Five books that can move us to empathy, to courage, to love

Stephen Grosz is a practicing psychoanalyst—he has worked with patients for more than twenty-five years. Born in America, educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Oxford University, he teaches at the Institute of Psychoanalysis and in the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College London. He lives in London.

His stories have appeared in the Financial Times Weekend Magazine and Granta.

A Sunday Times bestseller, The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves is his first book.

For the Telegraph, Grosz named five books "that can move us to empathy, to courage, to love," including:

Illuminating but never instructing, Anton Chekhov’s stories – in particular, The Lady with the Little Dog (1899) – show us individuals, families, relationships in a clear, succinct way. He is one of those great writers who help us to understand what goes on in a human heart.

Read about another book on Grosz's list.

--Marshal Zeringue