Lit Hub asked the seven first-time novelists shortlisted for the 2015 Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize what book inspired them to become the authors they are today. Sophie McManus says,
I was ten and reading A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin when the understanding that I’d make my life with books settled upon me. It was as if someone had dropped a heavy cloak over my head, its marvelous weight to keep me company and keep me warm wherever I went, as long as I lived.”
Other inspirational stories cited are Curious George (Viet Thanh Nguyen), The Giver by Lois Lowry (Tanwi Nandini Islam), and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (Angela Flournoy).
