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.

More votes for Tennant of Wildfell Hall or Half A Yellow Sun and Burial Rites - I love Hannah Kent's books. I enjoyed we Begin At The End too but it's a bit daft.

First of the Cazalet books.

Less literary but satisfying you could work through the Rotters Club series or a Roddy Doyle trilogy. I plan to get round to the Paula Spencer books one day, I rember thinking well of The Woman Who Walked Into Doors.

Or one of Wally Lamb's massive novels. They are really good to get stuck into (avoid We Are Water maybe as a character is a pedophile. I made the mistake of listening to some of the audio book and he made me feel ill.)

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara . My goodness, if you want to get lost, this is a great one

I'm only 200 pages in so this might be a premature recommendation but I'm loving The Whalebone Theatre right now.

Eccentric characters in an isolated sea-side Manor house in 1920s. It's about 500 pages so good chunky book.

The writing is sensory and quite funny in places. Its really gripped me.

Lonesome Dove of course!!!!

a little life is one long layer of misery with several more layers of misery thrown in for good measure 😂

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.
Margaret Forster dairy of an ordinary woman

lots of great recommendations by some kindred spirits here.

If you’ve never read wild swans (cos it’s a great tome!) then now could be a good time.

I second Wild Swans if you've never read it.

Excuse my grammar…am on phone. I am very well read really!

The Strike detective novels are great for that (JK Rowling under pseudonym Robert Galbraith.)
I loved Demon Copperhead (though bits are indeed grim - it’s better than it starts) and am just reading and thoroughly enjoying John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (family saga set in the US in the late nineteenth century onwards.)

Editing to add: I saw a couple of people recommended Pachinko - that is brilliant. As is Wild Swans, as is The Tenant of Wildfel Hall. I also recently read North and South which was excellent.

Thirding! In particular the bean trees trilogy for Barbara Kingsolver and Behind the Scenes at the Museum for Kate Atkinson.

Also Margaret Atwood Life Before Man - it's not one of the dystopian ones - and The Edible Woman and Lady Oracle.

Second Lonesome Dove.
Probably the most I’ve ever enjoyed a novel. And I’ve read a few!

Also, because I appear to have ruled out the men..!

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - disturbing and engrossing, I can still remember some of the lines from it and I read it at least 30 years ago.
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - amazing how many people have heard of it but haven't read it and frankly even if you have it deserves a re-reading!
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - they're making a film now with Meryl Streep apparently.

Any factual books by Katie Hickman, she’s is very good writer and covers fascinating subjects, Daughters of Britannia and Courtesans are both excellent
Also Liza Dalby’s books about Geishas
Kate Summerscale writes good historical true crime

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Middlemarch by George Eliot

Oh if you want a real doorstop the Edward Rutherford books are a good read but huge.
I’ve read London, there’s also Sarum, China, New York, Paris. All fictional, long history of place novels.

I also came on to recommend Barbara Kingsolver - not Demon Copperhead, which whilst brilliant, is quite grim - but The Poisonwood Tree

Swallows - Natsuo Kirino

The Far Pavillions, I think Marion Keyes.
totally addictive. I had to sneak in chapters once I started it without a week off. Beautiful love story

Maggie Ô Farrell - The Marriage Portrait
Caledonian road - This works so well as a fully immersive experience but borders on political. It's a UK Corrections in many ways.

Going to second A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Another vote for This Thing of Darkness.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (a truly perfect holiday read in my opinion)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Austerlitz

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, completely compelling

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - maybe not literary enough but a very enjoyable read

the God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Another vote for The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt! I love Russian literature for stuff you can really get lost in, so also second The Master and Margarita and Anna Karenina if you’ve not read them.

I agree with so many of these. If you want to go old school, I can highly recommend ‘Gone with the Wind’ by Margaret Mitchell

Op won't be able t do anything else if she takes Fingersmith!