Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist; 'The Alchemist' is one of the best-selling books in history.

José Saramago, a Nobel laureate, wrote 'Blindness' (1995), a psychological thriller about a mass epidemic of blindness.

Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for 'Beloved' (1987) and later the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Written in Middle English in the late 14th century, it depicts a group of pilgrims travelling to Canterbury.

Virginia Woolf's 1929 essay argues that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

The 'Ramayana' narrates the life of Rama, the legendary prince of the Kosala Kingdom, and his mission to rescue his wife Sita.

This is Oscar Wilde's only novel, published in 1890, dealing with themes of aestheticism and moral corruption.

Charles Dickens's historical novel 'A Tale of Two Cities' (1859) is set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution.

Albert Camus was a French philosopher and author; 'The Stranger' (1942) is a classic of absurdist fiction.

Charlotte Brontë published 'Jane Eyre' in 1847 under the pen name Currer Bell.