Sophie’s Choice

William Styron’s classic novel Sophie's Choice is the story of an unemployed young writer (Stingo) who moves into a cheap boarding house, where he meets Sophie (a Holocaust survivor) and Nathan (a biologist with schizophrenia). Drama, sexual attraction, and jealousy ensue; and Styron effectively combines the personal and political as he uses the characters to explore deeper subjects of anti-Semitism, religion and philosophy. The book is held back by its far-fetched plot — the chance boarding house meeting of the three protagonists plagues every scene that comes after it — but Styron is a solid writer.