Reading slumps are usually a feeling of boredom with what I’m reading. Some aspect of the stories, settings, topics, characters or language feel too familiar. What I crave is novelty in combination with a big story that washes the little boat of my existence into a wild river.
These are some of the novels that have swept me away in the past. It’s the kind of list you’ll want to save for next time you’re at the library or browsing Amazon or killing time in a secondhand bookshop.
If you have books that fall into this category, please leave a comment.
Karin’s general purpose list for novels that transport
In no particular order:
An Unnecessary Woman Rabih Alameddine
The Bone People Keri Hulme
Knowledge of Angels Jill Paton Walsh
Agaat Marlene van Niekerk
Beloved Toni Morrison
The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desaid
The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry
The Reader Bernhard Schlink
The Shipping News E. Annie Proulx
A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara
Purple Hibiscus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A Secret History Donna Tartt
The Round House Louise Erdrich
The Door Magda Szabó
Inland Téa Obreht
The History of Love Nicole Krauss
What I loved Siri Hustvedt
White Teeth Zadie Smith
Breath Tim Winton
To The End of the Land David Grossman
Run Me to Earth Paul Yoon
The Moor’s Last Sigh Salman Rushdie
Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
The Goldfinch Donna Tartt
Saturday Ian McEwan
I know this much is true Wally Lamb
The Wall Marlen Haushofer
The Crow Road Iain Banks
The Glass Palace Amitav Ghosh
Gabe recommended your Wally Lamb pick to me during lockdown and I absolutely loved it. I mean, the topic was awful in so many ways but the writing... oooee. I see you’ve mentioned The Dictionary of Lost Words to Jacki and that’s another of my favourites from the last few years.
This isn’t quite in the same literary category but I found Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library absorbing and deep-thought-provoking. I didn’t want it to end. And it’s just occurred to me that what Gabe and I loved so much about listening to Alan Bennett reading his plays and short stories in the car was that they were a wonderful mixture of poetic prose, utterly believable dialogue, acute observation about both things and people, all washed down with his dry humour. I find myself quite besotted with him. And he is one of those rare writers whose personal life is interesting to me and relevant to my reading of his work. I want to be Alan Bennett when I grow up, I think.
Thank you! I am so delighted to have inspired this list. Some I have read (and loved - a good omen) and many I have yet to. May this be the end of my current drought. ❤️