One, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I like books that have a story within a story... where turning to the next chapter you enter another story, like walking through a door and not knowing what's on the other side. I also find Bronte's language very poetic. She evokes a harsh landscape, violent weather and storminess to portray the very same emotions in the protagonist.
The second book is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set in 17th-century America, it is about a woman who has to wear the letter 'A', for 'adulteress'. You see that her sin is no different than those who scorn her despite their own imperfections, deceits and disloyalties. It shows that religious authorities and political leaders pass moral judgment, which are often untrue. It helped me when, as a teenager in the 1980s, I felt like an outcast even though I knew that what the larger world, the media and the church said about gay people wasn't correct.
— David Ebershoff (Author of The Danish Girl)
As told to Ornella D'souza
