SARAH WINMAN

The British author’s novel set in London and Florence was named the Dymock’s 2021 book of the year

Still Life’s tale of love and hope seemed just what readers needed in 2021, what was the genesis for the book?

Learning about the Florence flood of 1966 and the story of the young men and women (mud angels) who came to clean up.

Is there a book that made you love writing?

Any Human Heart by William Boyd (the 2002 novel by the British author).

What’s the best book you’ve read? Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (the 1977 novel by the Pulitzer Prizewinning American).

A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (the US author’s 1989 seventh novel). I wasn’t an avid fiction reader until I came to this book in my late twenties. I learnt so much from it. The book you couldn’t finish?

I’d rather not say, as many people raved about this book.

A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?

A la recherche du temps perdu

(In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust.

The book you are most proud to have written?

I’m proud of them all at the time of writing them (When God Was a Rabbit, 2011, A Year of Marvellous Ways, 2015, and Tin Man, 2017). They all carry their own private story. Your favourite place to read? Bed. (Hotel, even better) What book do you re-read? Any Human Heart by William Boyd, The Riders or Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, Beloved or Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (published in 1937), The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (the 2006 World War II fiction by the British author). What books are on your bedside table?

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (the Scottish writer’s 1961 novel); The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers (the 2021 debut novel by the American poet); Honey from a Weed: Fasting and Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades and Apulia by Patience Gray (1986). What are you writing now? No new writing at the moment. Simply recharging. Still Life by Sarah Winman: 4th Estate HarperCollins, $40