Bukowski was very much de rigueur among male intellectuals for some time, probably because they wanted to prove they were not just some milk-faced intellectuals but REAL MEN. I never thought much of him though, maybe because I'm a woman, and would have replaced him with some other author.

I miss several authors, but of course only twenty-five can be chosen.

From Germany:

Heinrich Mann, the brother of Thomas: "Der Untertan" ("The Loyal Subject"), "Professor Unrat" ("The Blue Angel").

Heinrich Böll (a Nobel laureate nonetheless): “Ansichten eines Clowns” (“The Clown”), “Gruppenbild mit Dame” (“Group Portrait with Lady”), “Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum” (“The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum”), “Fürsorgliche Belagerung” (“The Safety Net”).

Rafik Shami (Syrian born but writing in German): “Eine Hand voller Sterne” (“A Hand Full of Stars”), “Die dunkle Seite der Liebe” (“The Dark Side of Love”).

Walter Moers: “Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher” (“The City of Dreaming Books”), “Die 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär" ("The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear").

From England.

Anthony Burgess: “A Clockwork Orange”, “The Kingdom of the Wicked”, “Earthly Powers”).

Peter Ackroyd: “The Great Fire of London”, Hawksmoor”).

Lawrence Norfolk: “Lempriere's Dictionary”, “The Pope's Rhinoceros”.

From Ireland:

Flann O'Brian: “At Swim-Two-Birds”, “The Third Policeman”.

From France:

Marcel Proust: “À la recherche du temps perdu“ (“In Search of Lost Time”).

Jean-Paul Sartre: “La Nausée“ (“Nausea”).

Albert Camus: “L'Etranger” (“The Stranger”), “La Peste” (“The Plague”).

From Portugal:

José Saramago (another Nobel laureate): “Ensaio sobre a cegueira” (“Blindness”), “A Jangada de Pedra” (“The Stone Raft”).

From Colombia:

Gabriel Garcia Márquez: “Cien años de soledad” (“One Hundred Years of Solitude”), “El otoño del patriarca” (“The Autumn of the Patriarch”), “El amor en los tiempos del cólera” (“Love in the Time of Cholera”).

From Chile:

Isabel Allende: “La casa de los espíritus” (“The House of the Spirits”), “Eva Luna” (“Eva Luna”)

From Cuba:

Guillermo Cabrera Infante: “Tres Tristres Tigres” (“Three Trapped Tigers”).

From Poland:

Stanisław Lem: “Solaris” (“Solaris”), “Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie” (“Memoirs Found in a Bathtub”), “Eden” (“Eden”), “Kongres futurologiczny” (“The Futurulogical Congress”), “Wizja lokalna” (not translated into English yet but into German as “Lokaltermin”; the English title would be “Observation on the Spot”), “Pokój na Ziemi” (“Peace on Earth”), “Fiasko” (“Fiasco”).

From the USA:

John Barth: “The Sot-Weed Factor”.

Joseph Heller: “Catch-22”, “Something Happened”.

Thomas Pynchon: “V”, “Thy Crying of Lot 49”, “Gravity's Rainbow”, “Vineland”, “Mason & Dixon”.

Matt Ruff: “Fool on the Hill”, “Sewer, Gas and Electric”.

From Serbia:

Milorad Pavić: “Hazarski rečnik” (“Dictionary of the Khazars”), „Predeo slikan čajem“ (“Landscape Painted in Tea”).

From Japan:

Haruki Murakami: “羊をめぐる冒険 Hitsuji o meguru bōken” (“Wild Sheep Chase”), “1Q84” (“1Q84”), “ダンス･ダンス･ダンス . Dansu, dansu, dansu” (“Dance, dance, dance”)

Kōbō Abe: “箱男 Hako otoko” (“The Box Man”), “燃えつきた地図 Moetsukita chizu” (“The Ruined Map”).

From India:

Arundhati Roy: “The God of Small Things”.

From New Zealand:

Keri Hulme: “The Bone People”.

Of the writers mentioned in this thread, the few that could write real page turners, for me, include:

 Herman Hesse, Thomas Mann, Umberto Eco, Robert Heinlein, and then Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinback.

Of those not mentioned here:  Evelyn Waugh, Dan Simmons, J.D. Salinger, Pearl S. Buck, and Amy Tan are the ones I found most inspiring and entertaining.