books
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Terry Pratchett docudrama is a fittingly imaginative tribute to Discworld's geniusBack in Black’s inventive life story eschews the usual talking heads to focus on the author’s devoted fans – of whom I am one -
For my family, a book was a kind of assaultThe French literary sensation and debut author of The End of Eddy on growing up without books
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Hame by Annalena McAfee – a metatextual Scottish taleCantankerous bards, remote islands and a US billionaire star in a novel steeped in Scots heritage -
Bettany Hughes: ‘I cannot write about the past unless I go where history happened’The historian and presenter on travels, mud-stained notebooks and the most expensive bottle of wine she ever bought
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news
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Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale sales boosted by fear of TrumpAuthor sees ‘bubbling up’ of ‘puritan values’ towards women’s issues as her 1985 dystopian novel follows Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four up bestseller lists
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Books about the apocalypseWeaponised flu, hoax bombs that start exploding, totalitarian America and brain-thirsty zombies – here’s a flood of fictional world endings – and one that’s real
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The controversial history of Alex Haley's bookHaley’s influential family saga about 18th century slavery is back on TV, but its literary reputation is still tarnished by questions of authenticity
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books in 2017
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Books to watch in 2017Jane Austen’s bicentenary, Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, and unpublished F Scott Fitzgerald ... the literary year ahead
regulars
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 53 – The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James (1902)
The 100 best nonfiction books: No 53 – The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James (1902)
This revolutionary work written by Henry James’s less famous brother brought a democratising impulse to the realm of religious belief -
Book of the dayBook of the dayBlack Wave by Michelle Tea review – a rollicking apocalypse fantasyA cult US author investigates addiction and apocalypse in a hallucinatory tale that’s as sobering as a blast of cold air
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewAlice Broadway: 'I guess it's inevitable that I became a bit death-obsessed'Ink’s heroine loses faith in a culture where people’s histories are etched on their skin – reflecting its author’s own disaffection from evangelical Christianity
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Top 10sTop 10sTop 10 books about the apocalypseWeaponised flu, hoax bombs that start exploding, totalitarian America and brain-thirsty zombies – here’s a flood of fictional world endings – and one that’s real
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Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin – beyond spookyA sympathetic biography argues for a feminist reappraisal of a tortured genius of American gothic
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I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This by Nadja SpiegelmanThis charged memoir by the daughter of celebrated parents centres on her relationship with her mother, one defined by love and anger
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Once We Were Sisters by Sheila Kohler – a devastating reckoningA powerful memoir from an acclaimed novelist reveals a past of privilege, violence and possibly murder
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The Econocracy – how three students caused a global crisis in economicsUnhappy at how economics is out of touch with reality and defined by an elite, Joe Earle, Cahal Moran and Zach Ward-Perkins sum up their explosive call for change
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Arboreal: A Collection of New Woodland Writing – irresistible talesGermaine Greer and Ali Smith are among those writing about the significance of trees, in this abundant collection edited by Adrian Cooper
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Border by Kapka Kassabova – magic in the corner of EuropeThis is a marvellous, personal account of the border zone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, from the Ottomans to cold war menace and beyond
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Smoke Over Malibu by Tim Walker – hardboiled hilarityA Hollywood-set caper nods to Ellroy and Chandler while firing jokes at everything from hipsters to reality TV
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The Transition by Luke Kennard – how to grow upThis ingenious novel about underachieving millennials is a dystopia in a velvet glove
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Difficult Women by Roxane Gay – bold feminist storiesThe premises are intriguing and the language powerful, but the bestial men and masochistic women weaken these tales
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A Line Made By Walking by Sara Baume – the art of falling apartThe follow-up to Spill Simmer Falter Wither is a fascinating portrait of an artist’s breakdown in rural Ireland
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The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova – strikingly weird storiesNicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: There are shades of David Lynch, Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter in this collection of feminist allegories and surreal skits
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The Blot: A Novel by Jonathan LethemJonathan Lethem runs out of moves in this story of a backgammon hustler facing the surgeon’s knife
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Wed Wabbit by Lissa Evans – a riotously funny adventureRecalling the magic of Dahl and Carroll, this tale of a tyrannical toy rabbit is the first must-read children’s book of the year
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The best new picture books and novelsA trip to the Arctic, coping with love, memory loss and OCD and the best PE excuse note ever written
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The Pomegranate Tree by Vanessa Altin – a child's-eye view of war-torn SyriaThis fictional diary of a young Kurdish teenager is harrowing, but for every barbarity there is a moment of courage or kindness
people
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I guess it's inevitable that I became a bit death-obsessedInk’s heroine loses faith in a culture where people’s histories are etched on their skin – reflecting its author’s own disaffection from evangelical Christianity
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I like the wartime generation too much to idolise themThe author of Everyone Brave Is Forgiven explains how his grandparents’ fortitude inspired a story that reflects uncomfortably on the way we live now
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Translation – and migration – is the lifeblood of cultureEven the literature that seems most rooted in one place is animated by writing from elsewhere – and trying to keep that influence out is profoundly dangerous
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Anka Muhlstein on Zola, Proust and the painters they knew bestIn her new book, the Goncourt Prize-winning historian turns her attention to French 19th-century novelists and how they saw a century of great painting
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: breakfast rolls from The School at the ChaletKate Young seeks some escapist fiction and bakes a breakfast enjoyed by the children in the Austrian boarding school in Brent-Dyer’s novel
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Blue Willow Bookshop in HoustonCelebrating 20 years since owner Valerie took over, Blue Willow Bookshop is equally split between adults and children’s books, and staffed with knowledgable booksellers who can do anything - including fixing vacuum cleaners
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pictures, video & audio
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Sebastian Barry on his Costa-winning novel Days Without EndIn the week Sebastian Barry picked up his second Costa book of the year award, he joins us in the studio to read from and discuss Days Without End
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Illustrating Jane Austen's Mansfield ParkHere are the 23 competition finalists in the running to illustrate The Folio Society’s new edition of the classic story of Fanny Price
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The biography of a bookWe chart the business of making books from manuscript to bookshop shelf and beyond
you may have missed
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I like being British. Even when I’m ashamed, I’m fascinatedThe books interview: The award-winning author on his new book of Norse mythology, Brexit and being an Englishman in New York
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How Waterstones came back from the deadThe chain of booksellers has announced its first profit in years – thanks in part to a bold decision to run each branch like a local bookshop
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The US writers who imagined a fascist futureFrom Sinclair Lewis and Philip Roth to Donald Trump’s favourite film, Citizen Kane, US culture has long told stories about homegrown authoritarianism. What can we learn from them?
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The UK’s favourite library book in 2015-16Northern Ireland borrowed the Guinness World Records, Wales and Scotland thrillers by Lee Child and Paula Hawkins, while Londoners crammed for their driving test
Doctor Who? Time travel in the internet age