Saturday, April 21, 2012

Joseph Olshan's six favorite books

Joseph Olshan is the award-winning author of ten novels including Nightswimmer and The Conversion. He spends most of the year in Vermont.

His latest novel is Cloudland.

One of his six favorite books, as told to The Week magazine:
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal

A novel of political intrigue that tells the life story of a 19th-century Italian nobleman as he goes to war, falls in love, and becomes enmeshed in internecine conflicts of church and state. The great scenes set at the Battle of Waterloo clearly were an inspiration to Tolstoy, whose novel was published 30 years later.
Read about the other books on the list.

The Charterhouse of Parma is on John Mullan's list of ten of the best battles in literature; La Chartreuse de Parme is one of Claire Tomalin's five most important books.

Visit Joseph Olshan's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Conversion.

The Page 69 Test: Cloudland.

Writers Read: Joseph Olshan.

--Marshal Zeringue