books
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How The Fire Next Time still lights the way towards equalityA new edition of the classic treatise on civil rights, featuring photojournalist Steve Schapiro’s visual record of the struggle, provides a model for how to report in the Black Lives Matter era -
Is Hilary Mantel's view of historical fiction out of date?Courting controversy by calling her contemporaries ‘cringing’, perhaps the author hasn’t noticed the exciting developments in her own genre
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George Saunders and the Baileys women's prizeIn this week’s podcast we speak to Saunders about his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, and rate the finalists for this year’s Baileys women’s prize for fiction -
Beasts Head for Home by Kōbō Abe – extractIn this excerpt from a new English translation of a novel by one of Japan’s most esteemed writers, a Japanese man flees Manchuria to return to his homeland
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Choose a book to celebrate the human spiritIt feels like a good moment for stories of people rising above difficult circumstances. But it’s not hard to help us find one – just comment below
news
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Hay 2017 to host stars from Stephen Fry to Bernie SandersCelebrated polymath and veteran senator will appear alongside the likes of Graham Norton, Charlotte Rampling and Howard Jacobson
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Marvel superheroes aren’t just for white men – true diversity could boost salesAs long as the comics company continues to pander to one demographic it is bound to struggle – only by expanding its reader base will the industry flourish
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What are you reading this week?Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
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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Books to watch in 2017Jane Austen’s bicentenary, Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, and unpublished F Scott Fitzgerald ...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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PodcastPodcastGeorge Saunders and the Baileys women's prize – books podcastIn this week’s podcast we speak to Saunders about his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, and rate the finalists for this year’s Baileys women’s prize for fiction
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Reading groupReading groupReading group: choose a book to celebrate the human spiritIt feels like a good moment for stories of people rising above difficult circumstances. But it’s not hard to help us find one – just comment below
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewElan Mastai: 'I wrote about my mother’s death, but I used time machines to do it'Already a screenwriter, the author of All Our Wrong Todays explains his delight in avoiding Hollywood’s filters and using the special effects that only work in books
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Book of the dayBook of the dayTwo Blue Buckets by Peter Fraser review – everyday revelationsFrom deflated balloons to the mysterious blue buckets, Peter Fraser’s photographs illuminate the ordinary
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The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain by Sayeeda WarsiThe first Muslim woman in the cabinet offers a unique perspective on British multiculturalism
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Gone by Min Kym – one prodigy’s passion for her violinThe theft of Min Kym’s Stradivarius made worldwide headlines – but her autobiography shows that wasn’t all she’d lost in life
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The Day That Went Missing – oddly movingRichard Beard’s account of losing his brother in a swimming accident as a boy is a telling study of loss and denial
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Hidden Nature by Alys Fowler – a life crisis on the canalsIn a revealing memoir, the writer and gardener recounts her journey paddling around waterways as she realises her whole existence needs to change
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Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands by Stuart Hall – from Jamaica to the New Left and ThatcherismThis posthumous memoir by the renowned cultural theorist hinges on his journey from the West Indies to the ‘mother country’
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Plot 29: A Memoir by Allan Jenkins – childhood trauma and the solace of gardeningAs he cultivates his London allotment, the journalist also digs into his troubled past – a brilliant grafting of haunting recollections on to a gardener’s diary
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White Tears by Hari Kunzru – when white dudes get the blues…Kunzru’s supernatural revenge fantasy set against a backdrop of American racism lacks nuance
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Bright Air Black by David Vann - Medea is a portrait of defiance in a compelling reimagining
Fiction Bright Air Black by David Vann - Medea is a portrait of defiance in a compelling reimagining
The Greek heroine pays the highest price rather than surrender control in this vivid, sympathetic reinterpretation -
All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg – difficult, selfish, a true-to-life heroineThis single-woman-about-town fiction is not like Sex and the City or Bridget Jones’s Diary – it is a warts-and-all portrait of independence
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The best recent crime novelsWhat You Don’t Know by JoAnn Chaney; My Sister’s Bones by Nuala Ellwood; The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman by Mindy Mejia; The Acid Test by Élmer Mendoza; The Riviera Express by TP Fielden
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The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke – boomtime in rural ChinaWith keen irony and references to real-life events, Yan’s mock-dynastic history documents the extraordinary development of a village in Henan province
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The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill – descent into a fairytale underworldTalented, in love and separated, two orphans search for each other in a burlesque world of violence, lust and make-believe
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The debut novelist who turned racism and police violence into a bestsellerAngie Thomas grew up witnessing drug dealing and gun crime but dreamed of being a writer. Then police shot a young, unarmed black man and she found her subject. Afua Hirsch meets her
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Why I was wrong about children’s fictionOnce, I banned my students from writing them. Now I see the magic and joy in children’s stories
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Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear and Isabelle ArsenaultThis clever picture book imagines the secret world of the young Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa. And doesn’t shy away from tackling depression
people
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Trump in the White House – that must never feel normalIn the early hours as the US election result became apparent, the novelist was at his desk beginning his satirical novel about the president, Pussy. He’s angry, frustrated – and don’t tell him to get over it
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A Quiet Passion won’t solve the mystery of the author – but does the truth matter?Salacious rumours surrounding Dickinson’s life have come thick and fast, but does that mean A Quiet Passion writer-director Terence Davies is free to speculate?
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I began on Wednesday morning and wrote for 60 hoursThe author on writing every day, through the night, and completing the first draft of his The Boy in Striped Pyjamas in two days
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The superstar spy novelist who vanished for four decadesOnce a million-selling man about town, he has cultivated obscurity for many years. But that may be set to change as his books are readied for republication
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: popovers from The Painted Garden by Noel StreatfeildA Californian holiday inspires a sweet take on Yorkshire pudding to conjure up a breakfast treat
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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 Lovings, the couple who ended the ban on interracial marriageIn July 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested for interracial marriage. Photographer Grey Villet spent time with them, years before their case brought down the law. Here are some of his images of the heroic lovers
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Man Booker International prize and Dorthe NorsThis week’s podcast heads abroad as we look at the longlist for this year’s Man Booker International prize and speak to longlisted author Dorthe Nors
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The retreats where famous authors found inspirationBarack Obama prepares to write his memoir on the South Pacific island of Tetiaroa, once owned by Marlon Brando. Here’s where other authors found inspiration
you may have missed
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My mother’s murder, and other secrets…Leah Carroll was four when her mother was murdered buying cocaine. Her alcoholic father died when she was 18. In this extract from her memoir, she recalls the mother she barely knew, and the troubled man left to support her
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Books about fathersFrom Shakespeare to Seamus Heaney, the author selects his favourites from a tradition where the most interesting characters are very often absent
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He was the most unusual person I had ever knownIn this extract from his memoir, Bill Hayes, partner of Oliver Sacks, recalls the neurologist’s unworldly charm, their remarkable stay with Björk in Iceland, and the dignity of Sacks’s final weeks
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How Lenin’s love of literature shaped the Russian RevolutionThe father of the Soviet Union was also a Latin buff who adored Goethe and liked to compare his enemies to figures in novels
Astrid Lindgren memorial award World's biggest prize for children's books goes to 'caring visionary'