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Books

  • Harlan Coben and Reese Witherspoon.

    News
    Reese Witherspoon announces first novel co-written with Harlan Coben

  • Goldsmiths prize shortlist 2024.

    News
    2024 Goldsmiths prize shortlist spotlights ‘the novel at its most novel’

    Rachel Cusk, Neel Mukherjee and Jonathan Buckley and three debut authors in contention for award promoting innovation in fiction
  • Composite image of best paperbacks October 2024

    This month's best paperbacks
    Werner Herzog, Karl Ove Knausgaard and more

    Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some brilliant new paperbacks, from unusual novels to insightful histories
  • Karl Ove Knausgård

    Fiction
    The Third Realm by Karl Ove Knausgård review – a visionary epic

    Lara Feigel
  • Malcolm Gladwell

    Malcolm Gladwell
    Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell review – the superspreader returns

    Edward Posnett
  • ‘Henry is ensconced in a Soho cafe, trying to write a memoir’ in All My Precious Madness.

    Fiction
    All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles review – biting humour

    Houman Barekat
  • Bill Bailey.

    Autobiography and memoir
    My Animals, and Other Animals by Bill Bailey review – dogs and monsters

    Zoe Williams
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What to read

  • Haruki Murakami, Cher, Neneh Cherry, Angela Merkel and Alan Hollinghurst Autumn Books

    Autumn books
    From a new Murakami to a memoir by Cher: the best books of the autumn

  • Composite image of best paperbacks October 2024

    Paperbacks
    This month’s best paperbacks: Werner Herzog, Karl Ove Knausgaard and more

    • Inventory of everything … the humble yet fascinating list

      Five of the best
      Five of the best books shaped by lists

    • Read on

      100 best novels of all time
      From The Pilgrim's Progress to True History of the Kelly Gang

    • Books of the century so far

      The 100 best books of the 21st century

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Non-fiction reviews

  • Elon Musk waits outside Arnold Hall before speaking to cadets on Thursday, April 7, 2022 at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, CO, USA. Chief executive officer of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and space manufacturer SpaceX, Musk topped Forbes magazine's 2022 list of The World's Billionaires with an estimated net worth of $219 billion, making him the world's wealthiest documented individual. (Apex MediaWire Photo by Trevor Cokley/U.S. Air Force)<br>2JACPYH Elon Musk waits outside Arnold Hall before speaking to cadets on Thursday, April 7, 2022 at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, CO, USA. Chief executive officer of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and space manufacturer SpaceX, Musk topped Forbes magazine's 2022 list of The World's Billionaires with an estimated net worth of $219 billion, making him the world's wealthiest documented individual. (Apex MediaWire Photo by Trevor Cokley/U.S. Air Force)

    Computing and the net books
    Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter review – the ego has landed, just not on Mars

    Andrew Anthony
  • Migrants standing together in a group.

    Society books
    The Silence of the Choir by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr review – a masterly tale of African refugees in rural Sicily

    The multilayered second novel by the Senegal-born author is a powerful plea for compassion in the face of hatred
  • Rillington Place<br>18th April 1953: The morbidly curious and the distressed residents of Rillington Place, in London's Notting Hill, mix rather uneasily. 10 Rillington Place was the home of multiple murderer John Christie and the scene of his infamous crimes. The residents resent such unwelcome morbid interest and have petitioned to have the street name changed. Original Publication: Picture Post - 6489 - The Street Of Death - pub.1953 (Photo by Ronald Startup/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

    True crime books
    The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale review – new perspectives on the Rillington Place murders

    Anthony Quinn
    The true crime author takes a novel approach to the retelling of the Christie murders, from the viewpoints of a star reporter, a crime novelist and a young sociologist. But the central mystery remains
  • Several carrier bags of groceries stored in milk crates at a food bank.

    Society books
    Seven Children: Inequality and Britain’s Next Generation by Danny Dorling review – essential reading

    Kate Womersley
  • KGB STATUE<br>FILE--People step on the head of a statue of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, founder of the KGB, after it was toppled in front of the KGB headquarters in Moscow on Aug. 23, 1991, while thousands of Muscovites watched. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

    Politics books
    On Freedom by Timothy Snyder review – an essential manifesto for change

    Tim Adams
  • A woman stands giving a speech, with colleagues seated beside her.

    Autobiography and memoir
    A Woman Like Me: A Memoir by Diane Abbott review – rich and complex record of resilience

    Gaby Hinsliff
  • Dice and gambling chips atop a computer keyboard.

    Statistics books
    The Art of Uncertainty by David Spiegelhalter review – a search for sense in probability and chance

    John Naughton
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Fiction & poetry reviews

  • Alan Garner at home in Blackden, Cheshire.

    Fiction
    Powsels and Thrums by Alan Garner review – the magus speaks

    Suzi Feay
  • A man sits at a desk with his hands together on the desktop.

    Fiction
    Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst review – one for the ages

    Alex Preston
    Key moments in an actor’s life over seven decades are illuminated with skill and quiet power in this languid and stately novel
  • Makatea Island in French Polynesia.

    Fiction
    Playground by Richard Powers review – an electrifyingly beautiful tale of tech and the ocean

    Yagnishsing Dawoor
    The wonders of oceanic life shine through in a magical book that is at once Anthropocene novel, disquieting AI thriller, postcolonial allegory and a portrait of friendship
  • Drinkers in an east London pub, 1970s.

    Fiction
    Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey review – emotionally engaging city saga

    Stuart Evers
  • Small Rain explores the need for platonic touch amid the depersonalisation that medical institutions require.

