When I kept seeing the author Anita Brookner on lists of recommended books, I decided it was time I read her. The winner of the Booker Prize for Hotel du Lac, Brookner has been dubbed a modern day Jane Austen. Real Simple magazine recently suggested her  her Brief Lives on its list of summer reads, and Rumaan Alam in her article for the New York Times  – In Praise of Anita Brookner  – offered a starter kit for her books:

The Debut The novelist’s first work opens with a brilliant line — “Dr. Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.” — and establishes the themes that Brookner would revisit over the years.

Hotel du Lac Her best-known work (which received the Booker Prize in something of an upset) is about a romance novelist on holiday in Switzerland.

Look At Me My favorite of Brookner’s books is about a librarian whom no one seems to see, and contains what must be literature’s most depressing office holiday party.

Dolly This story of a young woman and her elderly, quite monstrous aunt surprises by showing how family bonds can endure over the years.

Fraud A woman of a certain age goes missing. This beautiful book isn’t a thriller but a fantasy for anyone who’s dreamed of leaving an unfulfilling reality behind.

So, here I go, immersing myself in a writer. Have you read any of Brookner’s books?