Five books that influenced Louise Penny's life

Louise Penny shared with CBC Books "some of the books that have played an important role in her personal and professional life," including:

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat

"One of the books that made a big impression on me was Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf. I remember the moment, in the classroom, when I suddenly realized that Farley Mowat was Canadian, that he was a writer and he was alive. It was possible to be all three at once! Up until that moment, most of the books we had read were by British writers who were long dead. So the fact that a Canadian could be a contemporary writer was an eye opener... When Still Life was about to come out, my husband Michael and I were on a train and a couple of rows up ahead of us was this tiny little man. Mowat had this very specific look — you couldn't mistake him for anyone else. I spent most of the trip wondering if I should say something. Finally, I got up and went down to introduce myself. I explained how his body of work had been such an inspiration to me, and how my first book was just about to be published and the taproot was Never Cry Wolf. I remember thanking him and then walking back in streams of tears, happy that I could finally thank this man for what he had done."

Read about the other entries on the list.

Visit Louise Penny's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Louise Penny & Trudy.

--Marshal Zeringue