From the horrifying to the hilarious, this collection of collaborative tales is endlessly inventive While successful songwriting partnerships abound, literary fiction created by two or more authors is rare, and short stories produced by...
The ecosystem around a small fruit inspires an ecological alternative to capitalism When you look at a berry, what do you see? A snack, a storehouse of energy, a transformed flower, a commodity, a gift? In her latest book,...
Everett’s novel, James, which focuses on Twain's enslaved character Jim, won the $10,000 prize Percival Everett has won the $10,000 National Book Award for fiction, one of the US’s most prestigious literary prizes, for James , his...
Augusta Britt says relationship with then-married author, who died in 2023, began after they met at motel pool The author Cormac McCarthy, who died last year aged 89 , began a relationship with a 16-year-old when he was 42 and the woman...
The living embodiment of resilience, ruggedness and old-fashioned British decency, the Cruel Sea and Bridge On The River Kwai star heroically fought back after losing his famous voice, as every bit as stoic in real-life as he was on the...
The Australian’s book about his parents’ love and his father’s horrific experience of Burma’s Death Railway won the illustrious nonfiction award. Here he talks about finding beauty and hope in the age of extinction and despair Richard...
The short novel narrating a day in the life of six astronauts on the International Space Station becomes the first book to top the charts in the week of its win Samantha Harvey’s Booker-winning Orbital has rocketed to the top of the UK...
Set during the Big Freeze of 1962-3, this story of two marriages brilliantly evokes the legacy of the second world war Andrew Miller is a master of nuance, expert at exploring the various chambers of the human heart. In his...
Adolescent passions shape our future selves, and can be every bit as powerful – and perilous – as adult relationships I haven’t kept many things from my teenage years. I have a box of photos – hazy snapshots from holidays and...
Gytha Godwinson, one of King Harold's daughters, was an all but forgotten figure until a chance genealogical twist inspired author Ellen Alpsten to reimagine the young royal in a gripping fictional account of 1066 and everything that...
This fascinating history of Nikolai Vavilov and the staff at his plant institute tells a story of almost unbelievable self-sacrifice while under siege during the second world war Is there any human endeavour as heroic or...
Philosopher Simon Critchley’s painstaking attempt to explore transcendent experience provides a fascinating overview of Christianity’s great outliers I sometimes think of mysticism – the name we give to ecstatic, transformative...
In a book of two halves, Jenkins seeks to educate readers in the ‘language’ of style as well as offer a polemic on the ravages visited upon our cities by modernist planners “My dream is that people’s eyes will be opened instinctively to...
This sci-fi tale of avengers hunting polluters in a scorched Australian dystopia serves as an essential call to arms over global heating Tim Winton self-deprecatingly describes his latest book as “a novel about a bloke in a hole telling...
The troubled US author found acceptance with Masha, a wild Siberian, and his memoir about their time together may be the most effusive paean to cat love ever written She had eyes that were “remarkable for their deep amber colour, as well...
A former MI5 agent establishes herself as a heroine for the ages in a fresh thriller about intelligence-gatherers past and present Anyone who has enjoyed Henry Porter’s excellent series of Paul Samson spy thriller novels will be pleased...
This account of the purported bond between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, two fascinating chroniclers of late 20th-century America, is titillating but diminishes both writers Reading Didion & Babitz is a bit like being held hostage. At...
Daredevil David Holmes was living the high life as Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double in the Harry Potter films, until one spectacular scene went horribly wrong, changing his life forever. He tells CHARLOTTE HEATHCOTE about learning to...
Her last book sold 2m copies. Now the Native American ecologist is taking on capitalism. She talks about how the ‘gift economy’ could heal divisions across the US When the ecologist and writer Robin Wall Kimmerer is in a city for work...
Woodward’s latest page turner takes you inside the room – but can he still claim to be an impartial fly on the wall? Bob Woodward is probably the best-known journalist in the world. He built his reputation on Watergate, of course, and...
Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie had it all. Fame, fortune and talent by the bucketload. So why was she so sad at the way her life turned out. A dazzling new biography of the late singer tries to find the answer
The Outsider by Jane Casey; White City by Dominic Nolan; The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz; The Fate of Mary Rose by Caroline Blackwood; Ink Ribbon Red by Alex Pavesi The Outsider by Jane Casey (Hemlock , £8.99) Tangentially related to...
