The best literary novels that take readers to new worlds without leaving earth

This era-spanning novel begins today and returns to today, traversing unexpected and enlightening yesterdays. Geraldine Brooks’s tale follows a clever structure as it traces the long history of an illuminated manuscript from the modern day back to its unrecorded origins. As she traverses from the present to multiple periods in the past, she tells dynamic, character-driven stories. Compelling and beautifully written, People was a book I could not put down, and that I recommend to every reader I know.

Khaled Hosseini won acclaim for his debut novel, The Kite Runner, and with good reason. Opening up a place and culture I knew virtually nothing about, Mr. Hosseini’s story takes place almost entirely in Afghanistan. The same is true of this follow-up novel, which adds to the complexity by featuring a female protagonist, a significant complication in that part of the world. I was drawn in by the eloquence of his language and held fast by the compelling story.

John Irving has long been a favorite of mine, from earlier novels like The Water-Method Man and The 158-Pound Marriage to The Cider House Rules and A Son of the Circus. Irving often focuses his work around a central theme, and in A Prayer for Owen Meany, he takes on the issue of conscription and the influences and impacts of the Vietnam War. He draws Owen Meany indelibly, imbuing the character with the hues of legend, as an almost mythical creature come to life in a way that has never left me.

Tom Robbins improbably sets his tale in the world of perfumery, dividing it between the ancient world and the present, both peopled by unforgettable characters. And who knew that beets played such an important role in the realm of manufactured scents? The writing feels as deliberate as it does offhand, his arch sense of humor leaping from the pages to make me laugh aloud. At the beginning of the novel, Mr. Robbins warns, “A tale that begins with a beet will end with the devil,” and then pulls readers into his story by telling them, “That is a risk we have to take.”

I generally don’t enjoy works of fiction that feature writers as their main characters. The process of writing, while influenced by life, is nevertheless a solitary process, difficult to capture in an interesting and meaningful way. William Goldman manages to do that, mostly by focusing on the backstory of story, on the flow and emotions of existence that contribute not only to the tales a writer tells, but their need to do so. The Color of Light feels both fantastical and real, steeped in preposterous events and genuine emotion, in a way that traces both the artistic process and the vagaries of life.