Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Joseph Olshan

Joseph Olshan is the award-winning author of ten novels including Nightswimmer and The Conversion. He spends most of the year in Vermont.

His latest novel is Cloudland.

Earlier this month I asked Olshan what he was reading. His reply:
I am reading two books at present. The first is The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope, the third novel in the Palliser series. Most Trollope fans will understand it when I say that reading his novels is like eating candy. They have wonderful, intricate plotting, great characters, they give an instructive overview of the political scene in England during the 19th century, and they dissect and parse the vagaries and traditions of the upper classes. Trollope is particularly good at creating feckless yet compelling young men. I blistered through Phineas Finn and look forward to Phineas Redux, which is the novel in the series that follows The Eustace Diamonds.

The other book I am reading is Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. This is an amazing non-fiction account of the life of President James Garfield, an extraordinary dark horse of a fellow who is assassinated and whose well-being becomes the obsession of Alexander Graham Bell, who believes that one of his inventions can save the president's life.
Visit Joseph Olshan's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Conversion.

The Page 69 Test: Cloudland.

--Marshal Zeringue