Looking for a substantial literary novel to get lost in

[amoamas]

I have a very rare week to myself coming up, and I'd be grateful for recommendations for a nice thick book to take with me. I don't mind if it's a classic or contemporary fiction, maybe 400 pages or more so I can really get into it.

I have enjoyed: There are rivers in the sky by Elif Shafak, The safekeep by Yael van der Wouden, The hare with amber eyes by Edmund de Waal, Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel, the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake, the Boudica series by Manda Scott, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, Orlando by Virginia Wolf. I've read most of the main classics but happy to explore some of the more unusual ones.

I don't enjoy: sci fi, "just" romance, very sad stories or anything that's unrelentingly grim, "light" reading (I want something to get lost in), politics.

Any recommendations gratefully received, TIA.

Have you read anything by Barbara Kingsolver or Kate Atkinson?

This Little Life.
It’ll stay with you a long time! It’s worth it but you’ll totally get lost in it and a week is perfect.

Oh just saw you don’t want anything grim or sad, I missed that bit when you said you liked Shuggie Bain!!

This Thing of Darkness: Harry Thompson

Damon Copperhead might fit the bill !

The Secret History by Donna Tart
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
Restoration by Rose Tremain
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
Cuddy by Benjamin Myers

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth

The one that immediately sprang to mind for me was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, a wonderful novel about three generations of a Korean family in Japan across the early to late 20th century . It’s a fantastic read, beautifully written, very moving and I felt like I learned a lot about a part of history I had not previously known anything about.

The Sunne in Splendour - about Richard III

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier

Although may not be quite long enough. But are both excellent reads.

Good People by Patmeena Sabit is a brilliant read.

The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies

Seconding these.

Balkan and Levant trilogies by Olivia Manning

Making Love: A Conspiracy of the Heart, by Marius Brill
An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Iain Pears (but not his detective novels)
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

“We begin at the end” and “All the colours of the dark” both by Chris Whitaker. I loved them

I'd absolutely echo "Pachinko" and "Demon Copperhead"

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series is brilliant too - read them in chronological order, not necessarily publication order. The quality does drop around book four I think, but still a series to get lost in.

"The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton is a real tome to get lost in over a week. I really regret not having saved this book to devour over a Christmas period.

I found "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" a bit hard going in the middle but it might be a good one to lose yourself in over a week.

Anything and everything by Donna Tartt and Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche.

Personally, I can't stand Hilary Mantel's books.

I suggest Burial Rites by Hannah Kent as well as anything by Sarah Waters. Both very compelling writers.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
or
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy

Lots of great recommendations here. I'd also add
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber

I was also going to say Barbara Kingsolver.

Also recommend the Trojan wars trilogy by Pat Barker - although it is rather depressing but it’s wonderfully written.

Wild Swans, if you haven’t read it already.

The Goldfinch, Donna Tart
The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
1Q84, Murakami
The Luminaries, (author escapes me)
everything by Matt Haig
and one more vote for One Hundred Years of Solitude

Oh also Lanark by Alasdair Gray. It’s subtitled a life in four parts. The first part may have a sort of sci fi feel (but it is literary fiction) but the middle two sections which are the bulk of the book are not. Even if you find the first part strange (it is) don’t let that put you off, it’s a brilliant book.

Oh, you need Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence, without a doubt. PERFECT for what you describe.

The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende is an oldie but goody.