Welcome to The Author As A Reader where your favourite authors reveal the books that shaped them. In this series, we dive into their reading lives, from the stories that bring them comfort to the books they can’t stop recommending. They’ll share the novels they’d love to see on screen, the covers they can’t resist, and even the book that made them believe in the power of words. It’s a cozy, behind-the-scenes look at the books that have left a mark and who knows, you might just find your next memorable read.
Tochi Eze wears many hats. Based between Nigeria and the U.S., she’s currently working on a PhD while teaching, yet still finds time to write beautiful stories. Eze’s debut novel, This Kind of Trouble, is set across a vibrant 1960s Lagos and the emotional distance of contemporary Atlanta, it follows Margaret and Benjamin as forbidden love and ancestral secrets tear, but ultimately reconnect, their lives across decades.
Praised by The New York Times, People, and Publishers Weekly, the family saga marks Eze has only cemented her place as one to watch. In this edition of The Author as a Reader, Tochi invites us into her reading world: the books that shaped her storytelling sensibility, the characters she revisits, and the stories that keep her inspired.
The Author As A Reader | Tochi Eze
My earliest reading memory: I didn’t start consciously reading very early, but I listened to a lot of narrated folklore, which can be a form of reading. When I got a little older, in secondary school, Danielle Steel, John Grisham etc became my constant companions.
A book I’d like to see adapted to the screen is: Grace Olufunke Bankole’s The Edge of Water. It will be a slow drama for sure, and it has to be done by Nollywood to get the mood and cadence of rural Ibadan just right. But it’s exactly what I’d like to see on screen on a lazy, rainy saturday.
A book that reminded me why I wanted to be a writer in the first place: Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go
The most recent book I’ve seen with the most gorgeous cover: Emily Hunt Kivel’s Dwelling
I decide what to read next when I finish a book by: I don’t really have a system, and oftentimes I’ll read multiple things at a time, so it can feel like I’m never ending a specific work but always adding on more. Sigh.
The book I think is most underrated: Ayse Papatya Bucak’s The Trojan War Museum and Other Stories
If my book had a soundtrack, the first song would be… I don’t write to music, but maybe early highlife and Juju tracks for that golden 60s mood.
The last book I purchased: Yiming Ma’s These Memories Do Not Belong to Us
A book that made me recognize the power of words: Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending
An author I discovered late who made me wish I’d found them sooner: Donna Tartt
A book with the best opening line: Honestly, I can’t decide. I prefer to think about openings in the general direction of the mood it evokes. But one of my favorite lines in a novel is in Selasi’s Ghana Must Go: “She sleeps like a cocoyam”
The book I’m most ashamed not to have read: Many of them actually. But I’ll go for Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time
A book I picked up specifically to challenge myself as a reader: Still Proust, but somehow could never get beyond the first thirty pages or so.
If I could recommend one book to my younger self, it would be: Dostoevsky
Something Bookish Curators are always on the lookout for the next great read to add to your #TBR. Whether it’s a backlist gem, a breakout debut, the book everyone will be talking about next, or a beloved classic, we’ve got recommendations you won’t want to miss. Join the conversation and read along with us on social!
