Hello,

I'm nmot sure if this is the right forum to post this, but I figured it was as good as any.

I'm looking for contemporary fiction where the setting is England. I've been scouring the net and googling the subject, but I'm either not typing in the right search terms or I just have really bad luck!

I'm just looking for anything. As long as there's no sexual violence and it's fiction set in England, I'm willing to take a peek at it.

I'll say thanks in advance!

Natalie

Sometimes it helps to think of authors from England - the settings are often in their country.

Here are a few I've thought of:

Jane Austen, E. M. Forster, the Brontes, Thomas Hardy - classic fiction

Elizabeth George, Deborah Crombie, Kate Kingsbury - mystery fiction

Ian McEwan, Kate Atkinson, Iris Murdoch, Alan Bennett, John Banville, Kate Grenville, Alan Bradley, William Trevor, Julian Fellowes, Jane Green,   - contemporary fiction

The Thirteenth Tale - Setterfield (I didn't care for this but it was very popular)

Philippa Gregory, Edward Rutherford, Alison Weir, Sharon Kay Penman, Emma Donoghue - historical fiction

Thanks for the suggestions. Will definitely check them out!

Natalie

Natalie:  Unless you're looking for a book about white Brits, take a look at White Teeth by Zadie Smith.  It's a first novel by a Jamaican woman who moved to England, as so many "colonials" seem to have done in recent years, and it's set in a colorful section of London called (I believe) Camden.  It's where the different ethnic groups have congregated and sometimes clash and sometimes cooperate, in ways that are sometimes tragic and sometimes comic.  Since this debut novel, Smith has gone on to a couple more novels, at least----The Autograph Man, and On Beauty.   I enjoyed the book a lot, because I've dealt with immigrants (to the USA) for a number of years, and I have seen the "melting pot" in action, the way Smith describes it.  Another good writer about immigrants  to "the Motherland" (England, or the USA, usually) is Bharati Mukherjee.

Thanks for the other suggestions as well. I'll admit I had no specific race in mind. I just wanted contemporary fiction set in England. I got interested in reading books like this because of Harry Potter. When the series ended, I simply wanted more fiction set in this location. She really did a good job of sucking me in! Lol.

Thanks again,

Natalie

Well, it's not England, it's Ireland, but you might enjoy Maeve Binchy.  Her big juicy reads make you feel like you are right there in the community; they are warm, chatty and full of interesting people.  Much of her stuff is set in 50's and 60's, her later books are more up to date.

Cheers,

Margaret