Six top books about the private lives of artists

Tom Rachman's latest novel is The Italian Teacher.

One of the author's six favorite books about the private lives of artists, as shared at The Week magazine:

Any Human Heart by William Boyd

I love novels that recount a life from childhood to old age. Here, the bio is of fictional writer Logan Mountstuart, whose life intersects with momentous 20th-century events, literary heroes (Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf), and great visual artists too (Pollock and the inescapable Picasso). Mountstuart is also a flawed man; a late-life reckoning awaits.

Read about another entry on the list.

Any Human Heart also appears among Sandra Howard's six best books, John O’Farrell's top ten celebrity appearances in fiction, Eoin Colfer's six favorite books, and John Mullan's ten best novels about novelists.

--Marshal Zeringue