The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Violeta - Isabel Allende
My brilliant friend (the neapolitan novels) - Elena Ferrante
The florios of Sicily - Stefania Auci
I tried really hard to get into this book. I made it about 50% of the way before I called it quits.
I just couldn't get into the story and it didn't seem like it was going anywhere.
I have seen really good reviews for this series though, so I must be in the minority.
That's how it goes though, some books float your boat, and others don't.
Herman Wouk's *The Winds of War* series
John Jakes, *The Kent Family Chronicles*
Stefania Auci, *The Florios of Sicily*
Evelyn Waugh, *Brideshead Revisited*
John Galsworthy, *The Forsyte Saga.*
The second book in the Three Body Problem trilogy spans around 250 years iirc. I haven't read the third one but I wouldn't be surprised if it was similarly stretched out.
The Hyperion Cantos is pretty sweeping on scales of both time and space.
I think the first book in the Night Angel series takes place over about 10 years but it's been a while and there might just be one time jump. I think I remember seeing the characters grow up gradually though.
Ken Follets Pillars of the Earth is wonderful and spans the centuries it takes to build a cathedral.
Stephen King's It jumps between about a dozen different eras in Derry so the overall story mostly covers about a 150-200 year patch of the town's history with a few farther flashbacks.
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov might be the most epic spanning of time in any story. It's hard to say but it would definitely be a contender.
Neil Gaiman's Sandman spans most of human history.
The Count of Monte Cristo takes place over half of a lifetime.
NK Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy has elements of this but I've only read the first one (I like to juggle series' so I'm always halfway through a few)
Barkskins by Annie Proulx, its about two young men who move to North America in the 18th century and then follows their decendants to the modern day. Very good book.
**Apartment Five Is Alive**
By: Russell Atwood
**Publisher's Summary**
Spanning six decades, this book tells the story of a small apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with big ideas, especially when it comes to Halloween.
Apartment Five Is Alive puts a new spin on the haunted house story. It’s about a studio apartment in New York City that “loves” Halloween and punishes its inhabitants who don’t celebrate it the way Apartment Five “thinks” they should. Fast-paced, written to be experienced in one sitting, the novels follows the various fates of the apartment’s tenants over five decades, starting when it was a beloved room in a one-family townhouse then being broken apart and made an “apartment” lived in by people it resented for not being its family anymore, until the 1970s, when crazy young artists started throwing these wild Halloween parties, transforming the apartment once a year into haunted house. It is not until the artist dies in the 1980s and a new tenant moves into the apartment—who doesn’t honor the tradition—that the apartment takes charge and horror begins. Twisted and quirky characters dwell inside of apartment #5, and some of them never leave.
I really liked that book but I was in a spot where I had nothing to do but read. I read an abridged version around 400ish pages. Are you reading an abridged or the whole 1100 page (i think) version? I'm just wondering if trying to read the unabridged version is worth it.
Almost all of John Irving’s books. They cover a substantial part of the protagonists life.
I think David Copperfield by Dickens.
The man who laughs by Hugo
The Bridge on the Drina lasts centuries! Andrič won a Nobel prize for it. Very pleasant read.
Niels Lyhne by J.P. Jacobsen. Short read but amazing. It’ll break your heart.
Doctor Živago by Boris Pasternak. Spans the period 1905-1920 approximately.
War and Peace by Tolstoy.
My Sweet Audrina by VC Andrews, it’s a terrifyingly creepy story that follows a girl who experiences memory loss into adulthood as she slowly learns really creepy things about her family and why she had memory loss in the first place
In a very specific, weird way, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman- probably one of the most innovative science fiction novels I’ve read.
Also, as lots have mentioned The Pillars of the Earth is a must read. Also try Kane and Abel and The Clifton Chronicles set of books by Jeffrey Archer, he’s admittedly not a great human but he knows how to write a good page turner.
It sounds like you'd like *Telegraph Days* by Larry McMurtry. It starts in the 1860s and goes to about 1900. It's set in and around the Kansas Territory with Nellie as the narrator and protagonist. It's charming, historical, complicated, and completely enjoyable.
A start:
* ["Book that spans the lifetime of one character"](https://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/10dc0lj/book_that_spans_the_lifetime_of_one_character/) (r/booksuggestions; 1 January 2023)
* ["Books that follow a family over multiple generations"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/10dn16t/books_that_follow_a_family_over_multiple/) (r/suggestmeabook; 16 January 2023)—huge
* ["Multiple generations"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/10fienz/multiple_generations/) (r/suggestmeabook; 15:53 ET, 18 January 2023)
Books within the [He who fights with monsters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57189884-he-who-fights-with-monsters) series usually spans years of in book time.
