, Hard on the heels of her last' b~stseller, Anita " Shreve is poised to top ,the charts again By MICHAEL GILTZ When writer Anita Shreve was a little girl, she'd curl up on the.' floor of her Dedham, Mass., library and devour the "Oz" books of L.</p><p> Frank Baum. "They were these' big, thick, dusty books;" remembers Shreve, who believes, "Everybody has a key that opens up [their interest in books] and that was it for me." That key love of books has led Shreve far -trom submitting poetry, when she was in grade school, to the kid's magazine Jack & Jill, (she was aJways turQ!:!d down) to her seventh novel, "Fortune's Rock~." Coming on the heels of Shreve's last novel, "The Pilot's Wife" - an Oprah Book Club selection that's sold more than 2 million copies :-her latest is poised to become her biggest.</p><p> A fearlessly romantic story, it tells the tale of Olympia, a mature-beyond-her-years 15- year-old growing up in New Hampshire in 1899.</p><p> Educated by her father, Olympia is only dimly aware of how privileged and unique her life is' until it's all destroyed by a reckless affair with John Haskell" a 42- year-old married man' and friend of the family.</p><p> Like most of Shreve's books, "Fortune's Rocks" has a compelling narrative.</p><p> Still, critics seem leery of Shreve's accessibility. , They know her work is too well-written to dismiss, but can't shake, off the notion ,that important fiction should' be more difficult to read.</p><p> Regardless, Shreve is more interested in,-the many readers , who tell her they' stayed up all night with one of her novels. "I love a -good story," says·' the 52'-year-old author, adding; "I want to be lost in a story.</p><p> I want it to be something that during the day I think, 'I can't wait to get back to that.'" But giving fans sleepless nights seemed unlikely when Shreve began. "I started out writing short stories in obscure literary , stories].</p><p> So I became a journalist." She still remembers her first byline, some 25 years ago. "I wrote a piece for 'the Boston Ph~nix and I 'was paid $60.</p><p> The story was about this experience I had being' a plant consultant , and having lio idea what I was doing.</p><p> I can remember to this day when they caned to accept the story.</p><p> I hung up the phone and literally jumped off the grOUnd.'" She later wrote for an English~ langUage magazine in Nairobi, where her then-husband was attending graduate school, and returned to the States to write for several magazines.</p><p> Shreve realized her shortcomings, though, as a reporter. "It made me uncomfortable to ask people questions they'd rather' not ,answer. -And ,that was key," she laughs., ' , Other journalists, -however, aren't quite so shy.</p><p> Many , leapt -~ conclusions concerning _ ' her ,last ,novel, "The , Pilot's Wife" about a woman whose husband dies iii a When 'he 'might coinmitted ' 0"' "!-""U""; she finds out the . truth ~ he had had another wife 'and family.</p><p> Shreve was perturbed ' when reporters asked her if the book ,was based on her own , 'father, a former airline pilot. {It _ ,wasn't, she says.) . journals," she, says modestly, failing to menj;ion that on~ of her first stories' snagged a prestigious O'Henry Award. "Yes; I did do that:'.</p><p> But it quickly became apparent you cou.1dn't' make a living -[writing short, Nevertheless, the similarity between her book and tlie unfolding suicide 'theory linked to EgyptAir flight 990 has left the writer :"shakeil~ -really upset," she ' says. "It's one thing to imagme it and quite another-thing to hear that it's actually hap~ned."
