Books by Shirley Hazzard
“This is a book that I read over and over. I keep it on my desk when I write, because I feel like I can turn to any page of that book and remember what good writing is and why I write. It’s the story of Sophie. She lives in England, but we find out she’s half Italian. She goes to see her Aunt Luisa just outside Siena. She goes to a sad little afternoon tea, with Luisa’s friends, who are artists and they are older. Sophie must be early thirties, and there she meets the middle-aged Tancredi, who is not really in the mood to be there, and doesn’t much like the look of her. So it starts slowly, and I think reluctantly, on both of their sides. But the minute they start speaking to each other, they have this wonderful, literature-fueled conversation that carries through the rest of the book. It’s beautiful writing. Every sentence is so stunning. Everything in it just moves me. And so their love really moves me.” Read more...
The Best Literary Love Stories
Lily King, Novelist
Interviews where books by Shirley Hazzard were recommended
The Best Literary Love Stories, recommended by Lily King
A satisfying literary love story doesn’t need to end happily ever after—but one does need to be left with a sense that two characters belong together, advises the novelist Lily King, whose book Heart the Lover follows the long tail of a campus love triangle. Here, she selects five novels from literary writers that examine love and desire in the depth they deserve.
