Trickier Author/Novel Combos Trivia Quiz

Answer: George Orwell

"Keep the Aspidistra Flying", like his other works "1984" and "Animal Farm", alerted readers to the ways of the world through veiled metaphor (though, to be fair, "Aspidistra" didn't veil them so much). In this case the protagonist, George Comstock, combated capitalism. Critics of the day decried the book for how scathing it was in its critique of the Depression Era economy and lifestyle. Huxley would write his best-known books in the late 1940s.

It's just another work contributing to the canon of 'Orwellian' Literature.

Answer: Dan Brown

Published in 1998, "Digital Fortress" never hit it as big as it did until after the release of Brown's "Da Vinci Code" in 2003, part of a series of books starring Harvard cryptographer Robert Langdon as he unravels history's greatest mysteries. "Digital Fortress" instead looked at technological codes, throwing its protagonists in the way of an algorithm that could reveal the personal information of people all around the world. Brown's third novel, "Deception Point", was also free of any Langdon but was also devoid of code-breaking, oddly.

Answer: Terry Pratchett

While Pratchett is very well-known for his "Discworld" series spanning dozens of novels, "The Long Earth" was written with sci-fi author Stephen Baxter as the first in a five-piece work and published in 2012. The book was actually based on an idea created by Pratchett when he started "The Colour of Magic" back in the early 1980s; it involves the existence of parallel worlds that can be reached by people who can step between them.

It was followed by a sequel, "The Long War", in 2013.

Answer: Stephen King

Released in 1987, well into King's already-prolific writing career, "The Eyes of the Dragon" omitted many of the horror elements present in his earlier (and later) works, instead opting to tell a medieval fantasy tale. The novel, about a nefarious murder plot against a King named Roland (which readers may think is coincidental based on "The Dark Tower"), showed that King could delve into other genres seamlessly.

He would later write a number of hard-boiled mystery novellas. You probably already know King for his other works-- "The Shining", "The Stand", and "'Salem's Lot", for instance.

Answer: Chuck Palahniuk

Known for pushing the boundaries on content in his novels, Palahniuk is better known for "Fight Club", "Choke", and "Survivor", though some of his other works have been just as risque. "Haunted", for instance, follows the short stories of a group of writers looking to one-up themselves and each other in a horrifying writer's retreat.

It happens to contain on short story, "Guts", known for making audience members faint during live readings. Palahniuk also wrote "Snuff", "Rant", "Pygmy", and "Invisible Monsters" amongst others.

Answer: Margaret Atwood

Following "Oryx and Crake" and succeeded by "MaddAddam" in the trilogy, "The Year of the Flood" immediately slotted itself into the tale after the end of the first book, literally jumping to the characters seen around a fire in the post-apocalyptic wilderness seen through Snowman's eyes. Snowman (known as Jimmy...and 'Thickney') reappears with the main characters of "The Year of the Flood" (Toby and Ren) in the final book. Margaret Atwood, one of Canada's most celebrated authors, is also known for "The Blind Assassin", "The Edible Woman", and "The Handmaid's Tale".

Answer: Haruki Murakami

Murakami, better known for "Norwegian Wood", "Kafka on the Shore", "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", and "1Q84", gained a certain popularity outside of his native Japan over the years. "A Wild Sheep Chase", one of his earlier works, features many similar tropes and schemes-- there's still a sense of ennui that perpetuates his books, for instance, and an odd fascination with ears. "A Wild Sheep Chase" was the third in Murakami's 'Trilogy of the Rat' and wasn't published in English until 1989, seven years after its original release.

Answer: J. K. Rowling

Coming off the success of the "Harry Potter" series, Rowling released "A Casual Vacancy" in 2012 and, while it was highly anticipated considering the success of her earlier ventures, it ended up making a lukewarm drop into the literary world. Rowling found much greater success penning mysteries under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith; "Cuckoo's Calling" and "The Silkworm", released in 2013 and 2014 respectively, ended up hitting the bestseller charts with great critical response shortly after her outing as the author.

Answer: Cormac McCarthy

"The Orchard Keeper", evocative of McCarthy's characteristic writing style, was the first in a long line of award-winning fictional works by the author. McCarthy later found more fame with "Blood Meridian", "No Country For Old Men", and "The Road". While most of his works have dealt with a sordid turn on American literature and themes, some have dealt directly with a loss of innocence during otherwise unfortunate circumstances. "The Road", for instance, was set in a post-apocalyptic world. "The Orchard Keeper" followed a family's loss (in more ways than one) as the world seemed to crash inward on their orchard. McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Road" in 2007.

Answer: David Mitchell

A coming of age novel, David Mitchell's "Black Swan Green" was published in 2006 by the UK author, two years after the release of his popular "Cloud Atlas". Nominated for the Booker Prize a few times over, Mitchell also found popularity with his 2014 release, "The Bone Clocks", which, like "Cloud Atlas", spreads itself across times and locales to tell its sprawling story. "Black Swan Green" features an accurate portrayal of a stammering teenage boy, confirmed by Mitchell himself to be a reflection of himself at that age.