Four books that changed Rachel Seiffert

Rachel Seiffert's most recent novel is A Boy in Winter.

One of four books that changed the author, as shared at the Sydney Morning Herald:

WASHINGTON SQUARE
Henry James

A father and daughter disagree over a suitor in 19th-century polite New York society. I read this out of desperation on a rainy family holiday as a 16-year-old, having taken too few books along. My mum had just finished it, and she passed it on to me to stop me complaining of boredom. "Nothing's happened yet," I kept reporting back to her every few pages. But I was hooked! It marks the point where I became a grown-up as a reader: plot isn't everything – not when you have characters with such rich interior lives to explore.

Read about the other books on the list.

Washington Square is among four books that changed Ian McGuire, five books that changed Carol Wall, and Will Eaves's top ten siblings' stories.

--Marshal Zeringue