"I loved Drown, a collection of short stories by Junot Diaz. It was like switching on the telly rather than reading – and I mean this is in a good way."
Naomi Wood
What's currently on your bedside table?
Hadley, by Gioia Diliberto, a biography of Ernest Hemingway's first wife. It really reveals who had the balls in that marriage! She grounded him enormously; encouraged him when he was down and chivvied him along when he was lazy: she was an extraordinary woman. I'm also reading This Side of Paradise by F Scott Fitzgerald. It was a huge bestseller in 1920 and, what with all the kissing in dark parlours, a scandalous read. My next novel is set in the 20's so I'm reading anything set in the Jazz Age.
Which book/s would you recommend right now?
I loved Drown, a collection of short stories by Junot Diaz. It was like switching on the telly rather than reading - and I mean this is in a good way. Room, by Emma Donaghue, was also a very fast, very disturbing read. I always recommend The Body Artist, too, by Don DeLillo: a couple eat an unforgettable breakfast, and not much else happens. It's beautiful.
Which book/s are you planning to take with you on your next journey?
Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro and a very slim looking Wolf Hall I bought in America ; they've somehow managed to disguise its heftiness. After reading Diaz's Drown, I'm also keen to start his The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
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Naomi Wood is 27 and lives in London. She studied at Cambridge and is a graduate of the UEA Creative Writing programme.
Her debut novel, The Godless Boys, is published by Picador.
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Thursday, 24 February, 2011
In Author Recommendations
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