books
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The Book of Dust will soon expand Philip Pullman’s landmark fantasy trilogy, but the first books can still teach us a lot about how we live now
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The Egyptian novelist, who was jailed last year for ‘violating public morality’ with his novel The Use of Life, looks back at an experience he hopes is now over
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A teenager struggles to come of age in a world of religious zealots and predatory teachers in this stark debut
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Angela Carter died 25 years ago, but her legacy lives on – from Fifty Shades to Buffy, from Björk to The Hunger Games
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A professional gambler’s journey from board games to the operating table dazzles then loses its way
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A journalist’s memoir that is also an argument about politics, sex and how society has gone wrong fails to convince
news
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Black-and-white film shows man who could be French writer at wedding of daughter of one of Proust’s close friends, says Jean-Pierre Sirois-Trahan
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Charging around £100 per visit to its pricey collection, it’s not clear if this is an actual library or just a novel spot for wealthy Russians to hold meetings
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Prequel, sequel, 'equel'? Philip Pullman's Book of Dust should learn from JK Rowling's magic
Mark LawsonThe two authors have long written in step, and the His Dark Materials promised ‘equel’ will hopefully use similar tricks to Harry Potter’s author in extending Lyra’s story -
books in 2017
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Jane Austen’s bicentenary, Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, and unpublished F Scott Fitzgerald ...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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PodcastPodcastMichael Chabon on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – books podcastThe Pulitzer prize-winning novelist looks back on a modern classic at a Guardian book club event
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Reading groupReading groupOverwhelming, yet gorgeous writing: Angela Carter's excessive brillianceNights at the Circus is rich with ingenious verbal invention, extravagant plot devices and eye-popping description. Perhaps a little too rich?
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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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Book of the dayBook of the dayTheresa May by Rosa Prince review – the anti-Cameron, Brexit PMThere is not much that’s intriguing about the determined May, apart from her class-based reaction against her predecessor’s gilded clique
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There is not much that’s intriguing about the determined May, apart from her class-based reaction against her predecessor’s gilded clique
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The Holocaust, religion and the EU’s future are all central issues in the biography of a celebrated, combative thinker
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History The Last of the Tsars by Robert Service – dispelling the myths
Sheila FitzpatrickThe historian and biographer has written an unsentimental, surprising account of Nicholas II from his abdication in March 1917 to his execution -
Society Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin – it’s time to get radical
Suzanne MooreFeminism used to mean a transformed society, a challenge to romance, a new way to live. Now, Crispin argues, it has been rebranded into banality -
Nicholas Lezard’s paperback of the week: wince-inducing stories of amputations without anaesthesia and sinister policies to withhold drugs from sections of society
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Forget Silence of the Lambs: Bill Schutt’s book reveals the evolutionary reasons we may end up eating each other
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Fiction Hame by Annalena McAfee – laughs between the lines
Anthony CumminsA Hebridean poet’s secret past is unearthed in this intricate satire on Scottish nationalism -
Polley’s haunting verse narrative blends nursery rhymes, riddles and cautionary tales with a dash of Coleridge
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The fantasy polymath reimagines Asgard, complete with giant cats, collapsible ships and gossipy squirrels
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Cantankerous bards, remote islands and a US billionaire star in a novel steeped in Scots heritage
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A 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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Fiction The Transition by Luke Kennard – how to grow up
Justine JordanThis ingenious novel about underachieving millennials is a dystopia in a velvet glove -
A Hollywood-set caper nods to Ellroy and Chandler while firing jokes at everything from hipsters to reality TV
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Celebrated for her ‘non-intellectual cubist’ takes on wildlife and nature, the illustrator died last week, aged 99. Here are some highlights from a singular career
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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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Despite having insisted that ‘my lifetime hasn’t ended yet’, The Snowman author declares the BookTrust prize ‘an incredible honour’
people
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The author of Sandman, Coraline and other cult hits joined us to answer your questions, on everything from Donald Trump to American Gods
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The pop-science writer behind Everything Bad is Good for You and Wonderland came in to answer your questions, on everything from innovation in science and technology, to his thoughts on the Trump administration
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Paperback writer Publishers assumed Trump would soon disappear
David Cay JohnstonThe investigative reporter explains his struggle to publish alarming findings about the US’s extraordinary new president -
The historian and presenter on travels, mud-stained notebooks and the most expensive bottle of wine she ever bought
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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The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist looks back on a modern classic at a Guardian book club event
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In 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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Here are the 23 competition finalists in the running to illustrate The Folio Society’s new edition of the classic story of Fanny Price
you may have missed
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The French literary sensation and debut author of The End of Eddy on growing up without books
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The American novelist on writing horror, how Occupy gave capitalism back its name and the thunderbolt that has hit US politics
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When Nick Holdstock was asked to catalogue the books left behind in Doris Lessing’s home, he found annotations, drawings, dedications – and a few surprises
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Weaponised 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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'It's appalling' All-white Carnegie medal longlist provokes anger from children's authors
News Carnegie and Kate Greenaway awards announce 2017 longlists