Ellroy, check, Ballard, check.

JB

<Added>

Thompson, check.

Ooh, I've just remembered a few more -

Frederick Forsyth's The Odessa File
Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice
Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

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Plus

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Philip K.Dick. Check.

JB

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKI- The brothers Karamazov.

ALAIN FOURNIER- Le Grand Meaulnes.

MIKHAIL BULGAKOV- The master & Margarita.

NIKOLAI GOGOL- DEAD SOULS

LOUIS DE BERNIERES- Birds without wings.

It's nice to see One day In The Life... mentioned. Fantastic Book.

I'd add:

The Owl Service - Alan Garner
The Lord of the Flies - William Golding
A House For Mr Biswas - VS Naipaul
The Mosquito Coast - Paul Theroux
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell

Did anyone mention 1984? Oh, crap I've had my five already...

Harry





<Added>

I have to mention, The Seventh Sanctuary by Daniel Easterman. A great Thriller, sadly out of print.

beginners - raymond carver
ham on rye - charles bukowski (was torn between this and post office)
young hearts crying - richard yates
catch 22 - joseph heller
the stand - stephen king
high fidelity - nick hornby
of human bondage - w somerset maugham
atonement - ian mcewan

if it's top five only, then take the top five

<Added>

forgot to add:

three men in a boat - jerome k jerome
day of the triffids - john wyndham

Ooo good thread. But really hard to name just 5. The problem I have is that for all of the writers I mention below it could pretty much be any of their works. But with that disclaimer I'd go for:

The Passion of New Eve, Angela Carter

Mr Palomar, Italo Calvino

The Whole Story and other stories, Ali Smith

Orlando, Virginia Woolf

Collected works, Sylvia Plath (is poetry allowed?)

Kim Addonizio, What is this thing called love (more poetry)