You know there´s nothing new under the sun!  - and I do think the addition of ´in my opinion´ would be nice - where is ´Dr Zhivago??!  But Yilgun doesn´t seem to have much time for more modern literature - things don´t have to be old to be good!

hehehe what a surprising thread, isn´t it? Don´t you know it´s in Yilgunish? It is a list, it is arbitrary and non-debatable. Should you insist on him revealing who is behind this list, you´ll hear it´s our friends linguists/literature critics/world specialist or the world media. How many times do you need to be reminded NOT to ask uncomfortable questions? Shame on you ladies!

never could understand gombrowicz.

Of course, I haven´t read all the best novels but the ones I remember at first blush are:

Ulyses (Joyce)

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

Father Goriot (Balzac)

Fathers and Sons (Turgenev)

Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky)

Each one of these book influenced me in a different way. I owe my nihilist side to my (mis)understanding of Turgenev´s magnificent novel.

Father Goriot is a masterpiece of depictions.

Anna Karenina represents the ultimate point reached in story telling.

You almost feel you are a part of the story when you read Crime and Punishment since you keep questioning yourself and feel as if you are facing the same venues of deceit and corruption as you drift from one episode to another in a state of sheer oblivion and complete deprivation.

Ullyses must be one of the most difficult to understand novels.

Yilgun,

I notice the books mentioned here, with the exeption of Yaşar Kemal, are all Western novelists.  Have you never read any of the great works by, for example, Lady Murasaki´s Tale of Gengi? It is considered to be the first true novel, and it was written by a woman.

For Alameda:

Thank  you very much for your  review.

I have never read any novel on Chinese or Japanese  literature-novel or story-.

You are right, because we are always interested in Turkish and Western Novelists.

I have no any knowledge about Japanese or Chinese literature and novelists.

My university branch is engineering but “ Literature and books” is my hobby.

This list show my favorite “all time novels” for “novel readers” as a recommendation.

I don’t like todays novels in general; in my opinion, they are not impressive and high in quality.

For examplean Brown:

Brown writes novels based on science like a real historic document.

But he is of course a good writer.His novels are very good for movie.Because he is a good historian at the same time.

I think the others novelist write average novels, not top level; but repetition novels.

I think they seem not the best level, not high in quality

I think sometimes the art of novel has died : Technology Century.

This is my opinion.

By the way, I shall look for any Japanese or Chinese novel like the novel “The Tale of Gengi”  By Lady Murasaki,  here in Ankara, İzmir and İstanbul.

But I would love to read “Tale of Gengi” especially someday.

Thank you again.

P.S.

The Tale of Genji (, Genji Monogatari^?) is a classic work of Japanese literature

attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early eleventh

century, around the peak of the Heian Period. It is sometimes called the

world´s first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the

first novel still to be considered a classic, though this issue is a matter of

debate.

You may want to try The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, a lady of the Imperial court.   It was written during Japan´s Heian period.  It´s a delightful book on her impressions and thoughts on life and events.  She wrote it before going to sleep.  It give you a glimpse into how life was at that time.  It is not a large book and the way it was written makes it a easy and pretty fast read.

You can read some of it here.

This book is a good introdction to Japanese literature

Gabriel Garcia Marquez         One Hundred Years Solutude

this is the best ever thing i happen to read. loved it. crazy. my type of book.

 I really like his books.  His stories stay with you for a long time after reading them.  I enjoyed "Love in the Time of Cholera" almost as much as "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

I have read three books by the modern Japanese author, Haruki Murakami - ´Norwegian Wood´, ´The Wind-up Bird Chronicles´ and ´Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Difficult to pinpoint the genre really and quite different to anything else I have read. 

Three classic Japanese books: Silence by Shusaku Endo ( link ), Snow country by Yasunari Kuwabata ( link ) and the imo best one: Totto-chan, the little girl at the window by Tetsuko Kuroyagani ( link ). My Japanese friends living here were pleasantly surprised when they saw these books at my place. The last book made one of them cry as she remembered her childhood in Japan.