Books
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The writer on Freudian dreams, Tom Sawyer, and what ER Braithwaite taught him about race -
This energetic debut about dreamers, misfits and otherworldly beings creates a queer Nigerian phantasmagoria -
From the Lake District to Kent – the history of four women and the landscapes they rescued
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Life, relationships and art are filtered through sound in 16 essays by brilliant women -
The final contenders for the £50,000 prize for translated fiction – five out of six by women – could see Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk win a second time
What to read
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From Ukrainian history to Putin’s kleptocracy and Gogol’s stories, author and former Russia correspondent Oliver Bullough chooses the best titles -
Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some enticing new paperbacks, including honest and funny memoirs and fascinating fiction -
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The 70s folk singer who re-emerged in the early 00s recounts her extraordinary existence on the road – and the sexism of the hippy era – in this spare, riveting memoir -
From a radar station in Fleetwood to the BBC’s Cardiff studios, Owen Hatherley’s generous survey of modernist architecture is insightful and surprising -
The painter conveys her spiritual connection with a fellow obsessive and ascetic artist in this fascinating book of imagined correspondence that lays bare the creative process -
Two books by the radical and scholar – one a reissue of a 1974 memoir; the other a howl of despair at the penal system – reveal her tireless eloquence and rage
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The Booker winner’s follow-up to Shuggie Bain – a similarly stirring tale of precarious lives on a Glasgow council estate – proves his debut was no fluke -
Johal weaves stories of Southall citizens with economy and skill in this compelling debut collection -
The author’s account of her early years in exile and her family’s massacre in the Rwandan genocide is a timely reminder of the horrors of war
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Cain Named the Animal by Shane McCrae; Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong; Garden Physic by Sylvia Legris; Panic Response by John McCullough; Tractatus Philosophico-Poeticus by Signe Gjessing -
The understated and surprising tales in this debut collection provide multiple perspectives on recurring scenes -
Graphic novel of the month Two Heads by Uta Frith, Chris Frith, Alex Frith and Daniel Locke – review
With the aid of slapstick jokes and witty footnotes, husband and wife neuroscientists and their son shed light on the workings of the brain in this joyful and fabulously original book
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Norse gods get a fresh incarnation from Louie Stowell and the multiverse offers up a moral dilemma in Ross Welford’s latest -
Two vivid picture books from noted poets – plus Loki’s secret diary, the return of Mayor Bunny, and the pick of the new middle-grade and YA fiction -
A twist on counting, a mysterious glass marble and a subway train journey through Seoul inspire ways of looking at the world
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After his autobiographical debut, about a gay boy growing up in 80s Glasgow, comes another tale that draws on his childhood. Could his glittering fashion career ever have kept the Booker-winner from his roots?
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The poet and novelist’s latest collection is his first book to be published since the death of his mother. He talks about loss, addiction and performing literary drag -
The novelist on being too literary for crime fiction and too ‘crimey’ for literary fiction, and the mysterious death that concludes his Tokyo trilogy
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The prizewinning author on the Southall riots of the early 80s and his debut collection, inspired by London’s never-ending narratives -
The Booker-shortlisted author talks about Zimbabwe after Mugabe - and drawing on Orwell for her brilliant new political satire -
The spy novelist, whose latest book tells the story of her grandfather Kim Philby and the Soviet agent Edith Tudor-Hart, talks about the perils of writing about family, and why female spies get overlooked
Regulars
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The writer on Freudian dreams, Tom Sawyer, and what ER Braithwaite taught him about race
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Kicking off our new monthly guides to an author’s work, crime novelist Janice Hallett puts the spotlight on the creator of Miss Marple and Poirot -
From Covid conspiracies to lies about the Ukraine war … traditional fact-checking is no match for the power of the crowd
You may have missed
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Fear of backlash means stories about race, sexuality and neurodiversity increasingly deemed inappropriate for young readers -
The Orwell Prize winning author looks at how the first world war forced writers Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf to rip up convention - and asks if today’s conflicts demand a similarly radical response -
Mothers are all the rage in contemporary fiction. But forget baby yoga and school gate gossip - these women are red in tooth and claw -
Nature-loving mystic or proto-dudebro? Untameable free spirit or reclusive mama’s boy? On the centenary of his birth, it is time to look past the icon at the ‘bleeding ball of contradictions’ behind it
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News Elmer and Mr Benn author David McKee dies at 87