The Stone Diaries

Winner of the 1993 Governor General’s Award (Canada) and the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. More

Wolf Hall

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

The Corrections

Winner of the National Book Award in 2001 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002. More

Tracy Chevalier

I read because I want to know what it’s like to look at the world through someone else’s eyes, and reading is a remarkably efficient and vigorous way of doing that. More

Jane Eyre

Brontë’s masterpiece of Gothic romance; a milestone title in the history of British feminist literature. More

Anthony Doerr

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

Pilgrim

A finalist for the Giller Prize and a Canadian bestseller that surpassed the author’s own impressive sales records. More

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Multimillion-copy global bestseller that won critical acclaim for its beautifully wrought depiction of innocence corrupted. More

The Shipping News

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

A Woman of Substance

With her unforgettable heroine Emma Harte, Bradford popularized the rags-to-riches family saga. 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

Jacqueline Winspear

I read because I love language, the way the joining of words and the rhythm of a story can make me laugh, cry, or take me out of my world or immerse me in the lives of others. More

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Tudor court seen as never before; this take on the Boleyn sisters reinvented the historical novel. More

Middlemarch

Ranked number one in a 2015 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British novels. More

The Hours

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

Bel Canto

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

Our Town

Pulitzer Prize–winning drama; hailed by Edward Albee as “The finest play ever written by an American.” More