Top 5 ever books- what else would I like

[slet]

I was eating a bookstagram type video where this American woman listed her “god tier” books and it made me wonder what I would choose as mine. I have narrowed it down to 5 but when I thought about it I realised my 5 have a lot in common.

the 5 are

The Lacuna by Barbrara Kingsolver
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

i have realised they all share certain characteristics. They are all pretty long (except for atonement, all are over 600 pages). They are all large in geographical and/or historical scope and often follow a main character through their life. They all have some sort of interesting narrative structure and/or a twist or clever ending.

Can anyone think of any others that would match this criteria? I have read all of the other books by these authors.

some that come close but not quite which I also enjoyed are:

The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Hamnet
The marriage portrait
Everything ever written by William Boyd, Margaret Atwood and Clare Chambers
The Goldfinch
Caledonian Road

Time Travelers Wife
The Forgotten Garden
A prayer for Owen Meany
A thousand splendid suns

I agree that anything by Carol Shields is worth reading - she is the author I have gone back to and re-read the most (I suppose you could say my 'comfort read'), apart from possibly Jane Austen.

Do you mean The Stone Angel (by Margaret Laurence) or The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields? Both excellent in any case.

I had to look up Vimy Ridge - no, I don't think so.

Oh no I am thinking of the Stone Carvers by another Canadian writer

@slet What is it with Canadian writers and novels with 'stone' in the title!

Middlemarch
A Suitable Boy

Oh! I know, I know!
Anything by Johnathan Franzen. I think you'll love.

These are very much my sort of books. The Shipping News and A Fine Balance would be two of my top choices. Also yy to lots of Sarah Waters, Alan Hollinghurst, Jane Harris (especially The Observations) , Rose Tremain (especially Music and Silence) and Ann Patchett.

Also:

The Last Hundred Years trilogy by Jane Smiley
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman
Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Earth and Heaven by Sue Gee
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

The Bee Sting was a good one.

i was excited to see you had Curtis Sittenfield on your list. Just about to start that one

Have you read In Memoriam by Alice Winn? It’s good.
And if you like Ian McEwan-his book Lessons was very good.

A bit different maybe, but here’s my recommendation -

The Master and Margarita
The Glass Bead Game
Gormenghast
His Dark Materials
1984

The Far Pavilion's - this was my first thought and fits your criteria of long, male lead, and has an historical context.

And if you haven’t already read and want something even more out there -

Hitch Hickers Guide to the Galaxy

Brazil by Errol Lindis, not a new book but I enjoyed reading thus many years ago. Another long book.

www.amazon.co.uk/Brazil-Errol-Lincoln-Uys/dp/0330299492

American Grit - another long book about a family trying to emigrate from Mexico to the US and their journey.

The Stone Carvers is Canadian and about Vimy Ridge.

Ooh yes- Titus Groan/Gormenghast - not read them for ages but they have that sprawling feel with multiple characters and subplots.

Norah Lofts the House at the Old vine trilogy. Follows a house and its inhabitants rather than a person but still has a sweep of history.

Anything by Sharon Penman.

OP we definitely have the same taste in books. How about:

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (another Canadian writer!)
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard

It's one of my top 5 ever. Absolutely brilliant, but it hardly ever gets talked out. I don't know why! Maybe it's because Harry Thompson died shortly after and it was his debut novel, so he never had the chance to write anything else.

I really like most of the things on your list OP. I would recommend:
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Ducks, Newburyport - Lucy Ellman
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
The Siege - Helen Dunmore

Thank you for so many great suggestions everyone!

lots of these I have read (the cazalets, this thing of darkness, all of Ian McEwan and Pat Barker) but lots I haven’t too!

@slet Have you read Still Life by Sarah Winman? I liked all her books but this one would definitely fulfil the criteria of being large in historical scope and following a main character through their life.

Half a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Middlemarch, George Eliot
A Passage to India, E M Forster
Pat Barker's 'Ghost Road' trilogy
Doris Lessing's ' Children of Violence' series; also 'The Golden Notebook'

Great thread!