Authors Like Jojo Moyes

Rosamunde Pilcher

British · The Shell Seekers (1987), Coming Home (1995)

Pilcher (1924–2019) was born in Cornwall and wrote romances as Jane Fraser before publishing under her own name. The Shell Seekers follows Penelope Keeling, a woman in her sixties, and her grown children's quarrel over a painting by her father; it became an international bestseller. Her novels were adapted many times for German television.

Maeve Binchy

Irish · Light a Penny Candle (1982), Circle of Friends (1990), Tara Road (1998)

Binchy (1939–2012) was born in Dalkey, County Dublin, taught for some years and became a columnist at The Irish Times before her first novel. Circle of Friends follows Benny and Eve from a small Irish town to University College Dublin in the 1950s and was filmed in 1995. Tara Road was chosen for Oprah's Book Club.

Every book by Maeve Binchy →

Marian Keyes

Irish · Watermelon (1995), Rachel's Holiday (1997), Grown Ups (2020)

Keyes was born in Limerick in 1963 and grew up in Dublin. Her novels about the Walsh sisters, beginning with Watermelon, mix comedy with addiction, depression and domestic abuse; Rachel's Holiday is set in a rehab clinic. She has written openly about her own drinking and recovery.

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Cecelia Ahern

Irish · P.S. I Love You (2004), Where Rainbows End (2004)

Ahern was born in Dublin in 1981 and published P.S. I Love You at 22. It follows Holly, a young widow who receives a series of letters her husband wrote before he died, and was filmed in 2007 with Hilary Swank. Where Rainbows End, a friendship told in letters and messages over decades, was filmed as Love, Rosie in 2014.

David Nicholls

British · One Day (2009), Us (2014)

Nicholls was born in Hampshire in 1966 and worked as an actor and screenwriter before his novels. One Day follows Emma and Dexter on the same date, 15 July, every year for twenty years from their graduation in 1988; it was filmed in 2011 and made into a Netflix series in 2024. Us was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Liane Moriarty

Australian · The Husband's Secret (2013), Big Little Lies (2014)

Moriarty was born in Sydney in 1966 and worked in advertising before writing fiction. Big Little Lies follows three mothers at a beachside primary school in the months before a death at a school trivia night, and was adapted by HBO in 2017. Her novels mix school-gate comedy with domestic violence, adultery and grief.

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Kristin Hannah

American · The Nightingale (2015), The Great Alone (2018), The Women (2024)

Hannah was born in California in 1960 and trained as a lawyer before writing fiction. The Nightingale follows two French sisters in the Second World War, one enduring the occupation at home and one working with the Resistance; The Women follows a young army nurse in the Vietnam War.

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Taylor Jenkins Reid

American · The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (2017), Daisy Jones & The Six (2019)

Reid was born in 1983. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is the life story of an ageing Hollywood star, told to a young journalist she has chosen for reasons that emerge only at the end. Daisy Jones & The Six, written as an oral history of a 1970s rock band, was adapted for Amazon Prime Video in 2023.

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Beth O'Leary

British · The Flatshare (2019), The Switch (2020)

O'Leary was born in 1992 and worked in children's publishing before her first novel. The Flatshare follows Tiffy and Leon, who share a one-bedroom flat and its bed in shifts, she by night and he, a night nurse, by day, and get to know each other through notes. In The Switch a grandmother and granddaughter swap lives.

Jean-Dominique Bauby

French · The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (1997)

Bauby was editor of the French edition of Elle when a stroke in December 1995 left him with locked-in syndrome, able to move only his left eyelid. He dictated his memoir letter by letter, blinking as an assistant read out the alphabet. It was published in March 1997, days before his death, and filmed by Julian Schnabel in 2007.