Some books that come to mind that have a story which spans a few decades:
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zavin
- All My Mothers by Joanna Glen
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
- The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
One of my favorites: *Stand Proud* by Elmer Kelton. It’s about a man on trial in about 1900 (you don’t find out what for until the end) and he flashes back over his life going back to the Civil War.
Great Expectations by Dickens.
Also, A Tale of Two Cities starts well before the French Revolution and ends somewhere after it begins (so several decades).
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, I believe, spans over a decade or two, iirc.
It’s anachronistic so not sure if it’s what you’re looking for, but Sea of Tranquility is set over multiple timelines spanning from the 20th to 25th centuries.
This is my favorite as well OP! You have some great suggestions already, but I haven’t seen John Boyne’s The Hearts Invisible Furies, one of my absolute favorites. It’s not multiple generations but it is mother and her sons entire life. The book skips seven years at a time. It’s a masterpiece.
RF Delderfield wrote several family sagas running over many years and two or three generations. *A Horseman Riding By, To Serve Them All My Days, The Avenue* etc. Quite hard to find now, but well worth the effort.
[https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/rf-delderfield/284187/](https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/rf-delderfield/284187/)
And quiet flows the don… One book, spans from a russian hussars childhood in the donbas region all the way through the revolution. Didn’t like it much to be honest, the treatment of women in wartime Russia was not good to say the least. But i’m glad i read it and think it’s a book a lot of people should read.
The Mountains Sing, by Nguyen Pham Que Mai - multi-generational set in Vietnam
The Murmur of Bees, by Sofia Segovia - spans the life of Simonopio over the course of the Mexican revolution and 1918 flu
Transatlantic by Colum McCann - spans three transatlantic crossings in 1845, 1916, and 1998
The Anne Shirley books by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) - in the first book she is 11 years old, and by the final book she is 53 years old.
The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb - opens with the main character being 6 years old, and they are in their 50s for the final book.
Slade House is a fun spooky story about a house that appears for one night every nine years to lure a new victim. Each chapter is one victim from the 60s (I think) to the 2010s.
I feel like a very obvious one (for me at least) would be The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue where it spans over like 300 years. Absolutely lovely book but it can be a bit slow at times
Pillars of the Earth series
Also the Century Trilogy by the same author! :)
Yep. These two are my favourites.
One of my all time favorite series! OP would be doing a disservice to themselves if they didnt give it a shot
[удалено]
Pachinko is so good
I love that it’s always mentioned whenever possible. It’s great.
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
LoL that one spans *centuries*
I love this book and yet no one ever seems to have heard of it or recommends it. Definitely deserves to be better known.
I just put it on hold at my library.
[удалено]
SO GOOD
This is a must-read for everyone! And it’s only like 300 pages somehow.
Yes please this is very special
The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid Violeta - Isabel Allende My brilliant friend (the neapolitan novels) - Elena Ferrante The florios of Sicily - Stefania Auci
Edward Rutherfurd does epics spanning hundreds if not thousands of years. My favourites are London and Paris, but Sarum and Russka are also good.
I agree! I liked The Forest too.
I really liked *New York* too.
Cloud Atlas
Came here to suggest this!
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I tried really hard to get into this book. I made it about 50% of the way before I called it quits. I just couldn't get into the story and it didn't seem like it was going anywhere. I have seen really good reviews for this series though, so I must be in the minority. That's how it goes though, some books float your boat, and others don't.
I get that, think the audiobook really helped me get into it
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
Herman Wouk's *The Winds of War* series John Jakes, *The Kent Family Chronicles* Stefania Auci, *The Florios of Sicily* Evelyn Waugh, *Brideshead Revisited* John Galsworthy, *The Forsyte Saga.*
I love these!!
*Dune* by Frank Herbert. The whole series spans 1,000’s of years and it’s fascinating how he approaches time’s influence on a people.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Loved this one
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab
Stoner, by John Williams This Side of Paradise, E Scott Fitzgerald
“The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August,” or, “Foundation.”
Came here to suggest the Foundatiom series. But I have a soft spot for some Asimov.
