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!