John Sayles's six favorite books

Filmmaker John Sayles is the author of two short-story collections and several novels, including Union Dues, a National Book Award nominee, and the forthcoming A Moment in the Sun.

One of his six favorite books, as told to The Week magazine:

Christ in Concrete by Pietro di Donato

Di Donato’s autobiographical immigrant novel became one of the catalysts for the Italian neorealist film movement. A book that is totally alive. Read it with Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep, Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Sport of the Gods, and Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and you’ll have the urban experience of the early 20th century pretty much covered.

Read about another book on Sayles's list.

--Marshal Zeringue