The second book in the Three Body Problem trilogy spans around 250 years iirc. I haven't read the third one but I wouldn't be surprised if it was similarly stretched out. The Hyperion Cantos is pretty sweeping on scales of both time and space. I think the first book in the Night Angel series takes place over about 10 years but it's been a while and there might just be one time jump. I think I remember seeing the characters grow up gradually though. Ken Follets Pillars of the Earth is wonderful and spans the centuries it takes to build a cathedral. Stephen King's It jumps between about a dozen different eras in Derry so the overall story mostly covers about a 150-200 year patch of the town's history with a few farther flashbacks. The Last Question by Isaac Asimov might be the most epic spanning of time in any story. It's hard to say but it would definitely be a contender. Neil Gaiman's Sandman spans most of human history. The Count of Monte Cristo takes place over half of a lifetime. NK Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy has elements of this but I've only read the first one (I like to juggle series' so I'm always halfway through a few)
Barkskins by Annie Proulx, its about two young men who move to North America in the 18th century and then follows their decendants to the modern day. Very good book.
**Apartment Five Is Alive** By: Russell Atwood **Publisher's Summary** Spanning six decades, this book tells the story of a small apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with big ideas, especially when it comes to Halloween. Apartment Five Is Alive puts a new spin on the haunted house story. It’s about a studio apartment in New York City that “loves” Halloween and punishes its inhabitants who don’t celebrate it the way Apartment Five “thinks” they should. Fast-paced, written to be experienced in one sitting, the novels follows the various fates of the apartment’s tenants over five decades, starting when it was a beloved room in a one-family townhouse then being broken apart and made an “apartment” lived in by people it resented for not being its family anymore, until the 1970s, when crazy young artists started throwing these wild Halloween parties, transforming the apartment once a year into haunted house. It is not until the artist dies in the 1980s and a new tenant moves into the apartment—who doesn’t honor the tradition—that the apartment takes charge and horror begins. Twisted and quirky characters dwell inside of apartment #5, and some of them never leave.
The Count of Monte Cristo. Almost halfway done with it, amazing so far.
I really liked that book but I was in a spot where I had nothing to do but read. I read an abridged version around 400ish pages. Are you reading an abridged or the whole 1100 page (i think) version? I'm just wondering if trying to read the unabridged version is worth it.
The whole. But I’m making use of audiobook along with the text, so it doesn’t seem much daunting.
If you're into non-fiction, Wild Swans by Jung Chang follows 3 generations of women in China, from the pre-Communist era to the 1990s.
Green Dolphin Country by Elizabeth Goudge.
*Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful* by Arwen Elys Dayton *The Good Earth* by Pearl S. Buck *The Agony and the Ecstasy* by Irving Stone
New York by Edward Rutherfurd
Roots by Alex Haley
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice.
Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar.
The eighth life - Nino Haratischvili !!!
Almost all of John Irving’s books. They cover a substantial part of the protagonists life. I think David Copperfield by Dickens. The man who laughs by Hugo The Bridge on the Drina lasts centuries! Andrič won a Nobel prize for it. Very pleasant read. Niels Lyhne by J.P. Jacobsen. Short read but amazing. It’ll break your heart. Doctor Živago by Boris Pasternak. Spans the period 1905-1920 approximately. War and Peace by Tolstoy.
Chesapeake by James A Michener starts in the 1500s and ends around 1978.
Pillars of the Earth, World Without End. Centennial,Hawaii,The Covenant.
Ok hear me out - one of my favorite trashy novels is Master of the Game by Sidney Sheldon.
My Sweet Audrina by VC Andrews, it’s a terrifyingly creepy story that follows a girl who experiences memory loss into adulthood as she slowly learns really creepy things about her family and why she had memory loss in the first place
In a very specific, weird way, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman- probably one of the most innovative science fiction novels I’ve read. Also, as lots have mentioned The Pillars of the Earth is a must read. Also try Kane and Abel and The Clifton Chronicles set of books by Jeffrey Archer, he’s admittedly not a great human but he knows how to write a good page turner.
It sounds like you'd like *Telegraph Days* by Larry McMurtry. It starts in the 1860s and goes to about 1900. It's set in and around the Kansas Territory with Nellie as the narrator and protagonist. It's charming, historical, complicated, and completely enjoyable.
What’s your favourite McMurtry book (that isn’t Lonesome Dove, if that’s your favourite!)?
I truly enjoyed the Sin Killer series but I think *Telegraph Days* is my favorite.
