Asklemmy

Roddy Doyle. Written as mainly dialogue, but with fabulous world building. Many of his books were made into movies, but they are more well known in Ireland than elsewhere. The commitments found international success. Plot wise, they’re not ground breaking, it’s his creation of characters and tackling some tough subjects.

Zadie smith. Again, slice of life, but with more of a point.

Dan brown, but only for energising thriller mysteries.

Older than you asked for but I'd vote for Mervyn Peake

Then one that enjoyed but never heard that much about was Sophia McDougall

Andy McNabb

Paulo Coelho

Dan Abnett. Eisenhorn, Gaunt, and Bequin. I understand that the setting doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone, but the way he writes prose is beautiful in my opinion. And he writes excellent characters.

Australian author Peter Corris. Over 40 years or so, he wrote a lot of Australian non-fiction, including a ~~n auto~~ biography of eye surgeon Fred Hollows, many Australian fiction books including The Winning Side (personally I think this is/should be a classic of Australian literature); and the Cliff Hardy series of Sydney-noir detective books.

Edit: thanks to those that corrected me

For me The Name of the Rose is a real masterpiece. I enjoyed The Prague Cemetery as much as Foucault's Pendulum but I'd personally put Baudolino before those two.

Edit: this was a reply for @ThisIsNotHim@sopuli.xyz, for some reason I keep pressing the wrong reply arrow on the Voyager app.

Jose Saramago has some great books that really explore the human condition.

Robert Munsch