Find out which novels your favourite author has chosen, adored, and highly recommended!
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy was born in Kerala, India in 1960. She worked as a production designer while attending the Delhi School of Architecture. She has written two screenplays, one of which was commissioned by Channel 4 television and titled Electric Moon (1992). She resides in Delhi with her spouse, filmmaker Pradip Krishen. Her debut book, The God of Small Things, has sold more than six million copies worldwide since it was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for Fiction. The novel became an instant hit and was concurrently published in sixteen languages and nineteen countries. However, the portrayal of a love story between a Hindu 'untouchable' and a Syrian Christian generated controversy in India.
Arundhati recommends: Beloved by Toni Morrison, Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, Life and Fate by Vasilly Gossman
Salman Rushdie
The book that catapulted Salman Rushdie to fame was his fifth one, The Satanic Verses. It led to a fatwa against him in 1989. However, he has released 16 more books in the last 40 years and won three Booker prizes for his Midnight’s Children and his most recent novel, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights. He claims to aspire towards creating works that ‘stand the test of time,’ identifying as a socialiser by night and a diligent worker by day.
Rushdie recommends: Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, Six Memos for the Next Millennium Book by Italo Calvino, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1977. Her mother was the first female registrar and her father was a professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she was raised. After a year of studying medicine in Nsukka, she left home at the age of 19 to pursue her further education in the US. She graduated summa cum laude with a political science and communication degree from Eastern Connecticut State University.
Chimamanda recommends: Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A by Danielle Allen, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala
Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and relocated to Britain at the age of five with his family. His works have been translated into more than 50 languages. Both Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day were adapted into critically acclaimed films and have each sold over two million copies. In 2018, Ishiguro received a knighthood for his literary contributions. He also possesses the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star from Japan, as well as the decoration of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France.
Kazuo Ishiguro recommends: Villette by Charlotte Brontë, Right ho, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse, Blood Meridian by Cormac Mc Carthy
Alice Walker
American author, poet, and activist Alice Walker was born in 1944 and is renowned for her perceptive depictions of African-American culture and daily life. Her 1982 book The Colour Purple served as the inspiration for a successful big-budget film and Broadway musical. Walker, the daughter of sharecroppers, was born in Eatonton, Georgia. She had an injury as a young child that left her blind in one eye. Walker’s mother believed that writing would be a better fit for her than household chores. She was awarded a scholarship for her writing and intellectual abilities to Spelman College, where she studied for two years before moving to Sarah Lawrence College, where she earned her degree in 1965.
Alice Walker recommends: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth by Monica Sjöö, Barbara Mor, Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Stephen King
Stephen King born in 1947, Portland, U.S. is an American novelist and short-story writer whose books are credited with resurrecting the genre of horror fiction in the late 20th century. It is almost impossible to exaggerate Stephen King's influence. He is the only writer who has dominated the genre’s literary landscape for the last 40 years, and the only writer in history to have over 30 works becoming No 1 bestsellers. King has more than 70 published books, many of which have become cultural icons.
Stephen King recommends: Listen for the Lie: A Novel by Amy Tintera, The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman, The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Image source: Sahitya post, New Yorker, PxFuel, Princeton.edu