well written books for me suggestions please

[meemee]

i read a lot of non fiction.

but i really do enjoy fiction a lot. however its very  hard for me to find really well written books - where the language is just so beautiful. 

i recently found a book that i cried over because the language was sooo beautiful - The elegance of the hedgehog by muriel barbery. i was shocked recently to discover it was a translation from french. the translator Alison Anderson did a fantastic job. 

gosh she is a kid too. born in 69.

i need some good quality fiction.

suggestions please?!!!

[Owen'nZoe]

The beauty of language is so subjective, but I'll take a stab at it with some of the books I love for their language. This is a mix of English-language books and lit-in-trans.

- Anything by Tatiana Tolstaya (from Russian)

- Desert Memories by Ariel Dorfman (from Spanish - this is non-fiction, about miners in the Chilean desert, but it reads like fiction - a wonderful book with haunting imagery)

- Snow by Orhan Pamuk (from Turkish) (I've heard from native Turkish speakers that the language in the original Turkish is clumsy and clunky - but in English? Gorgeous. The book is very slow moving, though, so if you want something with a lively pace, this isn't it.)

- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (from Spanish)

- The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov (from Russian)

- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (English)

-The Commoner  by John Burnham Schwartz (English - I wouldn't say either this book or the previous are great books, but the language and imagery in each is beautiful.)

Well, that's my go at it, mostly lit in trans, I guess. I hope you find something you like. :)

Edited by Owen'nZoe - 9/7/11 at 8:58am

[ollyoxenfree]

Hey, DD is reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'll have to snaffle it from her when she is done, thanks for the review. 

I hesitate to make recommendations, since I haven't read it and so it can't guide my suggestions, but how about J.M. Coetzee?

I enjoy reading Michael Ondaatje, but unlike most people I preferred In the Skin of the Lion to The English Patient. I think he has a new novel out now. 

[meemee]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree 

I hesitate to make recommendations, since I haven't read it and so it can't guide my suggestions, but how about J.M. Coetzee?

oh i am breathless. someone else who knows who he is. i love his books and have read most of them. my particular fav. is the life and times of Michael K. i think its my all time fav. cant say why - but that book, the writing and content moves me deeply. my copy is falling to pieces. 

TY OnZ thanks for the suggestions. there are some i havent read or am unfamiliar from your list. 

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree 

Hey, DD is reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'll have to snaffle it from her when she is done, thanks for the review. 

I hesitate to make recommendations, since I haven't read it and so it can't guide my suggestions, but how about J.M. Coetzee?

I enjoy reading Michael Ondaatje, but unlike most people I preferred In the Skin of the Lion to The English Patient. I think he has a new novel out now. 

Ahhh...we're all on the same page, because I was thinking Coetzee, too, but I've been a little tired of his dirty old man shtick lately. ;)

Let us know what you pick to read and whether you end up liking it!
 

[hazeldust]

I am very picky about fiction. Sometimes I get halfway through and have to stop because the writing is just so blah that I can't finish. I am reading The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah. Its set during ww2. Its about a little boy named Raj living in poverty with his mother, two brothers, and an abusive father. 'An older man gives voice and remembrance to his younger self, bringing to vivid life a childhood marked by brutality, separation, and death, but also cunning, connection, and survival.' Rick Simonson, from the back book cover. This book is so beautiful, the writing is amazing.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe 

Ahhh...we're all on the same page, because I was thinking Coetzee, too, but I've been a little tired of his dirty old man shtick lately. ;)

LOL, I know what you mean. Isn't it awful when there's a disconnect between the writing and the actual content of a book...it makes me more than a little antsy. I haven't actually read any Coetzee since Disgrace, although I have Diary of a Bad Year in my TBR pile.  

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree 

LOL, I know what you mean. Isn't it awful when there's a disconnect between the writing and the actual content of a book...it makes me more than a little antsy. I haven't actually read any Coetzee since Disgrace, although I have Diary of a Bad Year in my TBR pile.  

Too funny - Disgrace is the last one I've read, too. It's a great book, but I think that is the one that did me in! ;)
 

[swede]

If you liked the Elegance of the Hedgehog , I think you might like "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"  It has the same feel.

[tcorbs]

I would suggest "The Sixth Extinction" an environmental novel by D. Leonard Freeston. Publisher's Weekly stated "“Canadian Freeston’s first novel shares many traits with the work of such grand adventure writers as Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, including … outsized human figures and animals of heroic proportions; and improbable but entertaining quests.”

[ferra]

Snowflower and the Secret Fan. I loved that book.