Britain’s biggest specialist book chain, Waterstone’s, asked its 5,000 staff to name their favourite five books written since 1982, the date Waterstone’s opened its first store. The list features the cream, both male and female, of the modern international literary world of the last quarter of a century - from Umberto Eco and Bill Bryson to Robert Harris and Ian McEwan, from Margaret Atwood and Jung Chang to Zadie Smith and Zoe Heller.
- JH