Women of many words

In celebration of Women's Day, we asked noted authors for their favourite book by a woman writer

Lionel Shriver

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I love virtually all of Edith Wharton, but this one's my favourite. She's eloquent but never fussy, and always clear. This is a poignant story about a man who seems happily married, but then falls fatally in love with a woman whose own broken marriage has marked her as a social pariah. It illustrates the bind both sexes find themselves in when trapped between the demands of convention and the demands of the heart. Her skilful portrayal of the early 1900s helps me to appreciate our staggering good fortune, ladies, to live a century later. .Shriver's latest novel is Big Brother

Jo-Anne Richards

Jennifer Egan has become one of my new favourite writers since I read her brilliant A Visit From the Goon Squad. I loved the depth with which she was able to create a cast of flawed and dysfunctional characters, intersecting around the music industry. Not many people would have the courage to experiment as creatively with point of view as she does, yet she more than pulls it off. She inspires me in the way she bends the craft to her will, stretching its possibilities to provide insight and unusual perspectives..Richards's latest novel is The Imagined Child

Margie Orford

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was published in 1792 and is the original and adventurous Mary Wollstonecroft's enduring argument for the equal education of women. The book is as relevant today as it was 200 years ago. Listen to Malala Youfsazi, the teenaged Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban, speak about her utter conviction of her right to be free, to be educated. You will still, as you should, hear Mary Wollstonecroft..Orford's latest novel is Water Music

Kate Mosse

Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is a novel I've read in every decade of my life: in my teenage years, as a story of obsession and the destructive power of possessive love; in my twenties, as an investigation of race and class and the impossibility of escaping the strictures imposed by society; in my thirties, as a novel about landscape and the mystical power of nature; in my forties, with admiration for Brontë's skill with plot and structure; now, in my fifties - a novelist myself - as a masterclass in characterisation. One of the greatest of epic novels written by a prodigiously talented woman who died at the age of 30, leaving only this one masterpiece behind..Mosse's latest novel is Citadel

Marita van der Vyver

One of my all-time favourites is Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison's beautiful novel, Beloved. An unforgettable story about slavery and freedom and the extremes of maternal love, magnificently told, by a magnificent writer. What more can I say?.Van der Vyver's latest novel is Forget-me-not Blues

Jodi Picoult

Gone with the Wind. I memorised huge passages when I was 12 and pretended to be both Rhett and Scarlett (hence I had no boyfriend till I was 15 ...). I loved that Margaret Mitchell had created a world out of words, and I wanted to do the same thing. I remember reading it and being able to completely see the trauma that overtook Atlanta during the Civil War - the famine at Tara, the fall Scarlett took down the staircase.

In a way this book reminds me of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. You have two characters who should wind up together, but you just know that's never going to happen, because although they love each other, they can't live together..Picoult's latest novel is The Storyteller

Karen Jayes

Alice Munro's Selected Stories (McClelland and Stewart, 1996) pulls together the short stories of Munro's eight previous collections. She has the ability to write an entire novel in a short story - her pacing is perfect. You love, identify and despise her characters with such a living intensity that the reading experience is unforgettable. As far as novels go, I would have to choose Postcards by E Annie Proulx, for her mastery of voice and setting..Jayes's debut novel is For the Mercy of Water

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Our Sister Killjoy: or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint by Ama Ata Aidoo. I love this confident, funny novel, written in lucid, graceful prose, interspersed with verse, and full of interesting insights about Africa and Europe in the 1960s. I love the character Sissie's effortless sense of self, her complex personality, her not being too apologetic or too grateful..Adichie's latest novel is Americanah

Henrietta Rose-Innes

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers was a very important book to me growing up. It spoke to me emotionally and aesthetically, and had a big impact on my understanding of what writing can do. It's about Frankie, a lonely, tomboyish 12-year-old who struggles to belong, and who dreams of tagging along on her brother's honeymoon in Alaska. The power of the book lies in its capture of adolescence's particular mix of restlessness, hope and melancholy, and in its extraordinary atmosphere - breathless, yearning. . Rose-Innes's latest novel is Nineveh

Sindiwe Magona

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya.

"A woman, they say, always remembers her wedding night. Well, maybe they do; but for me there are other nights I prefer to remember, sweeter, fuller, when I went to my husband matured in mind as well as in body, not as a pained and awkward child as I did on that first night.".Sindiwe Magona's latest novel is Beauty's Gift

Nuvoyo Rosa Tshuma

My favourite book by a woman author would have to be the memoir The Devil That Danced on the Water by Aminatta Forna. I enjoyed it because of the vivid language and rich detail and how she handles memory to tell the story of her father. She uses a fascinating technique of interchanging first person with third person to inhabit the psyche of her father. It is a dear story to me because it evokes memories of my own father..Tshuma's debut novel is Shadows

Shaida Kazie Ali

A favourite female author is Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. It's a Bildungsroman with an engaging child-narrator, Scout, whose captivating voice compels you to keep turning the pages of the story, even though its themes, which include racial injustice and the loss of innocence, are harrowing. Ms Lee's distinctive, textured, elegant writing won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and her book has sold millions of copies worldwide and continues to attract new readers. .Ali's latest novel is Lessons in Husbandry

Jassy Mackenzie

My favourite read of the year so far has been the recently launched Team Trinity by Fiona Snyckers. Pacey, funny, entertaining and hugely enjoyable, this novel describes the adventures and escapades of the heroine, Trinity, when she spends a school term as a boarder. It's a light-hearted, beautifully written story that nonetheless tackles some serious issues including fad dieting and abusive relationships.

The book will appeal to teens and adults alike, and you won't see the surprise at the end coming, even if I tell you to look out for it now.. Mackenzie's latest novel is Folly

Zama Ndlovu

I have so many favourite books by female authors, I think it's best I pick my current favourite, which is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She comments on society, feminism, Nigeria, America, the UK, being a foreigner, and the social construct that is race. You can't help but wonder whether you are in Adichie's everyday thoughts or she is in yours..Ndlovu's debut book is A Bad Black's Manifesto

Zukiswa Wanner

Lauren Beukes's The Shining Girls has been my favourite read by any writer - male or female - this year. It's a fast-paced thriller about a time-travelling serial killer, set in Chicago. Despite copious research, Beukes does not bog down the book with details at the expense of the story, proof of what a skilful storyteller she is. I would have read The Shining Girls in one sitting, instead I read it in two. My pesky eight-year-old was whining about being hungry. Why he couldn't eat at the neighbours', I do not know..Wanner's latest novel is Men of the South