Anne Tyler

"I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place."

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her bestselling novels include Breathing Lessons, The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Ladder of Years, Back When We Were Grownups, A Patchwork Planet, The Amateur Marriage, Digging to America, A Spool of Blue Thread, Vinegar Girl and Clock Dance.

In 1989 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons; in 1994 she was nominated by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby as 'the greatest novelist writing in English'; in 2012 she received the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence; and in 2015 A Spool of Blue Thread was a Sunday Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize.

What kind of books does Anne Tyler write?

Anne Tyler is a novelist best known for literary and contemporary fiction,character-driven novels often centred on family and domestic life.

Which Anne Tyler books are most well known or recommended?

Notable titles include Breathing Lessons (Pulitzer Prize winner), The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, A Spool of Blue Thread, Clock Dance and Vinegar Girl.

Where is a good place to start reading Anne Tyler?

Good entry points are Breathing Lessons (Pulitzer Prize winner), The Accidental Tourist, A Spool of Blue Thread or the more recent Clock Dance,any of these showcase her style and can be read independently.

Do Anne Tyler's books form a series or have a specific reading order?

Most of Anne Tyler's novels are standalone works and can be read in any order; there is no overarching series or required sequence.

What major awards and recognition has Anne Tyler received?

She won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons, received the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in 2012, and A Spool of Blue Thread was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize and the Man Booker Prize in 2015.