Michael Ondaatje's 5 most important books

In the April 23, 2007 issue of Newsweek, Booker Prize-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje named his five most important books ... after limiting "himself to 20th-century works and assum[ing] Faulkner, Cather and García Márquez went without saying."

Number One on his list:

The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth.

This is the great epic of the first half of the 20th century about three generations of an Austrian family. Intimate and visionary and stunningly written.

Read about the other four titles to make the list.

Ondaatje's new novel, Divisadero, is out this month.

--Marshal Zeringue