Howard Norman's 6 favorite books

Howard Norman's books include the novels The Northern Lights and The Bird Artist, and the memoir, I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place.

One of the author's six favorite books, as told to The Week magazine:

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

"This is a record of hate far more than of love," says writer Maurice Bendrix as he recalls his affair with one Sarah Miles. Each time I read this novel, I want to be Maurice writing it, yet also want to inhabit the life of Sarah's cuckolded husband and definitely the life of Sarah herself. Her death sets both men free to be imprisoned by the past.

Read about another book on the list.

Howard Norman's The Bird Artist is one of Michael J. Fox's best books.

The End of the Affair also appears on Newsweek's list of love-charmed novels from bomb-blitzed London, Alex Preston's top 10 list of fictional characters struggling with faith, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best explosions in literature, ten of the best umbrellas in literature, ten of the best novels about novelists, and ten of the best priests in literature, and Douglas Kennedy's top ten list of books about grief. It is one of Pico Iyer's four essential Graham Greene novels.

--Marshal Zeringue