The singer-songwriter’s atmospheric memoir reveals many musical adventures and doesn’t shy away from exploring her challenging times When a heavily pregnant Neneh Cherry appeared on Top of the Pops in 1988 in a Lycra miniskirt, gold bra...
The novelist on Virginia Woolf’s luminous prose, obsessively rereading James Baldwin and why Saint Augustine is his favourite writer My earliest reading memory The earliest book I remember reading and loving was Crockett Johnson’s...
A wonderful but thoroughly conventional celebration of the science of evolution All things must pass, but some leave legacies. That is the story of life on Earth. Fossilised remains of organisms represent just one of the various treasure...
Aged 16, Simon Kernick was abducted, beaten and threatened with death by a gang of men. The terrifying incident remains etched in his memory but today, now 58, he's learned how to harness the fear as a bestselling crime writer
The Japanese novelist explores the relationship between language and national identity, in the second part of her Scattered All Over the Earth trilogy Reading Yōko Tawada is an immensely fun and occasionally bewildering experience....
The virtues of truth-telling are explored in this tale of one man’s need to confront and reveal his past Charles Lamosway, the lone wolf narrator of Morgan Talty’s debut, is uncompromising in his opinions, not least when he turns...
The actor, writer and director mines his own backlog of unmade projects to create an exhilarating collection Rupert Everett prefaces his suite of short stories with an account of the showbiz ruse that provides the title, a grim little...
Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some exciting new paperbacks, from a unique history of Russia to nail-biting crime novels Continue reading...
A dark fantasy in the vein of Alan Garner, a raw but hopeful tale of teenage alcoholism, and a cosy romcom with a neurodivergent angle are among this month’s selection Liz Hyder won the older readers’ category in the Waterstones...
Set during Liz Truss’s premiership, Coe’s multilayered novel is a mixture of whodunnit and political chronicle with a villain hiding in plain sight My favourite joke in Jonathan Coe’s new novel is hardly a side-splitter, more what...
The editor and author on completing the memoir by her late friend, Swedish writer Johanna Ekström, where she stands on the assisted dying bill and what she’s reading Sigrid Rausing, 62, is a publisher and former editor of Granta...
The acclaimed French author attended the trial - the longest in French legal history – every day. As his gripping courtroom chronicle is published, he talks about trauma, justice – and being drawn to the darkest of stories For 10 months,...
The Booker-shortlisted author on her inability to compromise, her friendship with John Berger, and the last book she gave as a gift Anne Michaels, 66, is the author of five collections of poetry and three novels, including her debut,...
Her ‘living autobiographies’ and novels have earned her legions of fans, but that success was hard won. Deborah Levy talks about stamina, boldness, and finding delight in the details Deborah Levy is a presence, entering a cafe in north...
In his 10th decade, the writer is as prolific as ever with a war film in the works and a new sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of Donald...
Authors, critics and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month Simon Mason is an author new to me but I saw his novel Missing Person: Alice in a bookshop and noticed that both Mick Herron and David Peace had...
The British novelist on including content warnings in her first short story collection, why she struggles at book signings and the ‘flagrant sexism’ female authors are subjected to Newcastle-born Eliza Clark, 30, went viral on TikTok...
Spellbinding witches; memories of home; treasure hunters; fake facts; fearsome creatures; a great guide to graphic art and more Alphonse, You’re Ruining the Show! by Daisy Hirst, Walker, £12.99 During a sleepover at Granny’s house,...
As the master of myth and fantasy turns 90 today it’s a good time to look at his wide ranging canon – from Booker-nominated novels to children’s fiction, poetry and essays Celebrated author of mythical and fantasy stories Alan Garner...
From young werewolves’ adventures with vampires to hard-up funeral crashers and the late Jeremy Strong’s wonderful final tale This autumn’s publishing schedule is packed with heavy hitters. Piers Torday, he of The Last Wild , has made a...
Cosy crime, eco-thrillers, political memoirs, YA fantasy: there’s something for everyone in our pick of the books to look out for in the months ahead Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Jonathan Cape, out now) Continue reading...
While Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett never wrote a sequel, they did sketch out a plot that will now form a second season. If they wanted to continue the story, I want to watch it In 2017, when Neil Gaiman first sat down in St James’s...
The books world was growing worryingly well-mannered, but Ozick’s response – in verse – to a bad review by Shriver has revived the fine art of feuding Whether it is Henry Fielding mocking Samuel Richardson’s painfully virtuous Pamela...