Entertainment Weekly often finds ways to enliven interviews, and in “Books of My Life: Elizabeth Strout on Madame Bovary, The Journals of John Cheever, and other favorites,” writer Isabella Biedenharn asked Strout to name the book she loved in school (Madame Bovary), a novel she read in secret (The Man Who Had Everything), the book that “cemented” her as a writer (the works of Alice Munro and William Trevor), the book that changed her life (The Journals of John Cheever), a classic she’s never read (The Grapes of Wrath), and her favorite book as a child:

Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories, by John Updike. For each answer she offers a brief explanation, and here’s what she had to say about the Updike book:

“I was probably around 8 when I found a copy of it on our coffee table. I am sure much of it I didn’t understand, but I had a real sense that this was how grown-ups were, and I was thrilled by it.”

Strout is the author of such books as My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel, (2016), The Burgess Boys: A Novel (2014), Olive Kitteridge (2008), Abide with Me: A Novel (2007), and Amy and Isabelle: A Novel (2000).