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Deep Down by Imogen West-Knights – fluid and skilful debut about domestic abuse
The effect on two siblings of their violent father’s death is told with sharp wit and vivid shifts in time in this accomplished first novel Anyone who knew of Imogen West-Knights as one half ...
Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg review – hot gossip from pop’s golden age
In this hoot of an oral history the stars of 90s chart acts recall how their innocence collided with a cynical music industry In 1996, Take That, Britain’s biggest pop act, broke up. This was...
Arrangements in Blue by Amy Key review – cathartic meditation on singledom
The poet’s Joni Mitchell-inspired memoir of her partnerless life marks an important shift in ideas about intimacy and solitude A couple of years ago, I tried to create a playlist of songs for...
The Conservative Party After Brexit by Tim Bale review – why conservatism turned into chaos
The politics professor deftly chronicles the errors and ideologies that have brought the post-Brexit Conservative party to the brink of ungovernability Napoleon was history on a horse. Since th...
Karl Geary: ‘I was writing out of confusion and horror, rage and love’
The actor turned novelist on creating authentic working-class characters, swapping Dublin for New York aged 16, and why sewing is like writing Before making his literary debut in 2017 with Mont...
Resistance fighter, novelist - and Sartre’s favourite agony aunt: rediscovering Alba Céspedes
Championed by Elena Ferrante, Céspedes’s neo-realist classic The Forbidden Notebook is being reissued 70 years after it was first published. It still speaks to women’s lives today Postwar ...
Diana Evans: ‘The Tory rhetoric asks us to forget, I’m trying to make sure that we don’t’
Five years on from her acclaimed novel Ordinary People, the writer returns to explore the lives of black British Londoners. She talks about Grenfell, belonging – and how she writes to bear witn...
Katherine Rundell: ‘My party trick is knowing Jane Austen’s Emma off by heart’
The author on Vladimir Nabokov’s footnotes, James Baldwin’s essays and returning to Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety My earliest reading memory The Brambly Hedge books by Jill Ba...
Homelands by Timothy Garton Ash review – Europe’s story
The author and journalist charts some of the lessons learned from the Hungarian revolution to the invasion of Ukraine Timothy Garton Ash has combined work in academia, journalism and political...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/24/homelands-by-timothy-garton-ash-review-europes-story
In Memoriam by Alice Winn review – an elegy for young love
Two young men journey from the classroom to the trenches in this tale of a forbidden relationship set against the first world war In March 1915, public schoolboy Sidney Ellwood sends a letter t...
Plotters by Lizzie Dearden review – the terrorists who failed
From malfunctioning satnavs to dud bombs, the stories behind botched attacks on the UK Journalist Lizzie Dearden has been covering terrorism and extremism for about a decade. In her first book,...
To Battersea Park by Philip Hensher review – a pandemic masterclass
Hensher brilliantly explores the lockdown experience, and how to bear witness to it, in this fluid portrait of south London lives Three years on, it remains difficult to think coherently about ...
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond review – how the rich keep the poor down
A Pulitzer-winning sociologist argues that the United States’s gross inequality is no accident It’s no wonder Americans have failed to eliminate poverty, sociologist Matthew Desmond maintai...
Dr No by Percival Everett review – serious comedy
A maths professor meets a would-be Bond villain in a metaphysical caper through race and history from the author of The Trees “I recall that I am extremely forgetful,” announces the narrato...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/22/dr-no-by-percival-everett-review-serious-comedy
Travellers to Unimaginable Lands by Dasha Kiper review – how dementia changes lives
A clinical psychologist turns the spotlight on caregivers in this profoundly compassionate study An elegant woman enjoys a gin and tonic and dinner with her husband in a cosy Italian restaurant...
The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup
A teenager terrifies his uncle, Harlan Coben makes the implausible ring true – and the members of a running club have murder on their mind I can’t say that I enjoyed Nathan Oates’s A FLAW...
The Art of the Straight Line review – how tai chi brought out Lou Reed’s mild side
The singer-songwriter transformed his later life practising the martial art, as this compilation of writing, edited by his widow Laurie Anderson, shows How do stars – or any of us – tick? A...
The big idea: why we should study the history that never happened
Dismissed by some as mere speculation, examining ‘what ifs’ can shed valuable light on neglected perspectives Thinking about alternative scenarios is tempting, both in our everyday lives an...
To Battersea Park by Philip Hensher review – fever dreams and dystopias
This four-part journey through life under lockdown is filled with beautiful writing but the ubiquity of the pandemic experience proves hard to ignore Philip Hensher’s latest novel, To Batters...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/20/to-battersea-park-by-philip-hensher-covid-coronavirus
Paris: The Memoir review – how a celebrity nymph conquered the Earth
With its dizzying spirituality and devotion to ‘sacred’ skincare, Paris Hilton’s memoir exposes a culture in which the self only exists if validated by a selfie Twenty years ago, Paris Hi...
