books
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Owen King on writing an apocalyptic shocker with his father StephenWhen Owen King, a writer of light comedy, had a ‘horrible’ idea for a novel, he knew who to ask for help. But Sleeping Beauties is not a horror, he insists – there are no ghosts or scary clowns -
Freight authors aghast as former publisher sets up new imprintCo-founder launches new press as company goes into formal liquidation with writers reporting royalties still unpaid
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Grant by Ron Chernow – booze, slavery and an argument for greatnessThe author of the now celebrated Hamilton biography attempts to make a hero of the victorious civil war commander and flawed president -
Sleepwalking to Armageddon by Helen Caldicott – apocalypse now?A collection of essays that focuses on the US president as the source of our greatest danger
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Goblin by Ever Dundas – a brilliant picaresqueThis prizewinning debut novel about the so-called ‘pet massacre’ of the second world war is a meditation on trauma and loss that brims with wild joy
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Northamptonshire may close up to 28 of its 36 librariesAuthors including Alan Moore and Philip Pullman join readers condemning move being considered as a way to make £115m in savings
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Max Tegmark and Ken MacLeod on artificial intelligenceHow would it feel to be outperformed by a machine? We discuss the AI revolution with physicist Max Tegmark and science fiction writer Ken MacLeod
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best books of 2017
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Best books of 2017 – part one‘Funny, outrageous, touching, intimate, gorgeous’ … writers from George Saunders to Ali Smith pick their favourite reads of the past year
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The best fiction of 2017We look back on a year that saw Arundhati Roy’s return and George Saunders’ Man Booker victory, along with dark short stories and a haunting last novel
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The best science books of 2017Why good health requires good sleep, the role our senses play in what we choose to consume, and some mind-boggling maths about the air that we breathe
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The best children’s books of 2017Whatever their age, kids will be engaged and inspired by this year’s diverse offerings
regulars
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Book of the dayBook of the dayGoblin by Ever Dundas review – a brilliant picaresqueThis prizewinning debut novel about the so-called ‘pet massacre’ of the second world war is a meditation on trauma and loss that brims with wild joy
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PodcastPodcastStephen Fry and Emily Wilson on Greek myths – books podcastThis week, the beloved broadcaster leads us back to the classical age, introducing his book Mythos, and we meet Homer’s first female English translator
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Novel recipesNovel recipesNovel recipes: rice pudding from La Belle Sauvage by Philip PullmanThe young hero in the first instalment of The Book of Dust has much to lose – Kate Young on a warming dish with all the comforts of home
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Reading groupReading groupReading group: Attrib. by Eley Williams is December's bookThe draw to find a neglected treasure from 2017 has turned up this collection of short stories, which promises to bring a happy close to the year
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This Long Pursuit by Richard Holmes – reflections of a Romantic biographerEssays on Samuel Coleridge, Mary Somerville and John Keats feature alongside personal reflections on the biographer’s art in this insightful collection of meditations
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The Quantum Astrologer’s Handbook by Michael Brooks – maths contests and the nature of the universeThis superb book by Michael Brooks is in part a biography of the mathematician Jerome Cardano. But it delves into the most fundamental questions
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At the Stranger’s Gate by Adam Gopnik – a prose stylist on New YorkA memoir by the New Yorker staff writer becomes overburdened with ease. It is least successful when he reflects on home and married life
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Alt-America and English Uprising – Trump, Brexit and the far rightBoth David Neiwert’s book on the US radical right and Paul Stocker’s on Brexit argue that economic factors take second place in explaining populism
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Women and Power by Mary Beard – the poison of patriarchyIn this brilliant book, the classicist charts misogyny from ancient Greece and Rome to today, and issues a clarion call that it is not women but power that must change
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Winter by Karl Ove Knausgaard – from cotton buds to sex as cannibalismThe second volume of the bestselling author’s seasonal musings meander between the laughable and the sublime
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Places in the Darkness by Chris Brookmyre – murder in zero-gravityThe Scottish writer puts his detectives aboard a city-in-space in a twisting, sci-fi-flavoured crime mystery
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You Should Come With Me Now by M John Harrison – stories for the uncommon readerFun-house reflections of human nature emerge from these inventive fables and surreal spoofs – but their studied inconsequentiality becomes predictable
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Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward – slow apocalypse of black AmericaThis award-winning portrait of a Mississippi family blighted by drugs and prison is a fierce critique of US history
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Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash – powerful, magnetic debutA wrestling obsessive confronts his own loneliness in a tale of brutal intensity
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The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman – an enchanting prequel to Practical MagicHoffman displays her magic touch once again as she relates the witchy sisters’ family backstory in a novel set in 1950s New York
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Mythos – the Greek myths get the Stephen Fry treatmentFry’s retellings have stiff competition, are limited in selection and sometimes appear to be set in North London. But they have real charm
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Turtles All the Way Down by John Green – dark and complexTeenager Aza embarks on a mystery and a love story but both are soon derailed by her own anxieties…
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Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers – a heartfelt hug of a storyJeffers’s first nonfiction book is a witty, tender introduction to the world for his newborn son
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We See Everything by William Sutcliffe – surveillance and survival in dystopian LondonResistance fighters are tracked by drones in this young adult tale of violence, love and bereavement
people
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Kim Moore's 'thrilling' debut poetry collection wins Geoffrey Faber prizeThe Art of Falling, by a Cumbrian poet and former trumpet teacher, joins illustrious former winners including Seamus Heaney and JM Coetzee
pictures, video & audio
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The art of Terry Pratchett's DiscworldThe author’s ‘artist of choice’ Paul Kidby introduces some of the images he produced during their decades-long collaboration
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Trump in the cartoon frame – in picturesRobert Sikoryak has taken from the US president and reimagined them on classic comic book covers, turning Wonder Woman into Nasty Woman, and Trump into Uncle Scrooge, Godzilla, Magneto and more
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Jennifer Egan and M John HarrisonOn this week’s show, we examine the writing life with a Pulitzer winner who is not afraid to experiment and a genre-busting author with his most radical collection of short stories yet
you may have missed
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How to rewrite A Christmas Carol for the digital ageDickens’s A Christmas Carol has become too familiar – it’s time to revisit it’s original meaning and capture what Scrooge stood for
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Writers reminisce on their relationship with EuropeFrom cappuccinos to constitutional rights, Stieg Larsson to Smetana – writers reflect on what Europe means to them
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Imagining a diverse reading listFollowing student calls for university English literature syllabuses to be ‘decolonised’, Hanif Kureishi, Arundhati Roy, Kamila Shamsie and other authors reflect on the debate and choose essential books by black and minority ethnic writers
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All the winners of our graphic short story prize interviewedWe celebrate by talking to previous winners – and to 2017’s star, Tor Freeman
Divine words Top 10 novels about God