Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments Erik Satie Three Piece Suite by Ian Penman is a daring and endlessly inventive portrait of the iconoclastic...
King’s son, Joe Hill, joins V Castro and Keith Rosson in withdrawing from the Tales of the Weird festival this weekend in support of industrial action Horror authors are used to pushing the boundaries of fiction, but for some in the...
Namanlagh by Tom Paulin; Foretokens by Sarah Howe; Maryville by Joelle Taylor; Hekate by Nikita Gill; Goatsong by Phoebe Giannisi Namanlagh by Tom Paulin (Faber, £12.99) It has been more than a decade – “long empty days / with the blank...
The writer on bingeing Henry James, his friendship with Benjamin Zephaniah and a confidence-boosting classic My earliest reading memory When I was about four or five, I think. I was living in Long Melford, Suffolk, with my foster...
Unabashed and morally generous, the Booker winner writes like a sharp, funny, fallen angel In addition to producing eight novels over the past 30 years, Anne Enright has always written nonfiction around the edges. This has mostly...
Damien Lewis's blockbuster new book tells the incredible story of how Britain's special forces stole a train to break into a concentration camp to rescue POWs
Three young people step boldly into their adult lives in this elegantly narrated novel from the Nobel laureate The Nobel prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah is known for his portrayals of east Africans and the after-effects of...
The late author and legendary former Express columnist's 1972 book about Nazis, The Odessa File, is being remade for a new generation of fans as an 8-part drama
A companion novel to the brilliant Writers & Lovers, this delightfully witty tale of college romance matures into midlife poignancy The university experience is a risky business in fiction. Generally, the feelings are intense,...
This wildly atmospheric tale of a party for dying people in a crumbling seaside hotel borrows tropes from cosy crime, but is truly chilling Living is hard emotional work – until you try dying. Alongside the rage many terminally ill...
From cultural appropriation to gender, Smith nails the politics of creativity. But on actual politics, she is less assured Accepting a literary prize in Ohio last year, the novelist Zadie Smith described “feeling somewhat alienated from...
Dolly Mixture’s singer and bassist looks back on their time chasing mainstream success and facing down outrageous sexism The Cambridge post-punk band Dolly Mixture were an all-girl trio who formed at school and mixed rambunctious...
From an afterlife fantasy to a tale of loss in Mumbai, death is a recurring theme in this story collection – an echo of the novelist at his peak Towards the end of Knife , his 2024 book about the assault at a public event in upstate New...
A collective dash for shelter in the city takes on a spiritual, near-religious power Storm in Brooklyn Subway Thistle of rain. We seek temple from tempest, litany in lightning, Continue reading...
With the first season of It: Welcome to Derry finally being here, Stephen King fans have only just learned what inspired the terrifying killer clown, Pennywise.
I love listening to an audiobook while out and about, but it's been very hit or miss for me over the past year. Here are some of my favourites - and some to avoid, in my opinion.
The healing power of gardens; celebrating an abolitionist; hope in the toughest times; a gladiator romantasy and more The Butterfly House by Harry Woodgate, Andersen, £12.99 Miss Brown’s wild garden scares most people, but when Holly...
The actor on being called ugly, telling Johnny Rotten to F-off, and striking gold at Cannes Kathy Burke’s mother, Bridget, died of stomach cancer when she was 18 months old; she writes that it made her “feel dead famous” in her...
Life extensionists like Bryan Johnson want to live forever. But at what cost? If the name Bryan Johnson isn’t familiar, a picture of him might be. He is the somewhat alien-looking, strangely ageless 48-year-old Californian battling to...
The Book of Dust trilogy is brought to a complex and fitting end as Lyra battles the Magisterium over her lost imagination Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman’s magisterial...
Horror tropes meet modern nightmares as the South Korean author takes us deep inside a research facility called The Institute Our fears turn feral when they have nowhere to go. South Korean author Bora Chung’s new short story collection...
Serial killers and violent criminals dominate the headlines. What if we covered ecocide and pollution in the same way? Whenever you read, watch, or listen to the news, you’re likely to be exposed to stories of violence and murder. As a...
