Sarah Hall: 'Everyone wangs on about Anna Karenina

April 3, 2026

TL;DR

Early reading memories include Cumbrian ghost tales, nursery rhymes, and 'The Ant and Bee' books, with 'The Story of Ferdinand' being her first independent read.
'Z for Zachariah' by Robert C O’Brien was a significant teenage read, praised for its resourceful heroine and themes of agency.
Writers Angela Carter and Buchi Emecheta influenced her views on female narratives and creativity.
Michael Ondaatje's 'Coming Through Slaughter' inspired her transition to fiction writing.
She has repeatedly tried and failed to finish Leo Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' but rereads 'The Story of Ferdinand' for its message on non-combatant strength.
James Salter is a 'lodestar' for his exquisite prose and appreciated 'truth'.
'Jane Eyre' is a book she could not read again, but it led her to 'Wide Sargasso Sea'.
Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall' trilogy is described as a 'killer trilogy' that created new metaphysics for historical fiction.
Currently reading 'Wolves: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation' for a film script.
Her comfort reads have included a dictionary of lighthouse codes and now 'The Little Book of Humanism'.

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