Two popular authors are branching out from the type of books they made their name writing, and are earning acclaim in the process.
Lisa Scottoline is the first of these authors. She’s known for her crime fiction. Her new novel “Eternal” breaks the mold as her only (so far) historical novel. She says “I told myself ‘This is what you’ve always wanted. It’s the culmination of your career.’” The genesis of the book goes back decades, to when she took a seminar taught by Philip Roth. There she was introduced to the work of Primo Levi, an Italian Jewish chemist sent to Auschwitz during World War II. She agreed with Roth that the Italian Holocaust was scarcely understood and knew she wanted to help change that, but never did. Until now.
“Eternal,” set in the years prior to and during World War II, features three young Italians who have grown up as best friends in Italy. Elisabetta is an aspiring novelist. Marco is the scion of a professional cycling family. Sandro is a math prodigy and is Jewish. Both Sandro and Marco fall in love with Elisabetta. The shadow of Nazism and the Holocaust begins to move into their lives as Italy aligns itself ever more closely with Hitler. “Eternal” is currently number four on the fiction best seller list.
The second author is Kristin Hannah, who came to prominence writing what is generally referred to as women’s fiction. Unlike Scottoline, Hannah already has done some branching out, most notably with “The Great Alone” but also with some historical fiction. “The Four Winds” continues this trend. Elsa Wolcott transforms from a fragile girl (having been stricken with rheumatic fever at age ten) to a fearless, resilient woman. It begins when she embraces life as a wheat farmer’s wife in Texas. But the core of the novel comes later, during the Dust Bowl. Their farm fails, sending Elsa and her children, having been abandoned by her husband, to join tens of thousands of migrants to California. The book is currently #1 on the fiction best seller list.
“To the Mountain” by Erik Raschke is a survival story of an 11-year-old boy stranded alone on a mountain and his father who faces the elements in order to find him. Marshall is autistic and was sent to a reform center by his father Jace after a violent outburst. Only one person there understands Marshall. He helps Marshall escape, but their van crashes. His helper is badly injured, leaving Marshall to use outdoor skills learned from his father to survive and find his mother, whom he mistakenly believes has died and is waiting for him at the top of “The Mountain.” Jace, afflicted by guilt for having institutionalized his son, drops everything to find Marshall and re-connect with him.
Walter Isaacson is renowned for writing biographies which are both masterful and best-selling, such as “Einstein” and “Steve Jobs.” This time Isaacson turns his attention to someone you may not have heard of yet but probably should: Jennifer Doudna. In “The Code Breaker,” Isaacson relates the story of how Doudna and colleagues discovered CRISPR, which enables doctors and scientists to edit genes. Doudna and her collaborator were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2020. The book debuted at #1 on the nonfiction best seller list.
