National Book Critics' Circle Award for Biography, and 'At the Existentialist Cafe' was chosen in 2016 as one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year.
Her four books are all biographical, and the most recent two, 'How to Live: a life of Montaigne' and 'At the Existentialist Cafe', also explore philosophical ideas. 'How to Live' won the Duff Cooper Prize and the U.S. National Book Critics' Circle Award for Biography, and 'At the Existentialist Cafe' was chosen in 2016 as one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year.