Your greatest literary discovery of 09

[Daniel del Real]

I'm sure that all of ourselves have authors that a year ago we had no idea of who they were, or we did but we hadn't had the chance to read them.
This thread is to list all those good surprises for authors you haven't read and have become your favorites right now.

I'll start with some that really marked this year direction for me:


Roberto Bolaño: Doubted to include him, since I read The Savage Detectives in December last year, but his discovery had me thrilled for all the year so he has his place well deserved.
Books Read this year: The Savage Detectives, Distant Star, Amuleto, Phone Calls, Nazi Literature in Americas, Amulet.


Enrique Vila-Matas: First read this year. I had heard his name an even saw him live once or twice but never was interested in his works. Terrible mistake that I've partially fixed.
Books Read this year: Bartleby and Co., The Illustrated Assasin, A Home Forever.


Italo Calvino: Before this year I had read only one short story by him and the Cloven Viscount. Don't know where I got the idea he was tedious. I couldn't been more wrong.
Books Read this year: The Nonexisting Knight, The Baron in Trees, Difficult Loves, The Watcher.


Javier Marías: Misconceptions again. Don't know where I picked the idea he was a cheap bestseller novel writer. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Amazing writer.
Books Read this year: A Heart So White, Man of a Feeling, The Domains of the Wolf.


José Emilio Pacheco: The best poet I found this year. It took me so long to read him since he is the most acclaimed living poet in my country.
Books Read this year: The Silence of the Moon, The Battles in the Desert.


Miguel Delibes: I knew of his existance as a very awarded author, The Premio Cervantes in his showcase and the acclamation of Spanish people as his most treasured living jewell. They were right.
Books Read this year: The Road, Holy Innocents.


Paul Auster: I had seen his books on the libraries, but never captured my attention. Suddenly I decided to read one and although he's not top for some reason I can't stop reading him:
Books Read this year: The Country of Last Things, The Red Notebook, Man in the Dark, The Book of Illusions.


Georges Perec: A selection of many of you in their top 50 books ever, was a long time wait in my tbr list. A shame it had to wait so long. Probably the best book I've read this year. Not easy to find his works here, but I'll keep on searching.
Books Read this year: Life: A User's Manual


Mikhail Bulgakov: Same than Perec's, a recommendation here of many. Maybe I should listen more carefully to you guys . I'm still reading it but I'm loving it so far. Excelent book.
Books Read this year: Master and Margarita

[beelzebubbles]

British Flag here: Hilary Mantel-- I read A Place of Greater Safety, her historical novel about the French Revolution.

[Jayaprakash]

Mikhail Bulgakov here, too.

Joseph Roth

Belatedly, Margaret Atwood

Laird Barron

David Chappell's novel Dagon

I also re-discovered Nabokov, whom I'd dismissed as a skilled writer but not to my taste after reading Lolita.

Francis Wyndham

Theodor Storm

Jose Saramago

I'd read other things by these authors before, but I really got into Blackwood's John Silence stories and Hodgson's Carnacki stories this year.

A relatively new author, Sarah Hall has a great deal of promise. I raad her first three novels this year and was largely impressed, although she lets the evocative/lyrical overcome the narrative impetus at times. This is considerably less pronounced in the most recent novel I read, however.

[nnyhav]

I just posted over t'other thread the biggest surprise of the year.
Authors or Novels No One But You Has Read

But this year's explorations took me further afield in travel-lit:
Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey
Graham Greene, Travels with My Aunt
Shiva Naipaul, An Unfinished Journey
Heinrich Heine, Travel Pictures
first class all the way.

[miercuri]

I am glad I discovered D.H. Lawrence, Patricia Highsmith, Tom Stoppard, J.M. Coetzee, Roddy Doyle, Romain Gary, Patrick McCabe and even Amy Tan. I also 'redescovered' Graham Swift through Waterland. I had previously read Last Orders by him and had not been exactly impressed.

[obooki]

Juan Carlos Onetti. Now my favourite South American writer. Mostly due to someone on this site recommending him and causing me actually to read the one book I had. (Have many more now).

[Stiffelio]

The highlight from my reading year was the Japanese literature course I took in May-July. Thanks to it I discovered fantastic writers such as Natsume Soseki, Ryonosuke Akutagawa, Mori Ogai, Junichiro Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oé, and Haruki Murakami. All were new to me and I read some terrific stuff from all of them, but Oé really blew me away with the best novel I read this year, namely The Silent Cry.

[saliotthomas]

First,the years is not over yet and i still wish to do make a major discovery.
Like Yourcenar last year.

Still some good ones ,starting with Richard Yates and His Revolutionary road and lot's of American writes like Larry Brown, Jim Harrison ,Joan Didion.
The Durrell brothers but specialy Lawrence.
Bruce Chatwin was an excellent re-read and i must remember to get more of his book.
Penelop Fitzgerald and her Blue flower thanks to Beth.
Arto Paasilinna and The year of the hare was a good time and i will read more ,even if some say that it gets repetitive after a while.
Per Petterson-Out stealing Horses was great but In Siberia didn't conviced me.So i jeep is best in mind and try to forget the other.

