I'm gutted. Inspired by the NY Times, the Observer asked authors and other professionals to name the best novel in English, excluding America, since 1980. From the top ten, I haven't read a single one, and there's two authors I've never heard of.
So, now I have yet another to-do list:
JM Coetzee: Disgrace (1999)
Martin Amis:Money (1984)
Anthony Burgess: Earthly Powers (1980)
Ian McEwan: Atonement (2001)
Penelope Fitzgerald: The Blue Flower (1995)
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled (1995)
Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children (1981)
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day (1989)
John McGahern: Amongst Women (1990)
John McGahern: That They May Face the Rising Sun (2001)
What would a similar modern list for Finnish look like? My vote goes to Johanna Sinisalo and Ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (2000). It's been translated to English, too, in Britain as Not Before Sundown and in the US as Troll – A Love Story.
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There was a writing about this in Helsingin Sanomat today. They said that one surprising thing is that six out of the ten have not even been translated into Finnish - even though at least one work by each author has been translated.
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