Big fat juicy sagas

[WiltonGal]

I am re-reading some Penny Vincenzi novels and thoroughly enjoying them. I think I have read all the popular saga books (one I have yet to read is The Chamomile Lawn) but it got me thinking….nobody writes (or wants to publish more like) these big fat sagas anymore. I know fashions wax and wane but wondering if our addiction to tech has meant that fat books like these are no longer seen as viable?

Are there any authors still writing these types of books?

If you want to read big tomes of books, I'd recommend trying John Irving.

A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Cider House Rules, A Widow for One Year, The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire.

They're not romantic blockbusters, they're quirky but very much relationship-based, whether that's romantic or platonic or familial - or adopted family.

Nobody has mentioned Wild Swans Three Daughters of Cinema by Jung Chang (1991) not fiction as based on a true story but definitely a must read & own a hard copy forever in my eyes.

Or on a similar note, but fictional, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989)
The Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Gosh is also worth a read. (2008-15)

The Outlander books by Diana Gabledon. Started in the early 90's and still going. Cant wait for number 10 to be out.

Yes! I’ve reread these so many times. Saw her at a book festival yesterday which was wonderful.

Yes, Slade House is so well-crafted it seems like a much bigger story. So a young woman in that is the sister of a character in The Bone Clocks, they are descendants of a captain in another of Mitchell's novels, ... and so on. But, it isn't necessary to know all this, or read them in order.

Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies ...

Think I’m going to have a happy kindle shopping spree later…

She should have stopped at four. EJH wrote the fifth Cazalet chronicle when she was ninety years old; I don't want to sound ageist because I'm not, but in the fifth one she sounded confused. Characters had completely changed, she seemed to have forgotten what ages they were supposed to be and she frequently talks about Louise's "long blonde hair" when in the first one she was always portrayed as dark haired and dark eyed. Barely a mention was made of the fact that Louise was mid thirties, divorced and the mother of a son - she was still portrayed as a teenager.

I may have given this too much thought!

Anyway, otherwise I loved them.

Someone else has mentioned Susan Howatch. Cashelmara and Penmarric are fantastic particularly if you like medieval history. Her characters' story arcs mimic the lives of medieval kings and queens.

Oh and the trilogy she did about the Welsh princes. Fantastic.

Yes to Susan Howatch. The Wheel of Fortune is similar to Cashelmara and Penmarric as it's based on medieval royals, and she also wrote a duology based on Caesar and Cleopatra.

But then she found religion and has focused on novels about the CofE ever since!

I’ve just read another thread that reminded me about Edward Rutherfurd. I have read Russka which tells the story of Russia from prehistory to almost modern day. The characters through the timelines are linked. He’s written books about London and Paris and loads more.

That trilogy is wonderful but so, so sad!

I used to love Penny Vincenzi, you're making me want to reread The Spoils of Time!
Celia Brayfield wrote some great ones too like Pearls and The Prince.

À Fine Balance is my favourite ever book @MaryasBible. It stays with you. Some great leads on here. I am going to have a great Autumn and Winter of reading.

It's a great book. I read his three novels while travelling around the north of India!

Some of these have been mentioned I think, & will have been read by you & others - but if you haven't read them also have a look at:

• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith

A few are also on this list, which I found when I was looking for books to buy my mum for Christmas & her birthday (they're two days apart!).

My aunt, who lived in Canada & wrote short stories, was an avid reader & always introduced mum to new authors & titles. She passed away a few years ago, sadly - so now I hunt through the New York Times & other book recommendation/bestseller lists from Canadian/American sources.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/family-saga-books/

The list in this link is quite something!

Came here to suggest Wild Swans but I see someone's beaten me to it - great book (or was when I read it forever ago).

A good minimal-brain-power-required saga is Never Look Back by Lesley Pearse. There are definitely some "FGS give the main character a break" moments but lots happens and I found the 1000ish pages passed pretty speedily!

Shuggie Bain 😭😭😭😭
this is one of my favourite books of all time, but I can’t put myself through the emotions of reading it again
maybe when I am in a better place myself

it will never leave you, it had a profound impact on me

Lots of good suggestions here. I would swerve Santa montefiore, really badly written, horrible racial stereotypes and not researched at all. Penny V and Jilly C might have done bonkbusters but they are very well written. Not like ACTAR. I find Ken Follet really horribly depressing.

I’d agree on Poldark and for more modern would go to Barbara Kingsolver Demon Copperhead as a standalone; A little Hatred Joe Abercrombie for good saga fantasy; or Love After Love by Ingrid Perseus for a standalone family epic.

I've just finished The Man Who Made Husbands jealous the 4th in the set by Jilly Cooper, 7 books to go! Re readi g again because I watched Rivals! But OP asked about new books and I feel the same! A novel of 300 pages goes so quickly! Not many new novels are long! When I go to book shops, one of my many criterias is that they have to be long novels!

I think you might enjoy Susan Lewis.

Hardacre by C L Skelton is excellent, and very saga-y. The book is the basis for the TV series but they have almost nothing in common plot-wise. There's a sequel too.

Sara Donati's Into the Wilderness series has six books set in the US at the same time as Outlander (from memory, Claire appears in one of them) and they were all on KU the last time I had it. Sadly I got involved with Ice Planet Barbarians and then my cheap subscription ended :-)

I'd forgotten about Into the Wilderness. IIRC the hero is the son of Hawkeye and Cora from Last of the Mohicans and yes, Claire does guest star in one of the books. Can't remember if she uttered "Jesus H Roosevelt Christ" when she did though!

What a fantastic thread. So many wonderful books which I remember reading.😁

Jean Plaidy wrote a saga called Daughters of England under the name Philippa Carr that followed the women of a family from Tudor times to WWI. I liked them as a teenager but they're probably quite dated now and nowhere near as good as the Moorland Dynasty series for historical detail and character development. Still worth a read if you like a saga though.

Oh I LOVED these booked, i need to hunt them down, they are so so good
Carlotta springs to mind