01-15-2008, 07:59 PM
I read a fair amount of historical fiction, so you might like some of these authors:
Milan Kundera writes a lot of Czech fiction. Most of his novels are based around the Soviet invasion and the Communist era of Central Europe. My favorites of his are The Joke, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. His writing is rather dark and philosophical, so these aren't light reads.
Roddy Doyle writes a lot of Irish fiction. It's usually really fun and bouncy, no matter what the subject is. A Star Called Henry is my favorite of his. It's about an Irish boy growing up in the Irish Independence movement. I just suggest that you don't read the other books in this series, because they completely suck. But some other good novels by Doyle are The Woman Who Walked into Doors and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
Naguib Mahfouz is amazing, too. He's an Egyptian Nobel Prize winner. His work covers practically Egypt's entire history, as well as a lot of Biblical sideplots. Children of Gebelawi was the first book of his that I read, and Palace Walk, The Cairo Trilogy, and Chitchat on the Nile are also good.
And a few other random books:
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence
The Historian by Kostova
The Persian Boy Mary Renault
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