Alan Warner - The Stars in the Bright Sky

In 1998 Alan Warner published The Sopranos about a bunch of naive young girls in their teens. This book was appreciated for its perceptive portrayal of girls growing up. In 2010, Warner returns to the Sopranos girls, now young women, in The Stars in the Bright Sky, as they meet and plan to go on a cheap holiday. 

I decided to skip reading reviews of this book. It is interesting to me that with such a seemingly chicklit subject (think Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants), there is literary fiction out there written by a man. 

I am marking both The Sopranos and The Stars in the Bright Sky to read strictly in order. 

For more on Alan Warner:

Here is a snippet of an interview he did after The Sopranos was published:

ZS: Do you think writers have a specific role in society to educate or agitate or produce art, or are they just doing a job like anyone else?

AW:

I think intelligence should be legalised, I think, as the poet Robin Robertson says, writers write for the void. I feel I make lonely cries and sometimes someone hears me, a writer can only follow the needs of the creatures of their imagination; if writers are going to write to formulas, be it the 19th century English novel or Soviet socialist realism (or Chinese) they will be doomed to artistic failure though they might flourish with royalties.

For list of works etc, here's the contemporary writers page for Alan Warner

PS: I've been repeating this but I find this year's Booker longlist pretty remarkable in its variety. I feel like reading all of them for the sheer difference in themes and styles and periods. Truly amazing.