The books that CHANGED MY LIFE

Elizabeth Strout

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout has just released the paperback of her latest book, Olive,

Again. Here, she shares the books that have made her laugh, cry and think…

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME LAUGH

Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel is a book my daughter gave me about female painters in New York City during the

1950s. I can’t remember what I Iaughed at; only that I laughed aloud while reading it!

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY

I recently read Hemingway In Love by A. E. Hotchner, and I found myself suddenly bawling when Hemingway described the last time he saw his first wife, Hadley, in Paris.

I have read many biographies of Hemingway and there is some dispute over whether this was the last time he saw her, but

I didn’t care – in his own words, he described this to Hotchner and it set me weeping copiously.

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WAY I THINK

I found Jung: A Biography by

Deirdre Bair fascinating and it was as though a ceiling had been raised for me in the world. I understood – as I have often intuited – that there is so much more than

meets the eye.

THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME

The Journals Of John Cheever, when I first discovered it, felt to me like a secret friend. I was having difficulties in my first marriage and I felt that the honesty of Cheever in these pages was a great and very deep help. After that period passed, I went back and read them again and, so sadly, I did not feel the same way. But the book was a tremendous comfort to me at that time.

THE BOOK I MOST OFTEN GIVE TO OTHERS

William Trevor is one of my favourite writers. Each story in William Trevor The Collected Stories provides an amazing experience; he is warmhearted and yet truthful. I just adore his work.