I don’t read a lot of novels anymore, but I need to recommend Elias Khoury’s massive, beautiful and poetic novel Gate of the Sun. His style is plain (his narrator makes a point of saying that he distrusts metaphors), and his plot—such as it is—reflects the fragmented experience of the Palestinians after WWII; the two qualities force one to read slowly (the narrator is obsessive and repeats himself, always with slightly different information or nuances of intent). For a book with no (conventional) plot, the suspense is almost overwhelming.Read More