Anna Quindlen's 6 favorite books by contemporary female authors

The best-selling author recommends works by Alice McDermott, Emma Donoghue, and more

Anna Quindlen.
(Image credit: Maria Krovatin)

In Anna Quindlen's new novel, Alternate Side, a cozy Manhattan neighborhood is upended by a violent crime. Below, the best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion columnist names six of her favorite books by female contemporary writers.

The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, $26).

The latest of McDermott's deeply felt novels is the story of a girl who grows up among the Little Sisters of the Poor in a Brooklyn convent. With her deft use of detail and her profound understanding of human nature, McDermott creates a world entire in a slender volume.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

White Houses by Amy Bloom (Random House, $27).

Bloom, too, is a gifted miniaturist, yet her novels feel epic. Here she makes vivid the love affair between Associated Press reporter Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt in a moving account of what it means to love and to lose. Kleenex handy for the denouement.

Field of Blood by Denise Mina (Little, Brown, $32).

I buy anything Mina writes, but as a former newspaper copy girl I'm particularly fond of her novels about Paddy Meehan's attempts to scale the greasy pole at a Glasgow daily. This first outing explores the murder of a toddler and whether Paddy will sell out her fiancé and her family to worm her way into a big story.

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (Hrper Perennial, $17).

Most Patchett fans — and they are legion — probably suspected she could never best Bel Canto, her 2001 award-winner. But in 2016, along came Commonwealth, a pitch-perfect evocation of the messiness of family life among six stepsiblings.

Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $15).

Donoghue is best known now for the chilling novel Room, but long before that book became a best-seller I was charmed by her tale of an 18th-century girl who pays for the extravagant clothing she craves by selling herself. It's a wonderful read for anyone who loves English doorstop novels.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (Picador, $17).

Atkinson has also produced a series of crackerjack crime novels, and scored big several years ago with a time-bending tour de force called Life After Life. But her debut novel is unforgettable, the story of one existence interspersed with all those that touch it over time. First chapter: conception. First sentence: "I exist."

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us