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!

For historical fiction, I also loved the Century Trilogy by Ken Follet. Follows various families across Europe from outbreak of WW1 (Fall of Giants book) through WW2 and onwards. Brilliant series of books - long reads, but excellent!

I loved 'Still Life' for this - just a lovely book about finding friends and family and taking risks in life to live your dreams. Beautiful book!

Everything Ottessa Moshfegh has written.

Agree @TerroristToddler . His Ladder to the Sky is also brilliant.

For any Sarah Moss fans, Channel 4 are filming her novel Summerwater as a series.

I read all the books on the women's prize shortlist last year - Soldier Sailor was on there and it's what got me into Claire Kilroy. I hadn't actually heard of her before 😬

I've read all her work. "Eileen" is fabulous in particular!

This thread has kept me thinking of other good 'depressing' authors!
Another suggestion is Mary Lawson. The Other Side of the Lake and A Town called Solace amongst others.
I have enjoyed all her books, they are usually set in Northern Ontario, farming communities , very well written, intriguing, (and depressing!) I may revisit them.

Looking forward to exploring some of the great suggestions on here when I have time.

Hmmm, I might be repeating, so apologies if I'm doing so.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Jude the Obscure by Hardy (I know you said no classics, but this really is the OG of misery lit)
Close to Home by Miachael Magee
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Sorrow & Bliss by Meg Mason
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (and The Secret History which is excellent)

I also love William Boyd (Any Human Heart is my absolute favourite) and Sarah Winman, but they don't fulfil the misery side of things.

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore- very grim opening but an uplifting book overall. It brilliantly evokes the harsh Texan landscape.
Also Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell- poverty and drug addiction in rural America but a really strong female heroine.
Ditto Demon Copperfield by Barbara Kingsolver and the Goldfinch by Donna Tarrt .
Mudbound by Hilary Jordan- a very disturbing read but brilliantly written.

That's interesting to know about Summerwater @Latecoming. I feel it might lose the essence of the book as a tv adaptation. I thought it relied the various characters thoughts rather than their actions but we shall see.

Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys - my kind of depressing 😁

Haruki Murakami?

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

In the shadow of the banyan - Vaddey ratner

The Corrections Jonathan Franzan

I also tend towards the depressing read and have either read or now would like to read many books on this thread. I add, because I can’t see they have been already mentioned, Emma Donaghue’s The Wonder, about miraculous happenings set in 19th century rural Ireland and The Pull of the Stars, an absolute favourite set in a Dublin hospital during the 1918 flu epidemic with the shadow of the appalling treatment of young women in Catholic church run ‘homes’. Very moving.

I found this almost readably grim (for anyone who doesn’t know it, or the film adaptation, it’s about real life mass rapes on women and girls in Mennonite communities in Bolivia by the men of those communities, using animal tranquillisers and telling them the resulting injuries were made by devils), though brilliant, but I strongly recommend the rest of Miriam Toews’ work, which is quite different, though it also has a dark streak. She’s a Canadian Mennonite and so are most of her characters. Start with the brilliant All My Puny Sorrows, which manages to be tough, funny and warm, as well as dealing with dark material — it’s about a suicidal concert pianist in a psych ward and her sister trying to convince her to stay alive. Very warm and life-affirming as well as dark.

I loved the Pull of the Stars and read it during Lockdown which was very appropriate!

Just found the name of another I read a while ago: On the Savage Side

Mary Lawson is one of my favourites. Have you tried Kent Haruf's Plainsong trilogy? Heartbreaking and heartwarming stories of life in rural America.

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

@DuckieDodgyHedgyPiggy
Wow! Apart from Robert Harris, we have very similar taste in books.
I’m currently reading The Ministry of Time, thoroughly recommend.
Amor Towles is probably my favourite author.
The Rules of Civility being my most loved AT.

Thank you - I need something for Book Group... Was going to go for Cloud Atlas but it's a bit hit & miss. One of the chapters (about unfortunate things happening to someone) made me cry with laughter. The first chapter I found tedious and made no sense to me but it did when I read it again at the end. Anyway! Thanks.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

I've ordered:
"A Boy Called Leon" - recommended by a friend
"Brideshead Revisited"
"The God of Small Things"
"Crow Lake"

And have lots more on the list for when I run out of these!

I was toying with getting "Disgrace" by JM Coetzee but the picture of the skinny dog on the front made me hesitate. Is there animal cruelty in this book? I can't cope with that 😆