Literary fiction recommendations

[WhoreDing]

I'm stumped for what my next batch of books should be.

I enjoy literary fiction and quite bleak stuff.

I've asked ChatGPT but it was pretty useless, recommending books I know I won't like or that are just too wide of the mark.

I've been through the back catalogue of:
Hanya Yanagihara
Kazuo Ishiguro
Yaa Gyasi
Mary Lawson
Charlotte Wood
Megan Nolan
Susanna Clarke
Siri Hustvedt
Benjamin Myers
Andrea Levy
Sarah Waters
Isabelle Allende
CJ Sansom
Daphne du Maurier
Rohinton Mistry
Bernadine Evaristo (apart from Soul Tourists)

To give you some more ideas:
I've enjoyed:
> Disgrace by JM Coetzee but not sure where to start with his other works.
> The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.
> Handmaid's Tale but I've found other Attwood works hard to get into.
> Stoner by John Williams but his other works seen quite different.

I didn't/don't enjoy:
> First Love by Gwendoline Riley (ChatGPT recommendation, just awful)
> Hamnet and MOFs other works actually
> Annie Proulx's work
> The Vegetarian
> God of Small Things
> Eleanor Ferrante's Neapolitan triology
> Long Road to the Deep North
> Anything by Hilary Mantel
> Anything which is too magic realism
> The classics

I'm just coming to the end of my last Charlotte Wood book and am completely out of ideas for where to go next. Help!

Thank you! I'm planning to work my way through her whole catalogue!

Think the OP said she’d read Rohinton Mistry. Yes, A Fine Balance is about the bleakest book I’ve ever read.

I love this book! You’ve just reminded me about it. I might re-read it.

@icedpuddles - you don't think The Bee Sting is bleak? The ending!

I can't say what it's about without giving away the end but it explores one of the bleakest things that can ever happen, in among casual violence, drug and alcohol abuse. Beautifully written but very dark.

@Tonissister I thought the ending of the Bee Sting was rubbish. I understand the author said it was obvious but if it is that obvious he should have been clearer in my opinion. It is hard to discuss without spoiling it!

I don't think Wild Dark Shore was mentioned yet. Bleak but a great story.

Sorry if already been recommended

the bee sting
lonesome dove
cloud street

@icedpuddles

i finished The Bee Sting this afternoon, and I kind of agree with your assessment. (Deleted to avoid spoilers) The ending was 🤦‍♀️. But nonetheless the writing was gripping enough to drag me through 650 pages quite easily.

Also just finished Burial Rites. Yep, bleak but beautifully written - and we visited Iceland last summer so it was good to imagine the setting.

Flight Patterns by Barbara kingsolver is quite bleak, and one of my favourites. But Demon Copperhead was magnificent- and it was all the easier to read all that bleakness because I knew the ending in advance.

I’ve got the Poisonwood Bible sitting on the top of my TBR pile but might need a quick diversion into Jeeves and Wooster first 😂

I liked these ones (I think my taste is very different from yours so have only suggested the ones that are more up your end of the spectrum - won’t be offended if you think I’ve got it wildly wrong).

Being Dead by Jim Crace
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
On the Beach by Nevill Shute
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Possession by A S Byatt (my all-time favourite - I’m not sure you’d like it based on what you’ve mentioned but I couldn’t not put it on the list)

I also liked The Safekeep this summer. Made me cross in the first half but came together really well.

The Safekeep
Fundamentally
Heart the Lover (or others by Lily King)
Creation Lake (which I think is a bit marmite but I loved it)

I also loved My Puny Sorrows, and everything by Elizabeth Strout

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (set in Belfast at the height of The Troubles) and Matrix by Lauren Groff (set in 12th century abbey/priory)

Late to the party here, but if you like Sarah Waters, you might like Bridget Collins.

Literary, a bit bleak but absorbing reads?

I'd suggest:
All Among the Barley - Melissa Harrison
The People's Act of Love - James Meek
Burntcoat - Sarah Hall
The Stone Angel - Margaret Laurence (and anything else of hers too)