Julie Orringer's much anticipated novel The Invisible Bridge is out this month.
Back in 2004 she was interviewed by the folks at Barnes & Noble. One exchange:
What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer -- and why?
It's difficult to choose one book that most influenced my life as a writer, but if I had to choose, I might say it was Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. When I was a high school student, I found a copy in a used bookstore in Ann Arbor. It was a 1943 Random House edition with gorgeous woodcuts by Fritz Eichenberg -- Jane looked pale and determined in her plain governess' clothing; Mr. Rochester was dark-eyed, frightening, on a rearing horse. It was Jane's persistence and independence that I found exciting; I'd always loved stories about young women who struggled on through difficult circumstances, and Bronte's story seemed the archetypal example of the form.
Read
the complete Q & A.
--Marshal Zeringue
