This Aussie classic made me think about a lot of things for the first time: the cultural value of immigrants, the concept of suicide, the feeling of young love, my own sexuality, what was expected of us as young women, how to make pasta sauce, how to survive high school, what we owe our mothers and grandmothers, the solidarity of family, the sting of first grief, what heartbreak might feel like, whether women can fully inhabit their own bodies.

THE NOONDAY DEMON
Andrew Solomon

This hefty encyclopaedia on depression has become my bible on clinical sadness. It – and Andrew Solomon's TED talk – is the clearest, most comprehensive and elucidating account of an illness I know so well. To my delight, I was able to interview Solomon over cheese toasties in Notting Hill, London, and I would tentatively say we have a type of friendship. I would force a copy of this book into every pair of hands in the world if I could.

STASILAND
Anna Funder

To me, this book is perfection. It is an investigative memoir of a year spent in Berlin, speaking to people from either side of the wall. It's rigorous in research but lyrical in tone, and reads almost like a novel. It made me realise that, as a writer, you can blend genres and write non-fiction with grace. It has influenced my writing enormously; I basically spend my life striving for a sliver of Funder's talent.