Where to start with Carol Shields

Canadian and American novelist, 1935–2003. Won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 1998 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1995.

Best Carol Shields book to start with: The Stone Diaries (1993), on 3 of the 20 lists it could have made.

Read The Stone Diaries first. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993. It tells the life of one ordinary woman across the 20th century, and it is told in an unusual way: sometimes she speaks for herself, sometimes others speak for her, with letters and photographs mixed in. It is a manageable length and moves quickly, and the form is easy to get used to.

Unless was shortlisted for both the Booker in 2002 and the Women’s Prize in 2003. A woman who translates books and writes light novels discovers that her daughter has dropped out of her life, and the book is her search for why. It is wry and sad. Larry’s Party won the Women’s Prize in 1998 and follows one man’s life through its key moments. It is the lightest of the three, so read it when you want a warm book.