That sounds fascinating, Caleb. I'll second
Invislble Cities.
I would like to nominate
The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch (published 1973). I read it a great many years ago (in the seventies when it came out in fact!) and have always remembered it as my favourite book by Murdoch. I would love to revisit it to see if it is as good as I remember it to be. Some information from Goodreads:
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Bradley Pearson, an unsuccessful novelist in his late fifties, has finally left his dull office job as an Inspector of Taxes. Bradley hopes to retire to the country, but predatory friends and relations dash his hopes of a peaceful retirement. He is tormented by his melancholic sister, who has decided to come live with him; his ex-wife, who has infuriating hopes of redeeming the past; her delinquent brother, who wants money and emotional confrontations; and Bradley's friend and rival, Arnold Baffin, a younger, deplorably more successful author of commercial fiction. The ever-mounting action includes marital cross-purposes, seduction, suicide, abduction, romantic idylls, murder, and due process of law. Bradley tries to escape from it all but fails, leading to a violent climax and a coda that casts shifting perspectives on all that has preceded.
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