Cuddy by Benjamin Myers review – a polyphonic hymn to the north-east
The novelist’s afterlife of St Cuthbert spans centuries and volumes, making for a vibrant alternative history of the region Born in the seventh century, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne is the unoffic...
Tomás Nevinson by Javier Marías review – seductive and inescapably poignant
The Spanish novelist’s final book is a twisting espionage tale shot through with slantwise humour An espionage thriller in sinuous slow motion, Tomás Nevinson is the final novel from Javier ...
A Stranger in Your Own City by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad review – frustration and fury in Iraq
The architects of the 2003 invasion promised change and democracy. This book shatters western assumptions, shows the effect on Iraqis of cycles of violence – and offers cautious hope This mon...
Richard Milward: ‘I hid my writing like a secret vice’
The novelist on his latest book, a Charles Manson-inspired work written in slang, his love of the band Mogwai and the trials of sorting post for Royal Mail Richard Milward, 38, grew up in Middl...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/18/richard-milward-man-eating-typewriter-polari
David Baddiel: ‘Football fills a God-shaped hole’
Ahead of a new book about our need for faith, the ‘militant atheist’ discusses oversharing, identity – and why he’s distancing himself from Richard Dawkins David Baddiel was six years o...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/18/david-baddiel-football-fills-a-god-shaped-hole
This month’s best paperbacks: Melvyn Bragg, Ursula Le Guin and more
Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some wonderful new paperbacks, from the history of the Earth’s geology to brilliant, biting first novels Continue reading...
Margaret Atwood: ‘It would be fun to talk to Simone de Beauvoir’
The author on being banned in Virginia, communicating with dead writers and her new short story collection, the first since the death of her partner Margaret Atwood is the author of more than 5...
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new chapter books
A pair of historical novels focus on different aspects of the 70s, while gender identity is a theme in an array of strong new adventures Sometimes, historical fiction doesn’t require crinolin...
Melvyn Bragg: ‘At 83, time goes round too quickly’
The broadcaster and writer on revisiting childhood for his nostalgic memoir, the genius of George Orwell, and his love of dancing Melvyn Bragg’s memoir, Back in the Day, is a portrait of the ...
Who made you king of everything? Angela Saini on the origins of patriarchy
The journalist has written acclaimed books tackling race science and gender inequality. Next up, the patriarchy – which is neither natural nor inevitable, she argues On the day Angela Saini ...
Bonnie Garmus: ‘There are so few of us who haven’t been pushed aside’
The Lessons in Chemistry author on her bestselling debut novel’s debt to her mother’s generation, how readers identify with her heroine and why the book’s title changed Bonnie Garmus, 65,...
Where to start with: Colette
James Hopkin looks at why, 150 years after her birth, the pioneering French writer still deserves our attention Last month marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/23/where-to-start-with-colette
Em Strang: ‘Right now we’re living through a time of incredible misogyny’
The award-winning poet on writing in the voice of a convicted killer, her excavation of the masculine psyche and why she wants to read less At 52, award-winning Scottish poet Em Strang is publi...
Picture books for children – reviews
Insects and entomologists inspire two creepy-crawly tales, and a polar bear gets lost in the big smoke Watch out, there are bugs about! Two very different new releases burst with wiggly, swoopi...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/06/picture-books-for-children-reviews
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
Rhinos race on roller skates; a footballer finds his feet; magic goes wrong; and an influencer embraces life offline THERE’S NOTHING FASTER THAN A CHEETAH BY TOM NICOLL, ILLUSTRATED BY ROSS ...
Beyond the fog of war: books to help us understand the invasion of Ukraine
From Ukrainian history to Putin’s kleptocracy and Gogol’s stories, author and former Russia correspondent Oliver Bullough chooses the best titles With Russian forces pushing deep into Ukrai...
The 100 best books of the 21st century
Dazzling debut novels, searing polemics, the history of humanity and trailblazing memoirs ... Read our pick of the best books since 2000 Read an interview with the author of our No 1 book Read ...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/best-books-of-the-21st-century
The 100 best nonfiction books of all time: the full list
After two years of careful reading, moving backwards through time, Robert McCrum has concluded his selection of the 100 greatest nonfiction books. Take a quick look at five centuries of great wri...
The 100 best novels written in English: the full list
After two years of careful consideration, Robert McCrum has reached a verdict on his selection of the 100 greatest novels written in English. Take a look at his list Robert McCrum reflects on his...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/17/the-100-best-novels-written-in-english-the-full-list