I'm with you, Peter T, re "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and with Spaw and others re "To Kill a Mockingbird" (but it could hardly be simpler to describe, Spaw!). I got another wonderful peek at small-town America from "Lolita." Two other stateside books that come immediately to mind are "Zen" and "Grapes of Wrath."

But above all these for me are Tawney's "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism" from which I realised that if the deceit that is religion had not existed, capitalism would have had to invent it; and "Small is Beautiful" by E F Schumacher - the first economist to appreciate that the earth's finite resources, including its atmosphere, should be treated as fixed assets rather than disposable income.

Among more recent stuff: "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor about what was overwhelmingly the most significant front in WW2, and the staggering cruelties and privations endured on both sides. (By all accounts, his "Berlin: the Downfall" is an equal achievement.)

Lastly, surely the most ambitious novel in history, a colossal tour de force, a rivetingly detailed portrait of a great city, drawn entirely from 20-year-old memories, the city being Dublin, the book being Ulysses.