Can anyone recommend any books published in the last few years by young authors that people aged between 17 and 23-ish would really like, books that might inspire them to try writing themselves maybe.
Becca.

Hi Becca,

Less than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis was written when both he and I were in twenty, back in the mid 1980s. The young people it describes, like Easton Ellis himself, are young, over-privileged, but somehow lost, and although my own life was certainly not one of LA privilege, I could still relate to it, and, importantly, was inspired by the fact that someone my own age could get published.

Also from the same period is Bright Lights, Big City by Jay MacInerny, who wrote this at about 23, which I absolutely adored. It is a brilliant depictation of moving to the Big City (in this case New York) for a first job that seems prestigious, but is in fact a tedious nightmare. This book added the phrase Bolivian Marching Powder to my vocabulary, but fortunately not to my list of hobbies.

Finally, I would suggest William Sutcliffe's Are you Experienced?, published in 1997, which is a very amusing backpacker novel.

I hope these are 'new' enough, and that this helps,

Adele.

Becca- our very own Rebbecca Ray's A Certain Age, written when she was 17, an amazing book for any age but speaks particularly to young people I think.. Penguin.

Becca,

You could try Ghostwritten or number9dream both by David Mitchell. Both wonderful reads and gripping to the last.

Or perhaps The Beach by Alex Garland and along a similar vein you could maybe try Go by Simon Lewis.

Geoff

Thanks all for your thoughts on this, I've noted them down.
Becca.

Hi Becca,

One more book, not new but in some ways timeless, that I've just remembered that I loved when I was 17 is Francoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse which she wrote in her late teens and which I read then in a Penguin translation (wonder if that made me sexy...).

Adele.

<Added>

Oops, I forgot, only men are made sexier by reading (officially...)Actually at the same age, I did get myself into hot water when spotted by an older, skirt-chasing man reading Lady Chatterley's Lover. So, following Anna's thread, what you read in public can certainly throw off unintended signals.

Hi

I found a great book in a second hand shop recently called "Twelve" by Benjamin Lebert - who I think was 18 when he wrote it. Translated from German. pub Hamish Hamilton.

Also (although I presume this author was older) my favourite book so far this year is "I'm not scared" by Niccolo Ammaniti, published by Canongate.
Translated from Italian. Not that I've got anything against British authors you'll understand!!

Oh- and anything by Julia Darling, and probably Brick Lane by Monica Ali. Bonjour Tristesse is lovely, though.. Becca, also, it depends, doesn't it, if the young people you're thinking of want something classic-contemporary or achingly hip? and if male or female, certainly in the case of both Julia Darling and Rebbecca Ray, I reckon.

The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon.
Special - Bella Bathurst.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - David Eggers.
Thats all I can think of for now.
Amnesia.
x

ps I too read Bonjour Tristesse when I was seventeen and loved it. Jean Rhys too.

Thanks for the new ones, .. this is like collecting warm eggs. Anna, I'm not sure yet who the young people will be, a group who are coming to the short story writing course this year. I'd say that the mixture here looks great, I'm going to try and get through a few of them myself before I meet them.
Becca.