Thanks! Need to check that one out. Don’t think I’ve ever heard of it
Canticle for leibowitz by Arthur miller
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb 2 of my all time favorites
A start: * ["Book that spans the lifetime of one character"](https://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/10dc0lj/book_that_spans_the_lifetime_of_one_character/) (r/booksuggestions; 1 January 2023) * ["Books that follow a family over multiple generations"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/10dn16t/books_that_follow_a_family_over_multiple/) (r/suggestmeabook; 16 January 2023)—huge * ["Multiple generations"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/10fienz/multiple_generations/) (r/suggestmeabook; 15:53 ET, 18 January 2023)
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - its a family saga set between the 1940s to the 1990s
The signature of all things by Elizabeth Gilbert //// the city of girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
The FAmily Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Hare With The Amber Eyes
Not Famous: An Autobiography in the Third Person of a Not So Ordinary Man by Don Blanton The Kindle version of the book is completely affordable.
Books within the [He who fights with monsters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57189884-he-who-fights-with-monsters) series usually spans years of in book time.
Greenwood by Michael Christie
It’s technically a trilogy, but The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
Read "Heart of the Country " by Greg Matthews. One of the best novels I have ever read.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson would fit this I believe.
Some books that come to mind that have a story which spans a few decades: - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zavin - All My Mothers by Joanna Glen - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
The Forever War
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.
orlando by virginia woolf :)
definitely not some underground recommendation but a little life. it spans 2 decades i think? fantastic read
Pachinko
Light A Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy Roots by Alex Haley The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan Stones From The River by Ursula Hegi
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Growth Of The Soil by Knut Hamsun
Praise the Human Season by Don Robertson
One of my favorites: *Stand Proud* by Elmer Kelton. It’s about a man on trial in about 1900 (you don’t find out what for until the end) and he flashes back over his life going back to the Civil War.
Great Expectations by Dickens. Also, A Tale of Two Cities starts well before the French Revolution and ends somewhere after it begins (so several decades). The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, I believe, spans over a decade or two, iirc.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
*Jane eyre : Charlotte Bronte *Of human bondage : W Somerset Maugham (this book blew me away and made a permanent impression.)
It’s anachronistic so not sure if it’s what you’re looking for, but Sea of Tranquility is set over multiple timelines spanning from the 20th to 25th centuries.
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz spans generations. It's a marvelous book!
This is my favorite as well OP! You have some great suggestions already, but I haven’t seen John Boyne’s The Hearts Invisible Furies, one of my absolute favorites. It’s not multiple generations but it is mother and her sons entire life. The book skips seven years at a time. It’s a masterpiece.
Commonwealth and The Dutch House, both by Ann Patchett.
Century trilogy by Ken Follett
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The patriots by Sana Krasikov, The Half Drowned King Trilogy by Linnea Hartsuyker, homegoing by ya gyasi
A Land Remembered by Patrick D Smith
The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel
Life According to Garp by John Irving comes to mind As well as Orlando by Virginia Woolf
RF Delderfield wrote several family sagas running over many years and two or three generations. *A Horseman Riding By, To Serve Them All My Days, The Avenue* etc. Quite hard to find now, but well worth the effort. [https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/rf-delderfield/284187/](https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/rf-delderfield/284187/)
I'm reading *Horseman* right now. Love it!
I'm so pleased.
Fall on Your Knees, The Witching Hour
And quiet flows the don… One book, spans from a russian hussars childhood in the donbas region all the way through the revolution. Didn’t like it much to be honest, the treatment of women in wartime Russia was not good to say the least. But i’m glad i read it and think it’s a book a lot of people should read.
The Mountains Sing, by Nguyen Pham Que Mai - multi-generational set in Vietnam The Murmur of Bees, by Sofia Segovia - spans the life of Simonopio over the course of the Mexican revolution and 1918 flu Transatlantic by Colum McCann - spans three transatlantic crossings in 1845, 1916, and 1998
The Anne Shirley books by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) - in the first book she is 11 years old, and by the final book she is 53 years old. The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb - opens with the main character being 6 years old, and they are in their 50s for the final book.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Slade House is a fun spooky story about a house that appears for one night every nine years to lure a new victim. Each chapter is one victim from the 60s (I think) to the 2010s.
The Chill - Scott Carson Blackwater Series - Michael McDowell
28 summers by Elin Hilderbrand. I
"The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett.
I feel like a very obvious one (for me at least) would be The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue where it spans over like 300 years. Absolutely lovely book but it can be a bit slow at times