THE ISLAND by Victoria Hyslop wife of Ian Hyslop a first novel for her she is a journalist . The Bridges of Madison County. much better than the film, The Notebook
I really enjoyed 'To the Baltic with Bob' by Griff Rhys Jones. (I only bought it to make up the numbers with WH Smith's 'buy one - get one half price offer'. I didn't expect much from it but I discovered that GRJ is an excellent writer).
Didnt enjoy Dead Famous. Good premise but charaters didn't seem very well thought out - perhaps deliberate given the BB basis but not as good as earlier novels of his IMHO
Tibor Fischer:
The Thought Gang, The Collector Collector, Under the Frog
Martin Amis:
The Information, Yellow Dog
Charles Bukowski:
Factotum, Women, Post Office
May not really match your criteria, but VERY good.
One book that which MAY match:
A short history of tractors in Ukranian. can't remember the author, but v. good, quite amusing, female protagonist(s)/perspective(s)