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Novelist Hisham Matar is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the memoir "The Return." In his new novel, "My Friends," a Libyan man living in London looks back on two friendships and how his life was changed by a deadly 1984 demonstration.
'Good Morning, Midnight' by Jean Rhys (1939)
I have been returning to Jean Rhys ever since picking up her quartet of early novels one summer and reading them back to back, in chronological order, while beside the sea. "Good Morning, Midnight," the last of the four, remains my favorite. Nearly every sentence is perfect. It shatters the soul, and has much to tell us about displacement and exile. Buy it here.
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'Kidnapped' by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
There was very little that Robert Louis Stevenson did not know how to do on the page, and I have always loved his lesser-known works, two in particular: the travel memoir "The Amateur Emigrant" and "Kidnapped," an adventure novel that draws inspiration from a 1752 assassination. Both books contain such rare insights, and writing that never takes your attention for granted. Buy it here.
'The Return' by Joseph Conrad (1898)
The same can be said for Stevenson's literary-spirit sibling, Joseph Conrad. I recommend two Conrad novellas, or long short stories: "The Secret Sharer" and "The Return" — the title of which I borrowed for my memoir. Try to get the edition of "The Return" with an introduction by the marvelous Colm Tóibín. Conrad’s story will have you gripped at each page. Buy it here.
'Winter Recipes From the Collective' by Louise Glück (2021)
Glück’s writing ever so slightly alters time and space. I recently read this poetry collection, the last completed by the Nobel Prize winner before she departed. Her lines are touched by a rare light. Buy it here.
'Warlight' by Michael Ondaatje (2018)
There are very few people writing today who match the brilliance of Michael Ondaatje. This historical novel remains with me, what with its evocations of a nocturnal and mercurial London in the last days of World War II. Buy it here.
'In Search of Lost Time' by Marcel Proust (1913-1927)
I have been raving about Marcel Proust all my life, so why stop now? Don’t let the length of this seven-volume novel cycle put you off. And the first volume, Swann’s Way, contains some of the best pages ever written. Buy it here.
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