I'm running out of books - Literary fiction recommendations please.

[KStockHERO]

I'm rapidly reaching the end of my "To Read" book list. The problem is that I have no idea what to read next, nothing is really grabbing me.

I love literary fiction, especially if its depressing 😛

I'm not that keen on period classics. I'm not sure why, I just struggle to get into them. So I'm after something from C20 and beyond.

To give you an idea - I loved loved loved "The Luminaries" and "A Little Life". I'm waiting for Ngozi Adiche's new one to be out in paperback. I've read the whole of Ishiguro's back catalogue.

I hated "The Vegetarian", "Brotherless Night" was alright but "Enter Ghost" and "Orbital" both bored me to absolute tears.

What shall I read next? HELP!

I just read & loved The Alternatives, somewhat depressing but there was some light in there

Have you read the fifth child by Doris lessing? That's gripping and quite depressing/sad too.

The Unit - it’s Norwegian I think and an interesting but disturbing read

I was going to say Secret HIstory. If you liked a Little Life, then I would say there are similarities.

Graham Greene's The End of the Affair. More recent, Julie Myerson's Something Might Happen, but more dark rather than depressing.

You have the same taste as me OP. If you haven’t read Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things” and “The Ministry of Upmost Happiness” you are in for the treat of a lifetime. Beautifully written, wonderful characters and depressing as hell with some uplifting and funny moments.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamed
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Oh yes, I forgot The Marriage Portrait. I enjoyed that.

I like depressing books too!

The Four Winds
Jungle House
East of Eden
Shuggie Bain

I second the recommendation for St Aubyn's Melrose novels. Brilliantly written, and the first one, Never Mind, is one of the saddest, most painful books I've read.
Demon Copperhead is outstanding, topical and very bleak.
Shuggie Baine
We Need To Talk About Kevin
The Goldfinch
Beloved
Home (also by Toni Morrison)
The Road

Ooh wow some wonderful suggestions here.

I recently listened to the audiobook of Robert Harris's Imperium, the first in his trilogy about Cicero and am now into the second book, Lustrum. So far, I'm hugely impressed and am relishing the prospect of more of his books. I've also recently listened to Jo Browning Roe's book, A Terrible Kindness, which is about the aftermath of the Aberfan disaster and very lowering, Jonathan Coe's The Proof of My Innocence, which is grim and scary and the sort of thing I'd once have dismissed as far-fetched, but wouldn't now. But top of my list would be Cuddy by Benjamin Myers. It's not so much depressing as melancholy and it's full of the history of the north east of England. I thought it was gorgeous, easily the best book I've read or listened to for a while.

The last king of Lydia by Tim Leach. The most beautiful writing which really shows that he is also (mainly?) a poet.
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar. Again fantstic writing, beautiful.

I had no interest in Lydia or that period, same goes for Hadrian, but oh! Such wonderful books to read.

Any happy, light and fluffy books for these grim times?

I am ready to re-read Pride and Prejudice at this rate to cope with the news.

I saw What I loved by Siri Hustvedt - a book I read many years ago - on a table at Waterstones yesterday and was reminded of what a joy of a read that was.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne is a wonderful book. Anything by John Boyne, actually.

I just finished Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst and that was also very engaging. I loved it.

I remembered another author I really like-Sue Gee.
Her books tend to be on the depressing side with interesting characters, I recommend The Hours of the Night and The Mysteries of Glass.

Maybe best to start a “happy book” thread?

I found The Sky Beneath Us by Fiona Valpy rather lovely - it has poignant bits, but is ultimately comforting, IMO!

There are some amazing suggestions here, thank you!

Just to clarify that I read "A Fine Balance" last year and it was absolutely brilliant, exactly the kind of depressing stuff I love 😅

Some other suggestions from here that I've read and loved (giving you an idea of my taste):
"The People in the Trees"
"Homegoing"
"Shuggie Bain" and "Young Mungo"
"Tenderwire" and actually all of Claire Kilroy's back catalogue
"What I Loved" and most of Siri Hustvedt's work

I also really enjoyed "The Virgin Suicides" which hasn't been mentioned but is also pretty grim.

I read "Pillars of the Earth" years and years ago. I was a bit obsessed actually. I got the box set and the board game😂I didn't think it was particularly well-written, more of a depressing yarn than anything too literary.

I've just finished "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell. It's had great reviews on MN but I really hated it.

Thank you so much for these suggestions!

I loved The Mysteries of Glass. What a beautifully written novel.

I haven't read Shuggie Bain yet but it's on my TBR pile but I wonder if Angela's Ashes might appeal in the same vain?

Claire Kilroy has a novel out last year, if you haven’t got to it yet — Soldier Sailor. Relentlessly grim and begins with the mother of a small baby about to throw herself off a cliff?

Cathy Sweeney’s Breakdown? Short and grim, about a teacher and mother to young adult children who one morning, instead of driving to work, just turns the other way and leaves her own life?

Any of Eimear McBride’s work? Rachel Cusk, who is a genius, but too relentlessly dark for me these days? Alice McDermott?

I recently read Magda by Meike Zeirvogel.

It's a slim book about the last days of Magda Goebbels. The events are true and it is even more depressing than the worse scene in Jude the Obscure.

I can't say I enjoyed it-it is beyond bleak-but it is something I won't forget.

@Topknotted I loved Breakdown by Cathy Sweeney and it far outrates and outshines the very silly and seedy All Fours by Miranda July.

I liked the Luminaries, loved Night Waking and all of Sarah Moss's other books, and love Wolf Hall and sequels so on the basis of this I am definitely going to read your other suggestions!

I always suggest The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne as my all-time favourite book. It's an epic about a gay Irish man, born to an unwed mother back when all of this was very scandalous. It follows his whole life, his loves, across the world and through various historical events (e.g., AIDS crisis, progressiveness in cultures). Really just a great book that I would suggest anyone read.