I sometimes feel like I really have a gap in my reading for “very good fiction” written between the 1970s and the 1990s. Good books that maybe didn’t become a modern piece of literature but is also a bit “more” than just the mass market bestselling horror and thriller writers.
Really hoping for the lesser known ones as opposed to say, The Godfather or The Pillars of the Earth.
I’ve been lucky to discover the following authors:
* Guy Gavriel Kay (so many, but particularly loved Tigana, Lions of Al Rassan and the Sarantine Mosaic) – **1980s to now**
* Caleb Carr (The Alienist, Angel of Mercy) – **1990s**
* John Berendt (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) – **1990s**
* Ian Pears – (An Instance of the Fingerpost) – **1990s**
* Jean Auel (loved Clan of the Cave Bear, but could not get through the series) – **1980s**
In terms of genre fiction, I am not a fan of sci-fi, high fantasy, and romance.
by WeddingElly
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This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff is good. Church of the Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns is one I enjoyed. True Confessions by John Gregory Dunne is also great.
Ruth Rendell’s (writing as Barbara Vine) *A Dark-Adapted Eye* and *A Fatal Inversion*
Ian McEwan, The Innocent
{{The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe}} is very of its time, but entirely engrossing in its exploration of money, power, and race in 1980s NYC.
{{The Passion by Jeanette Winterson}} is not one I see discussed often, but it is a lovely poem of a book and I recommend it to anyone.
Dan Chaon. “Ill Will” and “Await Your Reply”