books
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The new comic is the latest in a number of posthumous projects based on the work of a writer who was famously shy of publicity
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Winner of last year’s Man Booker prize for his blistering US satire, The Sellout, the novelist answered questions on Lee Morgan, enjoyable authors, Eric Clapton and beans on a fry up
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In a single day in 2013, 10 American children died from gunshot wounds. I wanted to find out why this was nothing out of the ordinary
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The Pulitzer prize-winning author talks to Sarah Churchwell about his new memoir, Between Them: Remembering my Parents
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Your choice of Pulitzer winner only received the honour for his masterpiece posthumously, having been unable to find a publisher while he lived
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Despite the occasional misstep, Colum McCann’s book of guidance for writers is full of clarity, wit and forceful instruction
news
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The Ministry of Utmost Happiness has been met with mixed reviews but is expected to be a bestseller
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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Doubtful we will get the scrutinising parliament we urgently need this week, the novelist believes a youthful pro-European movement is mustering, ready to fight back
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regulars
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Book of the dayBook of the dayLetters to a Young Writer review – sound advice for novelistsDespite the occasional misstep, Colum McCann’s book of guidance for writers is full of clarity, wit and forceful instruction
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PodcastPodcastRichard Ford discusses his family memoir – books podcastThe Pulitzer prize-winning author talks to Sarah Churchwell about his new memoir, Between Them: Remembering my Parents
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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 groupJohn Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces is June's reading group bookYour choice of Pulitzer winner only received the honour for his masterpiece posthumously, having been unable to find a publisher while he lived
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A welcome new study suggests that science is rewriting the old theories that ‘explain’ why women are best suited to housework and men are natural philanderers
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Adam Phillips’s diverse, probing essays on writers and writing are like ‘little gatherings of like minds’
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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 -
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 writer’s latest collection takes in everything from mortality and ageing to the music of the sea
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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
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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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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
from the archive
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The novelist, who died on 5 June after a short battle with cancer, considers the question of legacy and how a wander through a graveyard inspired her latest novel Birdcage Walk
people
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Award-winning American novelist, poet and screenwriter who wrote about fallen angels living in a fallen world
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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
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 Family reveals poem written in the author's last days
Helen Dunmore obituary As a novelist, courage was her defining quality
News Dunmore dies aged 64, months after revealing cancer diagnosis