In Beatriz Williams' new novel, Under the Stars, a mother and daughter are drawn into an 1840s mystery by the discovery of a cache of paintings. Below, the best-selling author of Husbands and Lovers and The Summer Wives names works that have shaped her own.
'The Aubrey-Maturin novels' by Patrick O'Brian (1969–2004)
'Persuasion' by Jane Austen (1817)
"Ten thousand a year" is all very sexy, as Pride and Prejudice readers know. But this tender, bittersweet story of lovers reunited years after an agonizing rupture will always be my favorite Austen, my blueprint for true love. Buy it here.
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'The Palliser novels' by Anthony Trollope (1865–80)
Nobody else in my MBA class was procrasti-reading Trollope instead of case studies, but then what else could have better prepared me for my career than this master class in creating a fictional universe of beloved characters? Buy it here.
'Testament of Youth' by Vera Brittain (1933)
I had to abandon this harrowing First World War memoir midway through, after an enemy sniper kills the author's fiancé. Eventually—like Brittain herself—I picked myself up and carried on with the narrative, and its raw emotional truth populated my understanding of history with real human beings. Buy it here.
'Their Eyes Were Watching God' by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
We swooned over Gatsby glamour in high school, but it was Hurston's shattering novel about a Black woman facing down sexual and racial politics in early 20th-century Florida that opened my ears to the virtuoso power of voice to convey character and ideas. Buy it here.
'Heart of the Matter' by Emily Giffin (2010)
On the face of it, this novel of an affair in the Boston affluburbs is pure literary catnip. But Giffin commits so honestly to each woman's perspective, electrified by the punch of visceral detail, she altered the way I think and write about human relationships, whether historical or contemporary. Buy it here.
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The UK’s ‘wallaby boom’Under the Radar The Australian marsupial has ‘colonised’ the Isle of Man and is now making regular appearances on the UK mainland
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Fast food is no longer affordable to low-income AmericansThe explainer Cheap meals are getting farther out of reach
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‘The money to fix this problem already exists’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
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Park Avenue: New York family drama with a ‘staggeringly good’ castThe Week Recommends Fiona Shaw and Katherine Waterston have a ‘combative chemistry’ as a mother and daughter at a crossroads
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Jay Kelly: ‘deeply mischievous’ Hollywood satire starring George ClooneyThe Week Recommends Noah Baumbach’s smartly scripted Hollywood satire is packed with industry in-jokes
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Motherland: a ‘brilliantly executed’ feminist history of modern RussiaThe Week Recommends Moscow-born journalist Julia Ioffe examines the women of her country over the past century
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Music reviews: Rosalía and Mavis Staplesfeature “Lux” and “Sad and Beautiful World”
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6 homes for entertainingFeature Featuring a heated greenhouse in Pennsylvania and a glamorous oasis in California
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Film reviews: ‘Jay Kelly’ and ‘Sentimental Value’Feature A movie star looks back on his flawed life and another difficult dad seeks to make amends
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6 homes on the Gulf CoastFeature Featuring an elegant townhouse in New Orleans’ French Quarter and contemporary coastal retreat in Texas
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The vast horizons of the Puna de AtacamaThe Week Recommends The ‘dramatic and surreal’ landscape features volcanoes, fumaroles and salt flats
