Best books… Jane Smiley

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author chooses her five favourite books. Her latest novel, The Strays of Paris, is available now, published by Mantle at £16.99

Why the West Rules – for Now by Ian Morris, 2010 (Profile £12.99). My favourite mega-history book, about the back and forth relationship between the history of the Far East and the West. Morris begins 1.8 million years ago, with a discussion of archaeological finds in China, and ends, after 768 pages, with speculations about what is to come.

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, 1862 (Penguin £7.99). The most accessible Russian novel, and maybe the most enlightening about familial and personal relationships. All of the characters, sympathetic and unsympathetic, are beautifully depicted, and there is a subtle wit that is very amusing.

1606: Shakespeare and the Year of Lear by James Shapiro, 2015 (Faber £10.99). Everything you ever wanted to know about Shakespeare but were afraid to ask. Shapiro explores Shakespeare through his environment and the events (from an outbreak of the plague to the Gunpowder Plot) that took place during a tumultuous year when he wrote several of his best plays. Every detail is fascinating.

The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe, 2020 (Vintage £11.45). A recent YA novel about an athletic young woman who is teased and taunted by the other middleschool girls. Told from the point of view of her male best friend – who is gay but trying to hide it – it depicts the early teens in a way that is truthful and riveting, in a sharp and precise style.

I, Tituba by Maryse Condé, 1986 (University of Virginia Press £17.50). A historical novel, told from the point of view of a slave in 17th century Barbados, who is sold to a Puritan minister and goes with his family to Salem, Massachusetts. Based on a real person, this is one of the most honest and dramatic books about the history of slavery and religion that I have ever read.