Four books that changed Laura Lippman

Since the publication of her first novel in 1997, Laura Lippman has won virtually every major award given to U.S. crime writings, including the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Agatha Award, Nero Wolfe Award, Shamus Award, and the Quill Award. She is a New York Times bestseller. Lippman's novels include a number standalones as well as Hush Hush, her twelfth Tess Monaghan novel.

One of four books that changed the author, as shared at the Sydney Morning Herald:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith

This is considered a young adult novel and I think it's an unrecognised American classic because it centres on the life of a young girl. Set in Brooklyn 100 years before the neighbourhood became hip, it is about a family trapped in grinding poverty. It also has one of the best insights on writing that I've ever read. The heroine, Francie Nolan, yearns to write. After trying to create lush fantasies for a teacher who finds her real-life stories "sordid", Francie realises that describing one's fantasies is a round-about way of being inauthentic.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue