Jose Saramago, Kobo Abe, Philip Roth, Herta Muller, Kurt Vonnegut.
Just had to reiterate and emphasize this, for Kobo Abe. Very underread Japanese novelist who died fairly young (58, as I recall). I first encountered him while a soldier in Vietnam, finding his most famous novel,
The Woman in the Dunes, in a box of giveaway books left at the company office building where I served. I still have the thing, an edition published in Japan by a company (Tuttle) that specialized in English translations of Japanese literature. It still has red clay stains from the dirt in the company area. I read it mainly in early evening, on the steps of the hootch where I spent most nights. I treasure this little cheap paperback beyond any other book I own. Effing magnificent novel.
Upon coming back to the U.S., I obtained and read several other of his books, including
Inter-Ice Age 4, Secret Rendezvous, and
The Face of Another. Abe wrote ironic Kafkaesque fables, in simple Kafkaesque prose that translates easily into English. If he hadn't died so young, I strongly suspect he would have been a Nobel candidate.
Very worth a look.
caw
Sounds a lot like my (grandmother's) copy of Rungli Rungliot by Rumer Godden...
