaDuszejko he's late 30s and has been reading obscure books for probably the last 20 years. And he reads a lot! Basically, most big chunky demanding books most people have heard of, he will have read. He's a challenge.

My own kids are more like their dad and are not massive readers so it's good fun to have this tradition going with my nephew.

Our tastes do overlap in some areas eg Zola, George Eliot, Tolstoy, and I've read Tin Drum and The Magic Mountain but not really loved either. I enjoyed A Suitable Boy myself but family relationships/sagas are less his thing I think.

He seems to be interested in historical/political/social issues as a background and also quite densely written stuff. Last time I sent him three books he replied saying I'd hit the nail on the head with my choices, so much so that he'd read them all already ..

So it's brilliant to have these ideas to trawl through. I've made a list of 22 possibilities and looking forward to exploring them in the next day or two.

Many thanks to all 😊

Shantaram.

Brilliant and fascinating.

See it's been recommended up thread.

He seems to be interested in historical/political/social issues as a background and also quite densely written stuff

I know it doesn’t fit your 'not many people have heard of them' definition but if the above is the case, he definitely needs to get cracking on À la recherche du temps perdu. Has he read Proust, OP?

I was assuming he had! But absolutely, a total delight if not.

If he likes densely written stuff, has he tried Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace?

Wonderful books, not extremely long, but extremely clear and profound writing, in my opinion: Mrs Bridge, and Mr Bridge (two separate books) by Evan S Connell. It is an overlooked classic- 1959

A fourth vote for Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet - I'm just about to try re-reading it. I think it's a bit of a marmite book / series, but as someone who is at least a bit neurodiverse I found it an exceptional rendition of how my mind works. His Avignon quintet is also worth a look. The first, 'Monsieur, or The Prince of Darkness' contains some of the most beautiful descriptive writing I've ever seen - see the description of the Provencale Christmas - but I struggled with the following books.

And I add another vote for Herman Hesse's 'The Glass Bread Game'. A zen book to be read in a zen state of mind.

I saw a PP recommend Lanark which I heartily second. Or maybe Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco? I read it on my year abroad at uni and it stuck with me for a long time.

Hi all

I finally bought Life and Fate, Prophet Song and Traveller of the Century for his presents this year.

It was difficult to choose among so many interesting suggestions and I've kept a long list to refer to in future.

I'm fairly well-read as far as mainstream literary novels and classics go, but not more obscure stuff (it's not entirely my thing). Thanks again .. so helpful!

Ooh I know! The Eighth Life by Nino Haratschvlli 900+ pages of epic Georgian family history and tragedy. Very good!

This is a fantastic thread!

I'm just book marking so I don't lose this thread! I think my normal recommendations might be a bit plebian for the OP. However, I would suggest Chris Hammer (who started with a trilogy -- Scrublands, Silver, Trust) for his lightweight summer-reading on the beach, if he enjoys politics/crime set in Australia.

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser, a Dickensian mystery