Best books . . . chosen by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Prize
Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Prize–winning Irish poet, chooses a book from each of his six decades, beginning with the 1940s. Heaney’s latest book of poetry is District and Circle.
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (Scholastic, $4) One of the first books I owned, brought by Santa Claus. The story of David Balfour’s adventures after he “took the key from his father’s house for the last time” still entrances.
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence (Dover, $4) Lawrence’s early masterpiece overwhelmed me in my late teens: the novel as a book of life, an introduction to the son and lover in oneself and an interrogation of them.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

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.
Lupercal by Ted Hughes (out of print) When I took it off the shelf in a public library at the age of 23, I came alive to poetry and my experience came alive to me as if I were a battery being charged.
The Bog People by P.V. Glob (New York Review, $17) Glob was an archaeologist with the imagination of a poet. In this account of bodies found in the bogs of northern Europe, the dead walk out of their museums into the mystery of their Iron Age lives and sacrificial deaths. My Christmas present to myself in 1969.
Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam (Modern Library, $23) One of the greatest books about the vocation of poetry: a fierce computing of what it cost the author and her husband, the doomed Osip Mandelstam, to maintain “inner freedom” in the terror world of Stalin’s Soviet Union. Dantesque in its readiness to mete out punishment and praise.
New and Collected Poems by Czeslaw
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Milosz (Ecco, $20) Lithuanian-born, Polish speaking, orchestral in his language, stretched—as he once said—“between politics and transcendence,” Milosz was one of the great poets of the 20th century.
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (Vintage, $13) This was my first encounter with Mankell’s faintly depressive fast-foodie detective, Kurt Wallander. I went immediately on a binge read.
-
How Zohran Mamdani's NYC mayoral run will change the Democratic Party
Talking Points The candidate poses a challenge to the party's 'dinosaur wing'
-
Book reviews: '1861: The Lost Peace' and 'Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers'
Feature How America tried to avoid the Civil War and the link between lead pollution and serial killers
-
Brian Wilson: the troubled genius who powered the Beach Boys
Feature The musical giant passed away at 82
-
John Kenney's 6 favorite books that will break your heart softly
Feature The novelist recommends works by John le Carré, John Kennedy Toole, and more
-
Andrea Long Chu's 6 favorite books for people who crave new ideas
Feature The book critic recommends works by Rachel Cusk, Sigmund Freud, and more
-
Bryan Burrough's 6 favorite books about Old West gunfighters
Feature The Texas-raised author recommends works by T.J. Stiles, John Boessenecker, and more
-
Tash Aw's 6 favorite books about forbidden love
Feature The Malaysian novelist recommends works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and more
-
Richard Bausch's 6 favorite books that are worth rereading
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and more
-
Marya E. Gates' 6 favorite books about women filmmakers
Feature The film writer recommends works by Julie Dash, Sofia Coppola, and more
-
Laurence Leamer's 6 favorite books that took courage to write
Feature The author recommends works by George Orwell, Truman Capote and more
-
Amor Towles' 6 favorite books from the 1950s
Feature The author recommends works by Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, and more