Blonde

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. More

The Thorn Birds

McCullough’s sweeping family saga of forbidden love in the Australian outback; became a bestselling phenomenon. More

Bel Canto

Patchett’s critically acclaimed novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. More

The Alchemist

An inspirational phenomenon; one of the bestselling books in history. More

Namita Gokhale

I read to share the world, to treasure words, to learn and intuit and recognise experiences to which I have no direct access. More

The Shipping News

Highly acclaimed international bestseller; winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. More

Hilary Mantel

I read out of hope and avid curiosity, and in an attempt to live in other times, and inhabit bodies that are not my own. More

Tales of the City

First book in Maupin’s acclaimed and groundbreaking series documenting San Francisco’s underground and gay culture. More

Anthony Doerr

We are all mapmakers: We embed our memories everywhere, inscribing a private and intensely complicated latticework across the landscape. More

Wolf Hall

Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. More

Michael Chabon

The first writer that I really fell in love with was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in particular his Sherlock Holmes stories, and the first story that I ever wrote was a Sherlock Holmes story. More

The Hours

Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award; made into an Oscar-winning film. More