My Desert Island Books, ft. Domenica de Rosa, Elin Hilderbrand & Elena Varvello

If Bookends authors Domenica de Rosa, Elin Hilderbrand and Elena Varvello were cast away on a desert island, which books would they choose to have with them?

Domenica de Rosa, author of One Summer in Tuscany

The Mating Season by PG Wodehouse

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Nice Work by David Lodge

Persuasion by Jane Austen

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

Imaginary Friends by Alison Lurie

Elin Hilderbrand, author of The Identicals

Family Happiness by Laurie Colwin and anything by Tim Winton.  He’s my very favourite in all the world.

Elena Varvello, author of Can You Hear Me?

Benediction, Kent Haruf

A profound, powerful and moving story of life and death, set in the small fictional town of Holt, Colorado. Reading it has been a blessing for me, and still is.

Canada, Richard Ford

The life of fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons changes forever when his parents rob a bank. Canada is his story. A novel about boundaries, innocence, guilt and reconciliation. A masterpiece.

As God Commands, Niccolo Ammaniti

A father and a son, in a depressed village in Italy, fight against the world and their own private demons. A story of fear, love and tenderness despite everything. It’ll keep you up all night.

My name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout

For me, her most deeply affecting novel. The bond between a daughter and a mother, their love, secrets and memories. It’ll make you cry and then wipe your tears away.

So long, see you tomorrow, William Maxwell

This book changed my life and my writing. The burden of the past and the ways in which we try to explain it and understand it, always lying to ourselves. Every page is a wonder and a gift.