Lucette Lagnado's 6 favorite books

The Cairo-born Lagnado recommends works by Anne Tyler, Alaa Al Aswany, and Lawrence Durrell that provided inspiration for her latest memoir

Memoirist Lucette Lagnado
(Image credit: Kathryn Szok)

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (Ballantine, $15). For me, the ultimate book about family. I have always found Tyler's characters compelling, in particular their desperate longing to re-create hearth and home in a world that seems to conspire against both. The hero, Ezra, does so by opening a restaurant that serves basically what he feels like making on any particular day — the ultimate home-cooked meal, in effect. An enormous influence on me as I set out to attack similar themes in my two memoirs.

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (Harper, $14). This novel of modern Egypt — its tensions and heartbreaks as seen through the lives of the residents of a once-grand apartment building in Cairo—is simply stunning. Published in 2002, it foretold the revolution and the rage that fueled the protests at Tahrir Square.

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