Anne Tyler
I love the characters in Anne Tyler’s books. When reading reviews of Tyler’s books, some people complain about a thin plot or the fact that “nothing really happens” in her books. I think that’s exactly why she’s such a wonderful author. Her characters are so lifelike, and by the end of the book, I often feel like I have known these characters for a long time. In her most recent novel, Digging To America, Tyler focuses on two couples who happen to receive their adopted Korean babies on the same day, at the same airport. The couples couldn’t be more different: Bitsy and Brad Donaldson are 100%, home-grown-red-white-and-blue Americans, while Sami and Zeba Yazdan, are of Iranian descent. Even though the two couples’ lives intersect by chance, they become friends because of the circumstances under which they met. Again, this plot may seem thin and not exciting, but the way Tyler tells the story and develops her characters is captivating.