Anubiel Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 There are people from all over the world on this forum. So, if you could recommend one author from your country, who would it be? From Norway, Jostein Gaarder. He's most famous for Sophie's world, but has also written other wonderful stories: The Christmas Mystery ( I loved this as a kid), Vita Brevis, The Solitaire Mystery and Through a glass, darkly. PS: Hopefully this will provide me with plenty of reading material for the holidays! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronn Stone Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 GRRM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazzlebane Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Bronn Stone beat me to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 From my hometown: Joan Didion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackaxx Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Tim Winton, such greats as Cloudstreet, The Riders and Dirt Music. Very Australian, except, not shirmp on the barbie cliched wanker Australian, so a lot of people probably won't recognize it as being so. Of course, no one from outside Australia has probably read him yet anyway, nor will they on a fantasy type board. Anyway, hands down my favorite author. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Bandito Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Stephen King lives a few miles away from me. I could recommend 40% of his work. He is both overrated and underrated. All about King Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diva Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Bah. not a fan of Tim Winton at all. however I can highly recommend the fantasy works of Glenda Larke, they are well written with a fantastic setting. I met Glenda at a sci-fi / fantasy convention, and was introduced to her books then. Everyone I have recommended them to (who has read them) has loved them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebenstone Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Bah. not a fan of Tim Winton at all. however I can highly recommend the fantasy works of Glenda Larke, they are well written with a fantastic setting. I met Glenda at a sci-fi / fantasy convention, and was introduced to her books then. Everyone I have recommended them to (who has read them) has loved them. Well, fantasy-wise, the closest is Elizabeth Haydon and thankfully I don't work with her husband anymore, so I don't have to be nice... I'd probably say Mary Karr, Aaron Sorkin and for some time Tobias Wolf.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 From just down the road from my hometown (although he's a Davis transplant): Kim Stanley Robinson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caligula_K Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 We've gots Erikson, Bakker and Kay here in Canadia, three authors who I love with a fiery passion. Alas, the Canadian literati are too intelligent, good looking and much too big pussies to pay attention to any fantasy novel, no matter how well written, so they're not well known at all around here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaceBannon42 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 From Minnesota, we have John M. Ford: Pick up both the Dragon Waiting, and The Last Hot Time. Lois McMaster Bujold: Chalion series and the Miles Vorksagian books. Neil Gaiman : American Gods, Neverwhere... OK his British, but he lives here. Also Gordon Dickson and Poul Anderson who are deceseased used to live here. Walter Jon Williams and Steven Brust also used to live here. Joel Rosenberg :Guardians of the Flame is also a local. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeanMrMustard Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Xray-- You're from cowtown? That must have sucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colder Hands Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 james joyce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H von T Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 I went to high school with Jeff Vandermeer. Harry Crews, but I don't really like his stuff. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lived pretty close by. I know there's others, but I'm drawing a blank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decius Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 That will be a long list, because Austria has many and had (when half of Central Europe was part of it) even more authors I like very much. Post 1919, with their main work after 1950: H.C. Artmann Ingeborg Bachmann Thomas Bernhard Milo Dor Franzobel Barbara Frischmuth Karl-Markus Gauß Norbert Gstrein Wolf Haas Peter Handke Ernst Jandl Michael Köhlmeier Robert Menasse Felix Mitterer (although he mostly does theater) Christine Nöstlinger (excellent children's books) Mira Lobe (also children's books) Robert Schindel Robert Schneider Gerhard Roth Franz Schuh Alfred Komarek Empire/Pre-WW2 (including authors from the Kronländer/Hungary): Heimito von Doderer Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Franz Grillparzer Ödön von Horvath Hugo von Hofmannsthal Franz Kafka Egon Erwin Kisch Robert Musil Johann Nestroy Alfred Polgar Ferdinand Raimund Joseph Roth Rainer Maria Rilke Adalbert Stifter Friedrich Torberg Karl Kraus Stefan Zweig If I had to recommend one it would probably be Franz Kafka Edit: this board doesn't like Umlaute it seems... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobodymN Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 If I were going ot limit it (and I am) to one from the past and one current, I'd start with Mishima Yukio, who I think is among the best writers in the 20th century. His Sea of Fertility quartet get a lot of pub (don't get me wrong it'sdamn good) but moatly because the final pages were turned in right before he stormed a military compound and commited ritual suicide (seppuku) on national televesion. But he really doesn't have a book not worth reading from Confessions of a Mask , The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Forbidden Colors, and his short fiction. A powerful writer, who when I read always just strikes me as a man who was born with something to say, and when he said it he had no other reason to be. A very interesting author to read about, and one I'm fascinated about when hearing my family talk about him and how he was regarded as a prodigy and literally too talented to walk amongst us peons. For contemporary, I think there is little doubt that Ishiguro Kazuo is an author that is never not one of 10 best writers of fiction in he world for more than the 20 years. A Japanese born author, although a London resident, I think his Remains of Day is one of few novels in the discussion of best piece of fiction in the second half of the 20th century. His latest, Never Let Me Go should have won the Booker this year (was runner-up) and other authors would die to be able to claim as their magnum-opus his other books like An Artist of the Floating World or When We Were Orphans. I used powerful writer to describe Mishima Yukio, and Ishiguro is to, but in a different manner, his writing exudes powers without seeming ever to have to flex, thus he never strains, he is never out of control. As a reader, it's just awesome to see somebody so capable at their craft, and the term master gets thrown around a bit, but Ishiguro is a legitimate master when regarding current writers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koudoulis Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 I havent read that many greek writers and would recommend only a few of them , but I think I ll stick to just one: Nikos Kazantzakis He wrote a variety of books from novels to travelling books and papers exploring theology , human nature and many more My personal favorites are : The Greek Passion ( Its original greek title is "Christ recrucified" ) The Last Temptation of Christ ( Made into a movie by Martin Scorsece , actors Willem Dafoe Hervey Keitell .....) Zorba the Greek ( also made into a movie but the book is sooooo much better-not that the movie is bad) Captain Michael (havent located an english translation for this book ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telamonios Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 I havent read that many greek writers and would recommend only a few of them , but I think I ll stick to just one: Nikos Kazantzakis He wrote a variety of books from novels to travelling books and papers exploring theology , human nature and many more My personal favorites are : The Greek Passion ( Its original greek title is "Christ recrucified" ) The Last Temptation of Christ ( Made into a movie by Martin Scorsece , actors Willem Dafoe Hervey Keitell .....) Zorba the Greek ( also made into a movie but the book is sooooo much better-not that the movie is bad) Captain Michael (havent located an english translation for this book ) KALIMERA KOUDOULIS. POS PANE TA KEFIA Not that many (modern) greek authors have seen their works translated to other languages I'm afraid. The ones koudoulis mentions are definetely essential works for greek literature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Scottish authors: I'm assuming I don't need to rec Banks or MacLeod, who are both very local to me. Instead I'm going for Alasdair Gray, a truly wonderful writer and artist with a real depth of imagination. I love this guy. For readers here I recommend 'Lanark', his most famous work, which has fantasy elements and a touch of magic realism... Oh, and here's his blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galactus Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Mormont: As a Scotsman you can also take credit for most of the british "enlightenment" Swedish authors heh? I've not actually read much swedish stuff (!) but for children's books no one, and I say *no one* beats Astrid Lindgren (though she is almost better as a storyteller than an author, the audiobooks with her reading her own stories are amazing). .... I've just noticed that I really haven't read much swedish fiction that left an impression on me. Non fiction is a different matter altogether of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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