books
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In its second year, the award set up to address poor representation of black, Asian and minority authors reveals six fresh voices in fiction
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A political poem that contests the damaging gendering of nations is also, in the hands of a ‘weird Twitter’ star, a deliciously transgressive romp
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Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
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Rich in detail and Old World snobbery, Frances Trollope’s classic travelogue identifies aspects of America’s national character still visible today
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The writer’s latest collection takes in everything from mortality and ageing to the music of the sea
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Adam Phillips’s diverse, probing essays on writers and writing are like ‘little gatherings of like minds’
news
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The Orange prize winning author of 12 novels and 10 poetry collections has died, not long after revealing her cancer diagnosis
hay festival 2017
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Mythical magic from Colm Tóibín, some illuminating medieval manuscripts and a game Neil Gaiman … this week in Hay-on-Wye
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Speaking at the Hay literary festival, the Irish novelist said modern writers should emulate Jane Austen and stop overdoing the backstory
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Christopher Hitchens on God, Margaret Atwood on The Handmaid’s Tale, Hilary Mantel on Wolf Hall … highlights from Hay’s most memorable interviews
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Clip joints and phone thefts are still common in the capital, says author of a book on city crime around the world
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Whether it’s Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn, ‘deals’ or ‘hypothetical questions’, words and meanings are being mangled as polling day looms
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Winner of last year’s Man Booker prize for his blistering US satire, The Sellout, the novelist will be in to answer your questions on Tuesday 6 June at 1pm BST
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regulars
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Book of the dayBook of the dayIn Writing by Adam Phillips review – the psychoanalyst as unreliable narratorAdam Phillips’s diverse, probing essays on writers and writing are like ‘little gatherings of like minds’
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PodcastPodcastThe Dragon of Palma de Mallorca, read by Andrew Scott – Travel folktales for kids podcastThe Spanish island city is terrorised by a fearsome dragon. But is it really a dragon, or something else?
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféNovel recipes: Macaroons from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von ArminEnjoying the abundance of a Tuscan holiday, I devoured Von Armin’s novel with some toothsome almond delights
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Reading groupReading groupHelp choose a Pulitzer prize winner for June's reading groupIn honour of the US award’s centenary, please speak up for one of the great American novels it has recognised. Your votes will decide which one we look at
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Essays Theft By Finding: Diaries Volume One by David Sedaris
Andrew AnthonyThis story of Sedaris’s journey from drug addict to brilliant absurdist is, though funny, full of tales his fans have heard before -
Computing Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins by Garry Kasparov
John NaughtonThe grandmaster’s account of his 1997 battle with Deep Blue is both thrilling and thoughtful
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History Pale Rider – painful lessons of the flu pandemic
Miranda SeymourLaura Spinney’s absorbing study of the 1918 Spanish influenza, which killed almost 100 million people, should make us glad the NHS exists -
White people avoid discussing race, and when discussions are had, they fail to meet the reality of black experience
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The murder of Nelson’s aunt and the trial of her killer inform this seeringly honest memoir that revisits the case and confronts its agonising effects
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Biography The Good Bohemian: The Letters of Ida John – making the best of a menage a trois
Lara FeigelThe wife of the painter Augustus John adapted to his mistress moving in, as she was herself stultified by conventional domesticity
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An Oxfordshire estate is the focus of this extraordinary study of social upheaval down the years
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Fiction Flights by Olga Tokarczuk – the ways of wanderers
Kapka KassabovaA wandering Slavic sect survives on the kindness of strangers in this playful Polish novel -
A scattershot narrative makes this long-awaited second novel unwieldy, if ultimately rewarding
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Fiction Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney – young, gifted and self-destructive
Claire KilroyA menage a quatre in post-crash Dublin tests the bonds between close friends -
Fiction An English Guide to Birdwatching by Nicholas Royle – a metafictional fever dream
Melissa HarrisonThis comic story about plagiarism featuring real-life authors is daring but too muddled to take flight -
Self’s modernist trilogy concludes with typical panache and wit
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This retelling of the tragedy of the house of Atreus is magnificently dramatic, but loses its way in Orestes’ wanderings
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Before His Dark Materials How Lyra’s story began – exclusive extract from Philip Pullman's new novel
In an extract from his forthcoming novel, The Book of Dust, Philip Pullman returns to the magical world of Northern Lights -
The actor’s tale about a seven-year-old chasing her dad through history is engaging and insightful
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Children's book roundup The best new picture books and novels
Imogen Russell-WilliamsFashion faux pas, silent ninja farting and doggy derring-do are just some of the ingredients in this bumper crop of children’s books
people
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The London-based author on her racial awakening – and the books that made her an activist and writer
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Reformation 2017 Plastics are poisoning us. We need change, now
Margaret AtwoodIn a new series marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the novelist calls for a revolt against petrochemical polymers -
The founder of the Palestinian Festival of Literature reflects on 10 years of bringing art and culture to the troubled region
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My writing day I told Tom Hiddleston that the new James Bond should be a middle-aged cartoonist
Chris RiddellThe illustrator-author on life as the children’s laureate, meeting Lauren Laverne and David Walliams and why having a wonderful working life is a nightmare
pictures, video & audio
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We gaze uneasily to the future with Doctorow, look back on the history of the British Raj with Tharoor, and some comic relief comes from Fielding’s hapless heroine Bridget Jones
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As the Brexit boat prepares to set sail, writers from islands around the world explain what it means to be from a small place surrounded by sea
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We talk to the poet-turned-memoirist about Priestdaddy, her account of growing up with a Catholic priest for a father, and discuss our favourite funny autobiographies
you may have missed
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Why I became a historical novelist
Hilary Mantel‘Is this story true?’ readers invevitably ask. In the first of her BBC Reith Lectures, the double Man Booker prize-winning author explores the complicated relationship between history, fact and fiction -
The books interview: the dry-witted US essayist on how he went from working as an elf in Macy’s to becoming ‘the American Alan Bennett’
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From Hans Fallada to Vladimir Nabokov, a novelist recommends fiction from a city in its darkest years
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Tunglið is a tiny imprint that defies conventional business models, incinerating work that doesn’t sell immediately. Its creators explain their ‘poetic act’
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Helen Dunmore obituary As a novelist, courage was her defining quality
News Dunmore dies aged 64, months after revealing cancer diagnosis
In her own words 'Facing mortality and what we leave behind'