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

Yes, read and loved this one too!

I've only read 2 of your Top 5, but they would also be in my top books as well - Life after Life and Great Circle. (Hardly ever see Great Circle mentioned and it was such an amazing book.)

I know exactly what genre you are referring to and it's a favourite of mine too - in my head I call it "sweeping saga".

I'll like to suggest:
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Any Human Heart by William Boyd

Great books on this thread. Some others:

Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Four Winds / The Great Alone both by Kristin Hannah
The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman

A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles ?

The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota
Schtum by Jem Lester
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Rebecca by Daphne Dumaurier

I absolutely loved this book. The references to food and wine, sadly did not translate to the recent TV adaptation.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
The Rotters Club (and sequels)
The Cazalets

Dickens: David Copperfield
Evelyn Waugh: Sword of Honour
Aldous Huxley: Chrome Yellow
P. G. Wodehouse: Right Ho Jeeves
Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray

That's novels, of course. If I could have non-fiction, I'd include the the essays of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Bertrand Russell, Patrick Fermor's travel book A Time of Gifts, and Robert Graves' Goodbye to all That.

Thought of another- I, Claudius

Wally Lamb. - especially I Know This Much Is True and She’s Come Undone.

Maybe Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series too?

I thought of another, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent has a historical basis, a true story. Another that I have listened to on audible but have also read the actual book.

I know this much is true is so devastating. There was a TV adaptation which while good, could never reach the emotional depths of the book.

I’ve Read all of the Seven Sisters and some Wally Lamb. I think there is a new Wally Lamb coming out later this year though.

The Bronze Horseman trilogy?

We have very similar taste. Have you read any Elif Shafak? I would definitely recommend 'There are Rivers in the Sky' in this sweeping saga genre. I think she is a great writer.

Two of my all time favourites.

Although lots of my other favourites on here too.

Jane Gardam: Old Filth Triology. Short books in their own right, but superbly written, all on the same time line from different perspectives.

God in Ruins alongside Life after Life by Kate Atkinson.

Another vote for Cloud Atlas.

After recommendations on here... Dorothy Dunnett.

Another vote for the Gormenghast Trilogy. I'm currently re-reading them and loving them as much as, if not more than, the first time I read them way back in my late teens/early twenties. They were a regular 'go to' for me.
Also, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I think it's a marmite book but, imo, well worth the effort.

You might like The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller. I read this after American Wife and while not totally on a par, it scratched an itch!

If you like a kind of American college/ vibe then I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai is fun.

And if you like a long form, following a character story you might enjoy Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (this is by far the best of her books. Malibu Rising is OK but the others are almost unreadable). IMHO!

Love Sebastian Faulks💕

Obviously some problematic themes for the first one but my top 5 probably is:

Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
The Goldfinch - Donna Tart
The Wolf Hall trilogy - Hilary Mantel
11.22.63 - Stephen King

A Suitable boy
Wolf hall trilogy
The forsyte saga

You might enjoy Pachinko my Min Jin Lee, about a Korean family from the time of the Japanese colonisation of Korea to modern times. It’s a wonderful book (and you don’t need to know anything about the history).

You have very similar tastes to me. I would recommend ‘the future homemakers of America’ by Laurie Graham or any of hers - seems to not be very rated or talked about but I LOVE all of hers and they have that backdrop of historical moments similar to ‘life after life’
another good author is Meg wolitzer who is similarish to Curtis sittenfeld

I followed this thread because I loved a lot of the same books as the OP.

Thank you to those who recommended The Shipping News and Everyone Brave is Forgiven. Both were excellent reads.

I have a couple of the others in my pile too. Thanks everyone!