The American author discusses our need for fiction in an age of disconnection, the challenges of growing up with 14 step-siblings, and why she’s going ‘all in’ on romance The cover of Lily King’s new novel, Heart the Lover, features an...
Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some wonderful new paperbacks, from chilling short stories to a biography of a duke Continue reading...
A decade after her debut became a cult hit, the US author talks about the true crime that inspired her latest novel, #MeToo overreach and being married to an addict Chris Kraus regards the late success of her first book, I Love Dick,...
At just 20, the poet is one of the most vivid witnesses to the conflict. She talks about dreams of Oxford, the deaths of friends and how tragedy has shaped the person she has become Batool Abu Akleen was having lunch in the seaside...
A bothered bear; a great guide to drawing; a life of Josephine Baker; a role model daughter; a search for words and more Bear’s Nap by Emily Gravett , Two Hoots , £ 12.99 Someone is cheeping and keeping Bear from sleeping in this...
Essays from Zadie Smith; Wiki founder Jimmy Wales on how to save the internet; a future-set novel by Ian McEwan; a new case for the Slow Horses - plus memoirs from Kamala Harris and Paul McCartney… all among this season’s highlights Helm...
A huge brolly; sibling revelry; poetic Paris; first aid for youngsters; Regency blackmail; blackly comic YA fiction and more A Totally Big Umbrella by Sarah Crossan, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, Walker, £12.99 Rain ruins all Tallulah’s...
A picture of patience; first days at school; a cruise ship detective; a terrible storm; time travellers; rebels in love and more Put Your Shoes On by Polly Dunbar , Walker, £12.99 Late for a party, Mummy really wants Josh to put his...
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...
There’s a buzz to sharing your reading life, but for me it turned it into a kind of competition that distracts from what I love about books I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed reading a book where my enjoyment wasn’t tied to the...
The notoriously private author’s latest project, a stylish clothing collaboration with Uniqlo, marks the latest step in his opening up to the world It may be time to stop calling the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami “reclusive” . Over...
Following a recent similar Royal Mint slip-up, the Westminster Collection’s new 50p coins have sent Carroll experts down an internet rabbit hole to source false quotes As Oscar Wilde famously never said, don’t trust Goodreads as a source...
The Guardian and publisher 4th Estate’s annual award for unpublished writers of colour offers £1,000 to the winner, and publication on theguardian.com The Guardian and 4th Estate’s short story prize dedicated to writers of colour has...
Brian Jacques’ tale of valiant mice and no-good rats introduced me to fantasy fiction. My daughters love it too, and here are some reasons why everyone should If, like me, you are a fan of Brian Jacques, then the news that Netflix is...
Much of the author’s work may have fallen into public ownership in the UK, but there are more restrictions on its use remaining than you might expect, explains his biographer George Orwell died at University College Hospital, London, on...
With the Bad sex in fiction award cancelled this year, we celebrate authors from Jeanette Winterson to Jane Austen who can charge the dryest scenes with sensuality Writing about sex is notoriously difficult: it is irrefutable that...
While books about the outgoing US president have been bestsellers for the last four years, Trump might be a step too far for some publishers Fact-checkers are quaking in their boots amid reports that Donald Trump could be being “courted...
Writing under the name Selena Montgomery, Abrams has penned eight romantic thrillers, often while also fighting for voters’ rights Stacey Abrams is the former Georgia state house minority leader, whose fierce fight for Georgians’ right...
The president-elect has often quoted Heaney’s poetry, with his reading of The Cure at Troy going viral after his election victory I didn’t fall for Joe Biden until I learned that he loves the poetry of Seamus Heaney . Anyone who responds...
Whether you’re a child discovering new worlds of adventure or Faye Dunaway losing herself in the philosophy section, they are a sanctuary for all It was blowing a gale when I took Lemn Sissay on to my bookshop roof to talk about open-air...
Unaccountably little-known outside the US, his stories take the reader from a carefully observed midwest into a past that is very much alive Like Steven Millhauser, Deborah Eisenberg and Edward P Jones, Stuart Dybek is one of a...