Les Miserables

Forget the musical, have you read the book? It's an incredible read. It zips along like a John Grisham novel. If you start it and get past the initial scene setting you will be reading forty pages at a time in a desperate bid to find out what happens next. It's that exciting...! The central character Jean Valjean dominates the book, and it's not as good when he drops out of it for various spells, but it's the best book I read last year by a mile. And you can use it as a doorstop. I'm a John Irving fan and it's the best thing I've read since (regretfully) finishing reading his brill, unbeatable back catalogue.