Chris Pavone: five books that changed me

Chris Pavone’s first novel, The Expats, was published in 2012, and was a New York Times and international bestseller, with nearly twenty foreign editions and a major film deal. The Expats was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a Macavity, and awards from the Strand Magazine Critics Circle, the Mystery Booksellers Association, and the International Thriller Writers, and received the 2013 Edgar Award and the 2013 Anthony Award for Best First Novel.

Pavone's new novel is The Accident.

One of five books that changed him, as shared with the Sydney Morning Herald:

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

Sometimes a passage about a barge in a river is just a description of a barge in a river; sometimes it's much more. Closely reading Hemingway opened my eyes to the immense pleasures of very careful reading of very careful writing. I think Hemingway was the most deliberate of prose stylists, draping layers of metaphor and meaning over everything. The books are fine to read cursorily. But if you slow down and savour every sentence, they become extraordinary.

Read about another book on the list.

The Sun Also Rises is on Sara Jonsson's list of seven of the best literary treatments of envy, Simon Akam's top ten list of the most attractive women in literature and John Mullan's list of 10 of the best taxis in literature. It came in at #6 on the American Book Review list of the 100 best last lines from novels; it is a book that Andre Dubus III frequently returns to.

Visit Chris Pavone's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Expats.

Coffee with a Canine: Chris Pavone & Charlie Brown.

The Page 69 Test: The Accident.

Writers Read: Chris Pavone.

--Marshal Zeringue