We asked our authors from around the world to share their thoughts on why they write, why they read, and the books that have influenced them.
Here’s what they had to say.
Tell us why you read and share your favorite books! Join the discussion @HarperCollins on Twitter using #hc200.
A book that influenced me and why: Middlemarch by George Eliot. This novel is a masterpiece of Victorian literature, with its large cast and close observation of human nature. As soon as I met Dorothea, the main character, I was drawn into her world and her dilemmas. The novel’s theme—the place of women in a changing but still patriarchal society—triggered my own interest in women’s lives, past and present. I began my writing career with biographies of nineteenth-century women, so I could explore how real-life Dorotheas quietly cast off convention and achieved some measure of fulfillment. Then I widened my net to include both men and women. George Eliot’s example suggested to me that a writer should not confine herself to only one side of the story.
