Very literary fiction recommends

[UntamedShrew]

Morning all. I’m looking for any recommends from those whose reading tastes lean towards the highbrow end of literary fiction.

I have a very bookish father and would like to get him some challenging but rewarding reads for the winter. Have you read anything that has stayed with you? He likes character led stories but has really broad ranging interests within this - doesn’t need to be modern or historical, British or international etc.

thank you ☺️

Or The House in Paris, which I think is her masterpiece? Though my favourite is probably The Last September…

Hurray for another Somerville and Ross fan. TRC is one of my favourite novels. I think I had CharlotteMullen as my username at one point.😀

The House in Paris is brilliant - yes, I should’ve suggested that one.
I would love to know what happened after Ray left Henrietta with her chaperone at the Gare du Nord…..

Yes! Yes! My teenage self was far more concerned with moody, sexy Max, and the hand touching scene with Karen in the London garden while Naomi was inside, but my adult self is far more engaged with the children, Naomi and Evil Mme Fisher (and Karen’s ill aunt who’d been burned out of her Big House…)

@SlightlyBruisedApple I would also loved to know what happened after Norry broke the news about Francie to Charlotte and Roddy (following the most satisfying and masterfully written revenge scene I have ever read).

If he is very well read then he’s probably read this already but I’ve just finished Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres. It follows a village through the establishment of modern day Turkey and the division with Greece.

North woods by Daniel Mason, also not quite as good but remarkable is The Winter Soldier by the same author. Daniel Mason was short listed for the Pulitzer Prize. Both will stay with you.

The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier is pretty good.

Personally I think Atonement is poor and the same ground is covered but so much better in The Go Between which I am sure he has read.

Eagerly lurking for suggestions as I have very literary tastes.

this has also been very useful for my own Christmas wish list too, thank you all!

Its a breathtaking scene! And one of my other favourite moments when Francie is about to be crushed by stampeding horses in a narrow lane at Gurthnamuckla, and Charlotte meditates deliberately causing her death by pretending to fall so she can’t close the gate in time…

Though if someone wrote a sequel to either, I’d probably be horrified, and certainly never read it.

Heartfelt recommendation to anyone to read Somerville and Ross’s The Real Charlotte and Elizabeth Bowen’s The House in Paris.

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. James Hogg.

Wilkie Collins’ less well-known novels are worth exploring.

Robertson Davies - the Deptford Trilogy is brilliant.

I think Daphne Du Maurier is seriously underrated.

Personally I think Atonement is poor and the same ground is covered but so much better in The Go Between which I am sure he has read.

I agree.

and Charlotte meditates deliberately causing her death by pretending to fall so she can’t close the gate in time…

Yes, and I never quite understood why she did close the gate, considering how she felt.

I was going to suggest three books and am delighted to see two of them have already been mentioned ( North Woods and Bird Without Wings). My third choice is Munich Airport by Greg Baxter, which the Guardian described as "full of philosophical ideas and stark, aesthetic beauty ".

That post has reminded me of Munichs which is exceptional.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford.
Poor Things by Alistair Gray.
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon.

These three have been my most thought-provoking reads of the last few years.

Later life is the time to get started on Proust and the great Russian novelists: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Pasternak. Oh and Pushkin-the poetry as well!

I have read most Louis de Bernieres books and though how he writes about women/female characters can, at times be highly questionable, many of his books are amazing. Of his more recent books (read his South American trilogy if you haven't) his Daniel Pitt Trilogy is brilliant about the war years. I had to have a break between some of the Daniel Pitt Trilogy as they were so moving and I can remember them very clearly years later. The recent Light over Liskeard is not his best but it is thought provoking about how civilisation could very plausibly end.

I had no idea what was going on with The Lacuna at the start but I was blown away by the time I reached the end. I immediately went on to read The Poisonwood bible which I would also recommend even though I didn't think the premise was that inviting at the start. I have read her earlier ones and I agree with the comments above. I have struggled to get into the one about climate change.

Aha! Maybe this is the place for:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5435409-helen-dewitt-author-of-the-last-samurai-has-a-new-book-out?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

In the Distance
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/06/in-the-distance-hernan-diaz-review-western

Stoner, John Williams

4321 by Paul Auster.

How much George Meredith has he read? I'm assuming he's read all of Henry James, but George Meredith (writing a few years earlier) is almost as perplexing & rewarding in style. Start with The Egoist, as his best known novel.

This Thing of Darkness was longlisted for the Booker prize (years ago) and it is a wonderfully long, dense piece of historical fiction but with brilliant characters and a rollicking plot.

It’s set in the 18th century and is principally about the Captain of the HMS Beagle (who is a charismatic depressive), but also covers the Beagle’s journey with Darwin. Great, great book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Thing_of_Darkness

That's an amazing book. A firm Mumsnet 50 Bookers favourite.