Desperate for a good book! A well-written escapist read where I forget who and where I am.

[merrymelody]

Please my fellow bookworms, suggest some titles that will whisk me away from reality. Nothing dystopian, no science fiction or fantasy. It has to be well written, that’s essential. I like historical fiction, contemporary fiction, thrillers, ghost stories, mysteries, comedy, romance, biographies, autobiographies, philosophy and art. I like stories about children, too.

Yes!

Moonshine by Victoria Clayton

Yes, I’ve read the series. Thanks.

Love Kate Atkinson! Thanks

Adored these… maybe I should reread them! Thanks

Lots of interesting suggestions here, many of which I’ve read but years ago. Please keep the suggestions coming…

I recently loved Maggie Shipstead’s “Great Circle” and Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” - both set in worlds I usually have little interest in (aviation and video game production, respectively) but incredibly transporting.

Patrick O’Brien Master and commander series is always the right answer!

classics …
jane austen
barchester chronicles (Trollope)
wilkie collins

excellent modern writers …
jonathan franzen
william boyd
John boyne
Sebastian faulks

quirky …
The Wolf Den trilogy Elodie Harper
the safekeep by Yael hmmm Wouden?
the Ian Mortimer time traveller series

Yes to Kate Atkinson! Got totally lost in Life after Life.

I recently finished Homecoming by Kate Morton and it definitely fits the bill!

Lots of great recommendations- thank you!

A Fine Balance - by Rohinton Mistry

Cuddy by Benjamin Myers, possibly my favourite book ever (and I am super hard to please), or the Boudicca series by Manda Scott or Eleanor Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels...all books to lose yourself in.

Elizabeth Strout and Ann Patchet fit the contemporary fiction bill but you've probabaly read most of their output. I'd recommend Tom Lake, The Dutch House, Bel Canto and Commonwealth by Ann Patchet and pretty much anything by Elizabeth Strout.
I also enjoyed Stone Yard Devotional by Charllotte Woods.

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

10 minutes and 38 seconds in this strange world - great book, great author written from the perspective of a murdered sex worker as her dying mind stops working

Is by Elli Shafak and like almost all of her books is wonderful.

Has anyone read any Margaret Atwood, apart from The Handmaid’s Tale?

@merrymelody yes, I’ve also read Cats Eyes and Alias Grace, both excellent but I couldn’t get on with The Blind Assassin.

I also loved Alias Grace.

All of them. I haven't really got on with anything she's written since Oryx and Crake. Some people like her recent stuff but I prefer her earlier works.

For a fairly light but joyful read with an engrossing sense of place I loved ‘Welcome to Glorious Tuga’ recently

You could have a look at Persephone books.
https://persephonebooks.co.uk/

I absolutely loved North Woods by Daniel Mason. It is beautifully written.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71872930-north-woods
Also Carol Shields maybe?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77554.The_Stone_Diaries?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13

Absolutely double recommend this! Amazing book.

North Woods is amazing.
If you like Ken Follet have a look at SHaron Penman. Also the Shardlake series.

Have you read anything by Hilary Tailor? She's only written three novels but they are all (what I would call) well written page turners. The Vanishing Tide is set on a peninsula and has some supernatural elements (it's about a woman who has to clear her mother's beach house after she dies and finds more than she bargained for). The most recent one is set on a Welsh island which concerns the disappearance of a child on holiday and the impact it has on the three families holidaying there. That one is called Between the Waves.