Literary fiction with compelling romances

(Cross-posted from Book Talk as I didn't know about this group!)

Hi all, I'm looking for examples of literary novels from the 20th or 21st centuries with compelling romance plots or subplots. My parameters: nothing in the romance genre itself, no sci-fi/fantasy, no crime/etc, no YA. No judgement, I'm just really specifically looking to survey the field of realist adult fiction. I figured crowdsourcing answers would do better than messing around on google, and I want to know *why* you like these books, what about the romance had you hooked, etc.

An easy contemporary example is Sally Rooney's novels, but I'd like to really get an idea of what's out there, and look into things that are a little more obscure.

Thanks! :-)

Colleen McCullough is found in the literature section of bookstores, but they are frankly romances; just not in the same manner as the ones like Harlequins.

My favorites, Tim and The Ladies of Missalonghi. Quirky, good characters.

Currently reading Possession by A.S. Byatt and think it fits what you're looking for. It's a literary archives-related mystery but structured around a romance in the past and another in the present, with none of the standard tropes or hallmarks that I'm annoyed by.

edit: reviewing my tags, the only other I can think to recommend which might fit is The Lover by Marguerite Duras. It is not nearly so on-the-nose as its title suggests. It strikes at the deepest regrets and unearths them, which can be uncomfortable but also cathartic.

I don't usually read romance as a genre, but here is a list of books I think of as litfic where romance is a strong or even the main feature. I got none of these books for the romance aspect, though, so I can't really talk about what it was about the romance that had me hooked.

• Willful Disregard: A Novel About Love (2013) by Lena Andersson. The author claims it's litfic about love, not a romance. I hated this book and thought it was way too pretentious and navel-gazing. But it topped the best-seller lists here in Sweden for a while, and most people I know who've read this book thought it was very good and/or relatable.
  
  
• Koula (1978) by Menis Koumantareas: A middle-aged woman embarks on an impromptu affair with a much younger man. Very sober, very good.
  
  
• The painter of signs (1977) by R. K. Narayan: A sedate village painter in rural India meets a modern woman on a quest to educate people about family planning. I remember the romance being very respectful across cultural gaps.
  
  
• The Devil in the Flesh (1923) by Raymond Radiguet: This book gets teenage love and all its hyper-hormonal mood swings.
  
  
• The Gate of Angels (1990) by Penelope Fitzgerald. I loved this, but then again, I'm a Fitzgerald stan. One thing to keep in mind about this book is that Fitzgerald is in the habit of omitting all needless scenes because she expects her readers to be familiar with the tropes and supply them on their own. So this romance will probably feel unfulfilling to someone expecting to tick off various emotional waypoints in the plot. I thought it was a very funny book.
  
  
• Tokyo Fiancee (2007) by Amélie Nothomb. Autobiographic novel about that time when the author had a fiancé in Japan. Juggles the novelistic and the autobiographical admirably.
  
  
• The dud avocado (1958) by Elaine Dundy. Set in 1950s Paris, a young expat American indulges in romantic expat relationships in the decade after the war. The romance, while central, plays a supporting role to the the time-capsule aspect of this book, at least for me.
  
  
• Hunting and gathering (2004) by Anna Gavalda. A long book that's easy to get immersed in. Takes its time, but not in a bad way.
  
  
• Norwegian wood (1987) by Haruki Murakami? I find Murakami's works forgettable. But many people love them.
  
  
• I would also class Bear (1976) by Marian Engel as a romance. It's about a shut-in archivist who has sex with her semi-tame bear, which makes her realize things about patriarchal power systems and the way they generally fuck over women. I thought the book succeeded.
  

You might want to look at these, too:

The Glory of the Conquered by Susan Glaspell

At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill

For a dysfunctional romance, I highly recommend Angela Carter's Love.

Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera is a classic, in case not read alredy