Livre d'Or

Thank you so much for those. As it happens I've read both the Camus and the Mauriac, but a long time ago, maybe it's time to come back to them. I do remember that around the time I read Thérèse Desqueyroux I also read a slightly later writer Hervé Bazin, who wrote a pair of semi-autobiographical novels called Vipère au poing and La mort du petit cheval and feeling like they evoked similar sorts of emotions.

I have also read Red Mars, sorry to say! There aren't many writers with really similar strengths to KSR, but, hm, have you read James SA Corey: Leviathan wakes?