Here’s our list so far:
“A Christmas Memory” by Truman Capote
“Eveline” by James Joyce
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Year Down Yonder & A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Hunger Games & Catching Fire (YA) by Suzanne Collins
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
Angel Station by Walter Jon Williams
Liaden Universe (series) by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Wheel of Time (series) by Robert Jordan
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (series) by Douglas Adams
—(I have a piece on Adams in The Art & Craft of Fiction.)
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
Generation X by Douglas Coupland
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
—(I have a piece on Cervantes in The Art & Craft of Fiction.)
Tortilla Flat & Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Rings (series) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Methusela’s Children,
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
Time Enough for Love (only the first 2/3),
The Number of the Beast, &
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, all by Robert A. Heinlein
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon
Olive Kitteridge & Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout
The Secret History by Donna Taart
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
—(I make passing reference to the Karamazovs in The Art & Craft of Fiction, although not enough.)
Atomik Aztex by Sesshu Foster
Blood Meridian, Outer Dark, & The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Known World by Edward Jones
—(I read this—too heartbreaking for words.)
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
White Noise by Don Delillo
Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
—(Excellent example of an invisible main character who isn’t even the protagonist!)
And authors Banana Yoshimoto, Jhumpa Lhairi, Marilynne Robinson, Flannery O’Connor, and Dickens.
I can add a few, mostly genre. Of course, keep in mind that I mostly read (and write) non-fiction, so some items on this list may be useless, or worse.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra:
Don Quixote
John Steinbeck:
“Tortilla Flat”
Of Mice and Men
J.R.R. Tolkien:
Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
Robert Heinlein:
“Methusela’s Children”
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Time Enough for Love (only the first 2/3)
Number of the Beast
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruis Zafon.
These are what immediately come to mind. So many others will later come to mind that I’ll regret having not included!
Fiction:
Elizabeth Strout:
Olive Kitteridge
Abide With Me
Donna Taart:
The Secret History
J.M. Coetzee
Disgrace
Fyodor Dostoevsky:
The Brothers Karamazov
Essay Collections (do they count?):
David Foster Wallace:
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again
Jonathan Franzen:
How To Be Alone
Katha Pollitt:
Learning To Drive
Stories:
Nathan Englander:
The Relief of Unbearable Urges
Raymond Carver:
The Cathedral
Junot Diaz:
Drown
Sesshu Foster’s Atomik Aztex
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, Outer Dark, The Road
Paul Auster’s Oracle Night
David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go
Edward Jones’ The Known World
Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn
Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist
Don Delillo’s White Noise
Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son
With your S.A. background – The Bridge of San Luis Rey?
Anything by Daphne Du Maurier…specifically Rebecca
So many good ones, but some perennial favorites are:
‘Sonny’s Blues’ (novella/short story) – James Baldwin
In the Skin of the Lion – Michael Ondaatje
When We Were Orphans – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Ministry of Special Cases – Nathan Englander
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
A Bend in the River – V.S. Naipaul