    Fiction
    Small Rain by Garth Greenwell review – the lessons of pain

    Grace Byron
  • Bathing a ventilated Coronavirus patient - in the The Intensive Care Unit. The ICU has gone from one 16 bed ICU (now for Covid-19 patients) to include a second multi bed ICU capable of expansion (for non Covid patients) referred to as the satellite ICU in what was previously the theatre recovery area. The Covid ICU has treated around 40 patients to date. The Infectious Diseases Ward (ID ward). Patients in this hospital will have been referred by their GP, and will be admitted to one of the wards. If they deteriorate they will be admitted to the ICU unit for more invasive therapies. All UK hospitals are now thinking about how they can restart all their routine work which has been put on ice due to the coronavirus pandemic. Simultaneously they have to be prepared to face a potential second wave or spike of Coronavirus patients. Meanwhile it is feared that the population in lockdown may be harbouring other serious conditions that they have been afraid to present which could now create an increase in non covid emergencies. Areas of the hospital have been transformed and areas repurposed. The SARSCoV-2 pandemic has changed the ICU almost completely. Medical staff have redeployed from ophthalmology, dermatology, rehabilitation medicine, radiology, theatre recovery, research nurses and theatre nurses to help in intensive care to fight the pandemic casualties. All staff are now wearing ‘enhanced PPE’ – FFP-3 masks, visors, hats, full length gowns and gloves. Entry and exit to the unit is strictly monitored to make sure all entering and leaving ‘don’ and ‘doff’ their PPE correctly. There are thick sheets of green-blue plastic at each entry and exit point, which need to be zipped and unzipped to let staff in or out – the clinical area within these barriers is nicknamed ‘the bubble’. For now there are no visitors, families must receive updates on their critically ill loved ones by phone. Dr Rosaleen Baruah is a Consultant in Critical Care and Anaesthesia Dr Rosie Baruah says "In the two-week period between our first planning meeting and the admission of our first patient, we had to design new rotas for all tiers of medical staff, make plans to expand our critical care capacity several-fold, and upskill our anaesthetic, theatre nursing and medical colleagues in looking after critically ill patients. They did not ask for this – they did not choose to work in critical care. But this is what they now have to do, and they have faced the challenge with enthusiasm and with good humour. It cannot be easy, working in an unfamiliar role in such circumstances.” "We will remember how colleagues from all over the hospital came and offered help. We will remember how families took time to thank us for the work we were doing even amongst their own anguish and fear. We will remember how we, as a team, supported each other though this extraordinary time. Our ICU looks different now, but sometime soon this will become a memory of how our ICU looked – then." The Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland UK 07/05/2020 © COPYRIGHT PHOTO BY MURDO MACLEOD All Rights Reserved Tel + 44 131 669 9659 Mobile +44 7831 504 531 Email: m@murdophoto.com STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY See details at http://www.murdophoto.com/T%26Cs.html No syndication, no redistribution. sgealbadh, A22N6S

    Poetry
    Agimat by Romalyn Ante review – spells to ward off trauma

    Jade Cuttle
  • Lissa Evans

    Fiction
    Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans review – a deeply pleasurable postwar tale

    Nicholas Wroe
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Children's and YA books

  • The Café at the Edge of the Woods by Mikey Please, HarperCollins

    Children's book roundup
    Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

    Imogen Russell Williams
  • An illustration from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.

    Children and teenagers
    The Haunted Wood: a History of Childhood Reading by Sam Leith review – young at heart

    Sarah Bakewell
    A thoughtful, witty and warmhearted journey through children’s literature
  • The Dinosaur Next Door, by David Litchfield

    Picture books
    Picture books for children – reviews

    Imogen Carter
    Letters between Van Gogh and his brother Theo inspire a delightful biography. Plus, new releases from big-hitters Oliver Jeffers and David Litchfield
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Interviews

  • Malcolm Gladwell

    Malcolm Gladwell
    Beyond The Tipping Point: Malcolm Gladwell on Covid, Trump and what he got wrong

  • Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian posing for a portrait with trees in the background

    Interview
    Stuart Murdoch: ‘I feel like this book will be the Trainspotting of ME’

    The Belle and Sebastian musician on his new novel, inspired by his years of illness, choirs and his love of Victorian authors
  • Richard Powers 0626

    Interview
    ‘I no longer have to save the world’: Novelist Richard Powers on fiction and the climate crisis

    Alex Clark
    The Pulitzer-winning author of The Overstory on how ocean life inspired his latest novel – and why we need to rewrite our relationship with nature
  • Nate Silver

    Interview
    ‘People should be making their contingency plans, like, right away’: America’s leading forecaster on the chances of a Trump win

    David Shariatmadari
  • Isabella Hammad AUTHOR

    Interview
    Isabella Hammad: ‘I heard Edward Said speak when I was seven’

    Anthony Cummins
  • Sally Rooney in Merrion Square, Dublin.

    Interview
    Sally Rooney: ‘Falling in love when I was very young transformed my life’

  • Lee Child and Richard Osman.

    Interview
    ‘I wanted to write a suburban Reacher’: Richard Osman talks to Lee Child about class, success and the secret to great crime writing

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Regulars

  • ‘I have no memory of myself not being a writer’ … Elizabeth Strout.

    The books of my life
    Elizabeth Strout: ‘I would never ask someone to read my books!’

  • Elia Barbieri

    Big idea
    The big idea: how to use your senses to help beat depression

    Our research suggests that it’s not sadness per se that leads to poor mental health, but shutting down input from the body. ‘Sense foraging’ offers a way out of the trap
  • Truman Capote.

    Where to start with
    Where to start with: Truman Capote

    Want to get stuck in to the work of the Breakfast at Tiffany’s author? Here are some good ways in
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