Need a New Book Recommendation? See What The Sequel Author Jean Hanff Korelitz Is Reading (Exclusive)

‘Why Not Say What Happened?’ by Ivana Lowell

Hanff Korelitz loved this memoir by Lowell, the daughter of Lady Caroline Blackwood and stepdaughter of poet Robert Lowell.

“Hers would be a childhood that we’ve all read about in biographies of all the people involved,” Hanff Korelitz said. “But this was her story and it was quite good.”

‘The Paying Guests’ by Sarah Waters

The author called this historical novel, about the devastation caused when a family takes a young couple into their London home, one of her “highlights of the last few months.”

The ‘Jane Whitefield’ series by Thomas Perry

The author is a fan of Perry’s Jane Whitefield mystery novel series, which debuted in 1995 with Vanishing Act. The books follow Jane Whitefield, a Native American woman who heads a business “helping the desperate disappear,” per the description of Vanishing Act. 

“I think he’s the great current writer of suspense, and I’m just in awe of how he’s turned out book after book that are so compelling,” Hanff Korelitz says. “I would be totally tongue-tied if I ever got to meet Thomas Perry.”

‘The God of the Woods’ by Liz Moore

Hanff Korrelitz will be in conversation with Moore at the Texas Book Festival on Nov. 17, and says she’s “all ready” to speak about Moore’s latest novel. The God of the Woods follows the aftermath of a teenager’s disappearance from a summer camp in the 1970s, and was one of the year’s buzziest books.