Contemporary British fiction

[Eric]

A British translator, especially one living abroad, must always keep abreast of language as it is spoken and written in contemporary Britain. So for me, British English is something I have to read now and again, to keep me attuned to current usage.

One pleasant way of doing this, apart from watching British TV, is to read novels. I have a couple of novels from this last decade on my shelves: "South of the River" by Blake Morrison, and "The Line of Beauty" by Alan Hollinghurst.

Would anyone here recommend these, or any other novels written in Britain during the first years of this millennium? The type of novel I'm looking for is one which involves society as it is now, something Jonathan Coe used to be a decade or two ago. I'm looking for authors of either gender who "live in the real world" in modern-day Britain and describe it from a social or political angle. So no neo-Tolkien, magical realism, or sci-fi, but a fairly realist approach to life in town and country. And all the usual problem nodes of British society.

Any suggestions?

[Stiffelio]

If you are seeking contemporary "realist" fiction with some "social" themes, you should be able to find good books by the "usual suspects" of BritLit: e.g. Amis, McEwan, old lady Lessing. If you'd consider looking further across the channel, Banville and Toibin provide for excellent stylish writing. Hollinghurst is terrific; haven't yet read The Line of Beauty (I thought The Folding Star and The Swimming Pool Library were both great novels) but they say it's his best.

[Galatea92]

Any suggestions?

I'd recommend Zadie Smith's White Teeth. It's not a perfect novel (the ending's a bit contrived), but Zadie Smith is good at different voices - the main protagonist has an English father and a Caribbean mother, and there's a whole sub-plot about Indian immigration to Britain. It's not as worthy as all that sounds - it's a very funny book, and all the different characters, even the English ones, get treated with the same sympathetic imagination.

[miercuri]

I'd recommend Zadie Smith's White Teeth. It's not a perfect novel (the ending's a bit contrived), but Zadie Smith is good at different voices - the main protagonist has an English father and a Caribbean mother, and there's a whole sub-plot about Indian immigration to Britain. It's not as worthy as all that sounds - it's a very funny book, and all the different characters, even the English ones, get treated with the same sympathetic imagination.

I had the exact same impressions of it.

[Galatea92]

I had the exact same impressions of it.

Great minds, and all that .