A Bookseller Recommends: Erica's Favorite Overlooked Classics

In this installment of A Bookseller Recommends, Erica recommends overlooked and forgotten classics. Also, did you know that she's a published author? Check our her novel The Wet Nurse's Tale.

The Makioka Sisters (Vintage International) By Junichiro Tanizaki Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780679761648
Availability: Usually Available in 1-5 Days
Published: Vintage - September 26th, 1995

One of the greatest Japanese novels, this is the story of the high-born Makioka sisters who, in the times just previous to WWII, must slide inevitably into modernity. 


The Giant, O'Brien: A Novel By Hilary Mantel Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780312426880
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - June 12th, 2007

The Irish giant comes to England to display his size for coin, while a famed anatomist lusts after the corpse the giant will leave when he dies. Heartbreaking, glorious. 


The Prospector By J. M. G. Le Clézio, Carol Marks (Translator) Cover Image
By J. M. G. Le Clézio, Carol Marks (Translator)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781567923803
Availability: Usually Available in 1-5 Days
Published: Verba Mundi - November 1st, 2008

Nobel Prize-winner Le Clezio gives us the story of a young man who lives in luxury, loses one fortune, seeks another, all played against the backdrop of lush Mauritius. 


The Radetzky March By Joseph Roth Cover Image
$16.95
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ISBN: 9781585673261
Published: The Overlook Press - August 1st, 2002

The demise of the Austro-Hungarian empire as experienced through the eyes of a noble family, here's a gorgeous novel about what it means to be at the cusp of change. 


Texaco: A Novel (Vintage International) By Patrick Chamoiseau Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780679751755
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - February 24th, 1998

This brilliant novel by Prix Goncourt-winning author Chamoiseau, is the story of 150 years of post-slavery Caribbean history--its shantytowns, its rape by Big Oil, its rhythms. 


The Last Samurai By Helen DeWitt Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9780811225502
Availability: Usually Available in 1-5 Days
Published: New Directions - May 31st, 2016

A novel about a mother, Sybilla, her prodigy son, Ludo, her quest to engage his amazing mind, and his for a man heroic enough to be a father. Completely wonderful. 


The Pesthouse By Jim Crace Cover Image
$15.00
ISBN: 9780307278951
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - May 6th, 2008

A superb apocalyptic novel by the superb and underknown Crace. If Cormac McCarthy and Margaret Atwood had a baby and swaddled it in Station 11, they'd call it The Pesthouse. 


Sacred Hunger By Barry Unsworth Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9780525434115
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Anchor - August 22nd, 2017

This marvel of a novel, by the great Unsworth, co-won the Booker Prize along with The English Patient. This is the story of the doctor on a slave-ship en route to the New World. 


The Song of the Lark (Vintage Classics) By Willa Cather Cover Image
$13.95
ISBN: 9780375706455
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - July 27th, 1999

One of this master's less widely-read novels, The Song of the Lark is about a young girl who becomes an artist against the backdrop of the western American landscape. She bursts out. Here's beauty. 


The Notebook, the Proof, the Third Lie: Three Novels By Agota Kristof, Alan Sheridan (Translator), David Watson (Translator) Cover Image
By Agota Kristof, Alan Sheridan (Translator), David Watson (Translator)
$20.00
ISBN: 9780802135063
Availability: Usually Available in 1-5 Days
Published: Grove Press - June 23rd, 1997

Wonderfully strange, these three novels in one volume tell the story of a pair of twins in a war-torn country. The kids age with the novels. Brilliant, not-unviolent (just saying): this is a story about identity and what it means.


Lying Awake: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) By Mark Salzman Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780375706066
Availability: Backordered
Published: Vintage - October 9th, 2001

Gorgeous slender volume about a nun who sees the most beautiful visions. Is it fervor? Or illness? If it's illness, is that God's will? A gift? Or not? A fascinating look at what faith is.