LAUREN NOSSETT
The professor turned novelist follows up her award-winning debut with another thriller
What is The Professor about?
A professor accused of having an affair with her student after his suspicious death and the newly retired homicide detective who must get closer than ever to a victim’s life to discover the truth.
Is there a book that made you love writing? Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.
What’s the best book you’ve read?
Recently, I’ve been enjoying social thrillers like James Mclaughlin’s Panther’s Gap, S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears, and Charlotte Mcconaghy’s Once There Were Wolves. Ashley Winstead’s critique of religious fundamentalism in her latest book Midnight is the Darkest Hour still has me reeling.
A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?
Tana French’s The Likeness made me realise that there was such a genre as a literary thriller and that beautiful prose could be combined with a compelling mystery. On a personal level, I read Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant’s Option B after the death of my husband and recommend it to anyone who’s experienced sudden loss.
What book do you re-read?
I primarily re-read books of poetry and short stories. For short stories, The Hunter’s Wife by Anthony Doerr is one of my favourites.
The book you couldn’t finish?
Demon Copperhead. It is a brilliant and beautifully-written character study, that I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t finish, but I didn’t have enough time before my book club met!
A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?
At the top of my list is Alex Michaelides’s The Fury.
The book you are most proud to have written?
I’m a former professor and wrote The Professor at a time when I was acutely aware of the mental health crises on our college campuses. In that way, it’s my most personal novel, but my most literary.
What books are on your bedside table?
On the top shelf is whatever I’m reading at the moment. Right now, that’s Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. The lower shelves are mostly the collected works of poets like Rainer Maria Rilke, Ada Limon, and Wislawa Szymborska.
A novel set in Nashville, Tennessee, where I’m living. It’s about a private investigator who’s approached by a famous but controversial musician needing help identifying a stalker. But when the musician is shot on stage and her body disappears, the police are unsure whether she’s been murdered or it’s a publicity stunt. The Professor by Lauren Nossett: Macmillan
Australia, $35