15 thick books that are worth your time

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Exciting stories, vivid characters, philosophical reflections and adventures - for those who are not afraid of voluminous works.

1. "Swing Time" by Zadie Smith

The English writer Zadie Smith created a novel about a generation devoid of heroes. Not because the heroes are not ugly, but simply because there has never been a need for them. The humane age gives rise to a sluggish existence of people: he was born, lived boringly and just as boringly went to the forefathers. Even swing - a hot dance - has become commonplace and lost its novelty.

The 510-page novel challenges the inflated conceit of people: who we are compared to eternity and time itself, and whether we have any right or opportunity to be heroes and be proud of ourselves.

2. "Little Life", Chania Yanagihara

The voluminous work (1,020 pages) by the American writer was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015. In the center of the story are four friends, their relationships and problems. At first glance, this is the most ordinary life, but in it, as often happens, there is much hidden. And it is this invisible to prying eyes that determines the behavior of the heroes of the novel. The main idea of the story is that you can run away from circumstances, but you cannot run away from yourself.

This romance is the anti-American dream of a protracted growing up and the disappointment that followed. Life can be filled with pain and suffering, but we cannot do anything about it, the author believes.

3. "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

The first novel (710 pages) by American writer Donna Tartt became a world bestseller. The plot captures from the first pages: 19-year-old Richard comes to a small college to study ancient Greek. His new friends are adorable - relaxed, smart, well-read and incredibly passionate about ancient history. However, the cheerful company of students breaks up due to an unexpected murder. Many years later, the protagonist recalls his youth, and his confession gradually turns into a creepy thriller.

A brilliant novel is actually more than just a detective story or a psychological thriller. This is a story about conscience, fear of punishment and the choice of each person between good and evil.

4. "Sinlessness" by Jonathan Franzen

The novel (780 pages) is called a modern American epic by critics, spanning continents and decades. The main character, a young American named Pip, is busy looking for herself and her father, whom she has not known since birth. The influence of an eccentric mother did not break the girl and did not turn her into a weak-willed doll. Pip looks ahead boldly and is ready for unexpected discoveries.

The book has everything that will interest the reader: intrigue, surprises, complex metaphors, humor, tragedy and love. The author's attempt to show modern society without embellishment and enthusiasm was quite successful.

5. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Case by Joelle Dicker

The novel (610 pages) by Joel Dicker immediately fell in love with readers all over the world. The main character, American novelist Markus Goldman, in search of inspiration turns to his teacher, also a writer, Harry Quebert. The latter is unexpectedly accused of murder 30 years ago. Marcus begins his own investigation to help justify the teacher.

The advantages of the work include a simple language, a dynamic plot with intrigues, secrets, mental disorders and a love line. This is the first book in a series of stories about the adventures of Markus Goldman. Here is the second novel.

6. "Citadel", Archibald Cronin

The novel (500 pages) is considered the most famous work of the Scottish writer Archibald Cronin. The story centers on the story of a physician facing a moral dilemma. On the one hand, he needs money and rich clients. On the other hand, it is important for the hero to stay in harmony with his own conscience. The novel is based on Cronin's own medical practice, faced with medical corruption.

The novel touches on serious topics and asks each reader the question of the importance of dignity, self-respect and honesty in a world where connections and money rule.

7. "Luminaries", Eleanor Cutton

New Zealand writer won the Booker Prize for the novel (980 pages). The story is set in New Zealand during the gold rush of the second half of the 19th century. The main characters symbolically correspond to the signs of the zodiac and the planets that are used in astrology. They pass through the novel in the same way as celestial bodies move relative to the Sun and each other. Here are secrets, and murders, and greed, and love, and everything that attracts and repels people in the real world.

The main highlight of the novel lies in its multi-layered nature: partly it is a narration of ghosts, partly a detective story, and sometimes even a thriller. This unique piece will certainly appeal to fans of large-scale items.

