Is there a (fiction) novel that is universally acclaimed and loved?

[JMSA]

Looking for book recommendations for a book group I've just joined. I'm a little nervous about putting forward my first title, as I really don't know these people very well. I'm thinking it makes sense to 'play it safe' with my first choice of book. It has to be fiction and not onerously long. Max 400 pages.
We've just finished Hidden Windows by Jason Rekulak.
Group is mostly made up of secondary school English teachers, so something a wee bit different would be good, as the Classics will have been covered!

Thank you very much

I think if they are all avid readers it is safer to go for a new release as otherwise people are likely to have read it.

Love this kind of thread.

How long is The Miniaturist? I BLAZED through it, so even though I think it's a bit long, it's also a page turner, and v book group friendly.

Circe by Madeline Miller is also a blaze-through book. Utterly wonderful.

The Pursuit of Love and/or Love in a Cold Climate - also Cold Comfort Farm in a similar vein/period. And I Capture The Castle. All of a "type" and all covered, probably, though, on reflection.

Oh - Piranesi is short and sweet. It's on my bedside table, but am currently reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, so it will be there for a while longer!

But do you need something super recent, I wonder? Like last 2 - 3 years?

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/books/review/new-books-recommendations.html

A Month in the Country by JL Carr. The perfect bookclub book- elegant, consoling, tender, very short.

Second Piranesi, I wish I could read it for the first time again

I've got a family WhatsApp group and there are loads of books we all rated highly but the ones that spring to mind are 'flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes and 'The Collector' by John Fowles

Well my recommendation would be The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Third for Piranesi!! Read it in a few days on holiday and left it at the house. Revisited a year later and read again! Circe by Madeleine Miller is wonderful too and not too long. I also read The Leviathan by Rosie Andrew’s and adored it or The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. I went through a serious mythology related phase… more highbrow than my current taste… rereading ACOTAR in anticipation for the new Crescent City release 😳

@DarkAcademia - I’m a secondary school English teacher and have read all these. Didn’t rate The Miniaturist at all. OP think you need to have a shortlist. Backlisted podcast is excellent for ideas. I recommend Passing by Nella Larssen.

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier, it was gentle and elegant. Loved it

I like these threads too. If they’re English teachers, what about classics from another European country. French, Spanish, German? I did a French degree and adored Balzac, Zola, Stendhal. Or more modern authors like Annie Ernaux.

@MaybeTooLate - yes - brilliant choice ! @Cotswoldmama - The Collector is pretty grim and v misogynistic.

The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follett.

Short but absolutely enchanting. She wrote it when she was 12 I think. Extraordinary. Then there is a very interesting mystery about the author which in many ways mirrors the book so lots to talk about!

Or South American authors? Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Laura esquival, Jorge Amado?

If you want something amazing that doesn’t seem to be widely known (I think) suggest “I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman. The most compelling book I have read in a long time.

The kite runner, Khaled Hosseini (his next book A thousand splendid suns is also excellent)

House of Spirits -Allende
Kite Runner - Hosseini
Colour Purple - Walker
To Kill A Mockingbird - Lee

Daphne du Maurier always goes down well in my book group. Everybody is happy to re-read her, or probably most people will only have read one or two so pick an obscure one

You have some great suggestions above. Another vote here for Piranesi and a new suggestion: Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. Went down well with my book group so I recommended it to another, who also liked it.

Now this is the type of thread that MN should be used for. What about some A.S. Byatt which could be topical given her recent death ? I actually DID enjoy the Minaturist and thought it rather quirky. If you want something classic in style but not well known Persephone Books specialises in this. Have a look at their publications list.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is one that has really stuck with me.

Of course not, and a good thing too!

I've even met someone who actively loathed A Month in the Country, and several more who found it dull. (Yes, we no longer speak.)
Most English teachers I expect would have read it in any case, but maybe not Carr's The Harpole Report, set in a primary school in the 1970s (? I think, though some aspects feel much earlier), which would provide lots to discuss and is utterly hilarious to boot.

How about suggesting The Bee Sting by Paul Murray and Prophet Song by Paul Lynch? Very different books and both were favourites to win Booker prize- Prophet Song won but personally I much preferred The Bee Sting!

"Forever Amber" by Kathleen Winsor. I've read it over and over and over. Vibrant and colourful and pretty racy for the time it was published, 1944. Unfortunately, when it was made into a film, the Hollywood censors - instigated after the Fatty Arbuckle party scandal - imposed so many cuts and restrictions that the end result was puritanical and sterile.
This book deserved much better.

I've never met anyone who didn't love The Heart's Invisible Furies...