I'm working on a project featuring not just one, but TWO unreliable narrators. Am hoping to get inspired by looking at other books told from the POV of an unreliable narrator (eg. Barbara Covett from "Notes On a Scandal")

Any suggestions?

William Golding's

Rites of Passage

is the one that springs to mind. I haven't read the other two in the trilogy, but I assume they're the same. The most astonishing, brilliant novel, to my mind. There's also his novel

The Spire

. Not sure if he's technically unreliable - as in telling lies - but you're strongly aware that the central character has a very partial, subjective view.

Emma

Thanks, Emma. To my shame, I've not read Golding since high school, so I shall defo look up those titles!

Which was the novel out last year where the guy's in a coma, but the reader's not sure if he's lapsing in and out of conciousness or it's all a dream?
That's about as unreliable as you can get.

To the White Sea by James Dickey

When we we Orphans and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, though I think all of Palahniuk's narrators are unreliable to a degree

The Bridge by Iain Banks

Sayonara Bar by Susan Barker

Naomi,

Was it Coma by Alex Garland?

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

Could be Geoff. There seemed to be a spate of coma ones out at the same time.

"We need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver provoked a lot of debate at my book group over just how unreliable the narrator was. (I thought very, others took pretty much everything she said at face value, which is interesting because it effectively meant we read completely different books.)

Fab suggestions so far. Thanks, all!

Don't forget the four gospels.

I'm not going to risk re-opening that one, Naomi

Yes, why didn't I think of Ishiguro? And actually Atonement sort of has an unreliable narrator, but you only discover that at the end, and to my mind it's one of the big flaws in a maddeningly flawed-though-wonderful book.

Emma

Am about to start reading Atonement (I know, I know, about a hudnred years after everyone else) - can't wait!

Please someone define 'unreliable narrator'. Sorry for being thick, I kind of get the gist but would like some clarification.

JB