[Bjorn]

Bolaño, like so many others. And Herta Müller. I finally got around to reading Willy Kyrklund, and will be reading a lot more of him.

Then there's a bunch that didn't quite knock me off my feet but I really liked. Lotass, Moya, Vladislavic, Tadjo, Wu Ming, Ishiguro...

[LizzySiddal]

Eduardo de Mendoza - thanks to Stewart. Haven't laughed so much in years.

[Eric]

I think that the Anglo-Welshman Charles Morgan was my greatest discovery this year. Both his novels The Judge's Story and his fine essays in Reflections in a Mirror.

Two other authors I have read very little of (a story each), but to whose works immediately gave a good feeling were the Québécoise author Anne Hébert and the Finland-Swede Johanna Holmström. But I must read more by them to confirm this intuitive opinion.

The Fleming Annelies Verbeke also shows promise, as does her compatriot Rachida Lamrabet. Again, just a story or two, but I'm looking forward to reading more.

Another short-story author I'd never heard of before is the Swede John Ajvide Lindqvist whose novella Gräns (Border) impressed me.

On the poetry front, I discovered the poetry of the rather gloomy Finland-Swede Arvid Mörne. I had heard his name a lot before, but had never read any of this work. Also, the Afrikaner D.J. Opperman, who is rather classical in his approach.

With regard to non-fiction, the best book I read this year was by Boris Johnson: The Dream of Rome.

Finally, the Norwegian author Frode Grytten, who writes excellent short-stories set in the fjords and the town of Odda. I read several, plus a novel.

[Daniel del Real]

Originally Posted by obooki

Juan Carlos Onetti. Now my favourite South American writer. Mostly due to someone on this site recommending him and causing me actually to read the one book I had. (Have many more now).

Which Onetti books have you read? I think Juntacadáveres (don't know the English translation) is an amazing novel.

Originally Posted by Stiffelio

The highlight from my reading year was the Japanese literature course I took in May-July. Thanks to it I discovered fantastic writers such as Natsume Soseki, Ryonosuke Akutagawa, Mori Ogai, Junichiro Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oé, and Haruki Murakami. All were new to me and I read some terrific stuff from all of them, but Oé really blew me away with the best novel I read this year, namely The Silent Cry.

This looks like a really cool year for you Stiffelio, very similar to my last year where I read a lot of Japanese literature and was astonished about it. Now one of my literary purposes for new year wil be to read The Silent Cry as soon as possible

[kpjayan]

Will limit to one : Andrei Makine.

[obooki]

Which Onetti books have you read? I think Juntacadáveres (don't know the English translation) is an amazing novel.

Yes, that's the one. I'm still in the middle of it. (I think perhaps I've become a little afraid of it, too). - In English, it's called "Body Snatcher".

[saliotthomas]

Originally Posted by kpjayan

Will limit to one : Andrei Makine.

Hourrayyy.

Originally Posted by obooki

Yes, that's the one. I'm still in the middle of it. (I think perhaps I've become a little afraid of it, too). - In English, it's called "Body Snatcher".

Ok you guys got me really curious over this.
I need to get it.
However right now,the only thing i can find is Jack Finney,invasion of the body snatcher.
I'll start filling my christmass list.

[john h]

Stefan Zweig for sure. I've only read "The Post Office Girl" but liked it a lot. He deserves to be much better known.

[DB Cooper]

After giving this some thought I realized I didnt really have any great (mind blowing, life altering) discoveries this year. Of course I read some excellent books but they were mostly by authors I was already quite familiar with. But in keeping with the spirit of the topic I would say that my answers are: Denis Johnson, Javier Marias, and Michel Houellebecq.

[Igu Soni]

I can think of Vikram Chandra, Naguib Mahfouz, Bao Ninh, Githa Hariharan (this one pales in front of the others).

[Liam]

Originally Posted by beelzebubbles

British Flag here: Hilary Mantel

Ditto.

A different book for me though: the incomparable Wolf Hall.

Also, American author Marilynne Robinson's novel Home: I just didn't expect it to be so mm-mm good!!! Quite a revelation.





L.

[LRiley]

It took me a long time to read but my biggest revelation this year would be David Foster Wallace and his huge novel 'Infinite Jest'.

Apart from that highligts included 2666 from Roberto Bolano though I had read The Savage Detectives in 2008 so it didn't come as a big surprise that this was IMO another masterpiece.

Colum McCann's National book award winning 'Let the great world spin' is really terrific.

Chester Himes' Harlem crime novels were a true revelation--funny, atmospheric and very smart.

I took up Daniel's suggestion and read Javier Marias's novel 'Tomorrow in the battle think on me' and thought it was much greater than the one book I'd read of his prior--'All souls'.

Inger Christensen's 'Alphabet'--just loved it.

A new writer Philipp Meyer--his first novel 'American Rust' has a real electric vibe to it.

The second of Johan Theorin's books to come out in translation 'The darkest room' is as good as his first. More than anyone else in the crime novel field--he's the one I'm most interested in at the moment.

Assia Djebar's 'Fantasia' pretty much cemented my opinion that she's a Nobel worthy writer.

Shimon Ballas's 'Outcast'--Ken Saro Wiwa's 'Sozaboy' and Christopher Petit's 'The psalm killer'.