For historical fiction, may I suggest looking up Edward Rutherfurd? He does these HUGE novels where he focuses on a handful of families and follows them and the area they live in through centuries. In one book, Sarum (about Salisbury, England) he starts in the stone age and ends in the present, which is the biggest span I've come across. It's not a complete slog through every generation, I tend to think of it as a collection of stories that are connected through time and space by all being about these families and this place. Sarum is good. I also enjoyed London and Russka.
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