The best books of 2016

FT writers and guests select their must-read titles. Introduction by Lorien Kite

The unlikely coalition that put the brakes on Aids

Steve Silberman on the story of how activists and scientists fought back against a devastating disease

The Start of Something by Stuart Dybek review — sweet home Chicago

A selection from five volumes of disconcerting, dreamlike short stories reveals a singular writer

Messy by Tim Harford review — an economist’s case for disorder

How controlled ‘creatives’ have benefited from being given a jolt

The Nine Lives of John Ogilby by Alan Ereira review — royal roads

A cartographer’s picaresque journey through life contains much uncharted territory

The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler review — no smoke without fire

A novel that draws on Freud to explore social ambiguity in Nazi Austria

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney review — icy encounters

A young woman’s adventures in the Arctic

The Poem: Sunrise Over Bethlehem

This is an extract from ‘Tidings’

Q&A; with author Anuk Arudpragasam

‘The last thing I read that made me laugh out loud? A surely factitious passage from Herodotus’s ‘Histories’’

Cousins by Salley Vickers review — a family affair

Multiple accounts of a tragedy are adroitly interwoven in this compelling novel

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