8. "Kamo Gryadeshi", Henryk Sienkiewicz

The classic of Polish literature Henryk Sienkiewicz created a novel (680 pages) timeless. He described the grandiose events of bygone eras and skillfully highlighted the numerous facets of the characters of the main characters. The story is centered on the love story of the Roman aristocrat Marcus Vinicius for the beautiful Christian woman Lygia, persecuted by the authorities for her religious beliefs.

The novel became an example of the epic genre, and in 1905 Senkevich received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his brainchild.

9. "My Children", Guzel Yakhina

The second book (490 pages) by the novice writer Guzeli Yakhina is set on the Volga, where there were colonies of German settlers in the 1920s and 1940s. The main character, a Volga German, school teacher Jacob Ivanovich Bach lives as a forced hermit, brings up a daughter, teaches children and observes how great events are happening in the country. Despite the hardships and hardships, Jacob Bach retains faith in people and the good they do.

A vivid novel, filled with carefully written details and deafening Volga expanse, conquers with its sincerity from the very first page.

10. "Sakhalin Island", Eduard Verkin

The future is not very pleasant. The main heroine of a dystopian novel (490 pages) goes to Sakhalin to collect material - just like Chekhov in his time. The island was and remains a hard labor, this time Japanese, since the world after the end of the Third World War is now ruled by Asians. The journey of a brave girl is overgrown with adventures of varying degrees of danger.

A post-apocalyptic novel in the best traditions of the Strugatskys contains everything you need to please from the very first page: an intriguing plot, a love story, action, complex futurological constructions and serious philosophical reasoning about what led the world to such a future.

11. "Bathyscaphe", Andrey Ivanov

Critics compare Andrei Ivanov to Nabokov: the author also lives and works not in Russia, but writes about it with the same European polish and easy pretentiousness. In 2013, Ivanov was awarded the prestigious Nose Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the Russian Booker.

The novel (448 pages) plunges readers to the bottom of life in a thick-walled bathyscaphe. There, on the other side of the glass, are floating strange creatures leading an incomprehensible life. At some point, the thought comes that the reader himself is not at all different from those creatures that cause his sincere amazement.

12. "Abode", Zakhar Prilepin

Zakhar Prilepin needs no introduction. He is a well-known Russian writer, publicist, philologist, musician and public figure. The novel (780 pages) describes the life of 27-year-old Artyom in Solovki, a legendary special purpose camp. This is a difficult story of human relationships, friendship and betrayal, good and evil within one country. The plot unfolds against the background of the magnificently described nature of the Solovetsky archipelago.

Readers will appreciate the clear language used to describe the characters and the truthfully conveyed atmosphere of the time.

13. "The haze is falling on the old steps", Alexander Chudakov

Alexander Chudakov - Russian philologist, literary critic and specialist in Chekhov's work - for his only novel (720 pages) posthumously received the "Russian Booker of the Decade" award. The main character is a historian who tells others about life in pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary Russia, people and their influence on the country and history. Together with his interlocutors, the hero reflects on primordially Russian themes that worried the minds of many Russian writers: who is to blame and what to do.

Critics are inclined to think that the novel is autobiographical. But in fact, everything is much larger - this is a work about all of us, about our past and future.

14. "Jacob's Ladder", Lyudmila Ulitskaya

The novel (736 pages) is based on correspondence from the author's family archive. In the center of the work is the fate of Yakov Osetsky, an intellectual of the late 19th century, and his granddaughter Nora, a theater artist and a man of free views. There is an invisible staircase between the two characters and their times - just like in the dream of the biblical Jacob. With him, she connected the earth and the sky.

The history of generations, the history of the country and the metamorphosis of characters in time and space - the novel captures and excites the imagination.

15. Nyokk, Nathan Hill

Nyokk is a creature from Norse mythology that lures people with its ghostly beauty and then destroys them without pity or regret. The heroes of the novel (832 pages) each suffer from their own ghost, which sometimes beckons, then repels, then throws them into the abyss. The main character experiences the betrayal of his mother. She, in turn, could not resist the onslaught of the ocean of life.

Many tragedies of various scales are surprisingly intertwined in the book. Each reader will find a topic close to him that will not leave his heart indifferent.