The Bigger the Better

Sometimes, there can be nothing quite so satisfying as a really long book. The plot unspools at a leisurely pace, the characters reveal themselves piece by piece, the setting comes to life in all its detail. The reader gathers their patience, makes themselves a hot drink and settles in for an afternoon or ten of reading. Here are three novels -- all over five hundred pages and each of a different genre -- that will reward every bit of your time and patience twice over.

“The Secret History” (1992) by Donna Tartt recounts what happens when Richard Papen, a misfit Californian, arrives at a small liberal arts school in New England and falls in with a group of charmingly eccentric classics major students -- and under the spell of their charismatic professor. Tartt is perhaps best known for “The Goldfinch” (2013), which won the Pulitzer in 2014 and once occupied a good quarter of my luggage on vacation. But where “The Goldfinch” occasionally veers into hundred-page long digressions on the peculiar bonds formed by feckless teenage boys, “The Secret History” inexorably speeds towards its bloody conclusion. It's a book about deeply flawed, occasionally nasty people doing deeply nasty things, and it's absolutely riveting. Underneath all their flaws, there's something sympathetic about the characters -- some spark of hope that they might be saved -- and it's all the more devastating when they lose any chance at redemption.

“The Luminaries” (2013) by Eleanor Catton is one of those books that left me extremely impressed and slightly envious. It takes place in 1866 in the gold mines of New Zealand, where a hermit has died, a young prostitute has tried to kill herself, a fortune is free for the taking and a group of twelve men are trying to make sense of it all. The plot is marvelously intricate, as each puzzle piece is neatly slotted into place. The characters are rich and distinctive and the world-building puts most historical fiction to shame. Catton brings the world of the goldfields to life with every careful detail and makes a distant world seem as real and alive as our modern one in a way that is sometimes striking.

Finally, Susanna Clarke's “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” (2004) is both the longest and perhaps the most ambitious of these three. It imagines an alternate England, whose history is filled with magicians, that is about to be turned upside down by the revelation that magic has returned to the country. The world of this book is both unquestionably English and unquestionably magical, as Clarke develops an entire alternate magical history. She incorporates everything from English mythical figures to the events of the Napoleonic Wars, which she occasionally elaborates on in delightfully quirky footnotes. “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” may be a little difficult at first; it takes a while for the the reader to become accustomed to the old-fashioned writing style and initially slow plot. However, as the novel progresses, the writing style reveals itself as perfectly suited to the story, the plot builds and builds in twists and turns and every readerly need -- whether it's emotional scenes, character development or simply a dazzling display of magic -- is satisfied.