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Fiction
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A surprising romance is set against a backdrop of climate crisis, political instability and corporate corruption in this bleak but witty novelRosa Rankin-Gee follows her 2021 near-future climate-crisis dystopia, Dreamland,…
June 2, 2026
· 2 min read
In less than a decade, surrounded by screens, I lost my ability to read some of the best books ever written. But, inspired by the Guardian’s 100 best novels list,…
June 2, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
Set in the aftermath of the famine, the Hamnet author’s family saga folds in myth and folklore‘His father was ever a man of few words,” begins Maggie O’Farrell’s 10th novel,…
June 1, 2026
· 2 min read
From a young age, the author was told that one of her ancestors had drawn some of the first maps of Ireland. Then she found a photograph, and embarked on…
May 31, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
The Women’s prize-shortlisted novelist on taking inspiration from John Steinbeck, Joan Didion and Jhumpa Lahiri, and weeping through Little Women in her 30sMy earliest reading memory I’m not sure what…
May 29, 2026
· 1 min read
Fiction
Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami; All Flesh by Ananda Devi; The White Desert by Luis López Carrasco; The Home of the Drowned by Elin Anna LabbaSisters in Yellow by…
May 29, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
A British and American film crew descend on the Northern Irish city to film a drama about the Troubles, in a keenly observed and snappily written debutThe premise of Séamas…
May 29, 2026
· 2 min read
Audiobooks
This compendium of 49 of Britain’s threatened species features lyrical prose poems evoking each bird’s unique qualities and beautiful recordings of their distinctive callsThe Book of Birds delivers a stark…
May 28, 2026
· 1 min read
Parents and parenting
Before having a child, I had endless days to think about writing. Now, half an hour can suddenly become a window of creativityBecoming a parent is hard. Eight to 12…
May 28, 2026
· 1 min read
Fiction
Shortlisted for the Women’s prize, this story of a writer’s infatuation with an older woman begins with bracing verveRozie Kelly’s frank and feisty debut novel, which has been shortlisted for…
May 28, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
The author of When I Hit You returns with a pithy, savagely funny tale of online shaming and the Indian manosphereWe can all agree that the internet today, especially two…
May 27, 2026
· 2 min read
Marcel Proust
Daunted by Proust or Joyce? Letters from Ian Arnott, Mike Bromberg and Andrew Keeley on giving up on a long readDave Patten says Proust’s In Search of Lost Time was…
May 26, 2026
· 1 min read
Books
Williams follows her prize-winning debut with a gothically overstuffed tale of a cynical young woman in a crumbling university townMissouri Williams’s darkly absurd and wilfully grotesque debut novel, The Doloriad,…
May 26, 2026
· 2 min read
Jilly Cooper
The second series of Rivals has put the bestselling author’s brand of saucy jollity back on screen, but what is her bonkbuster nonpareil? In the last of Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire…
May 25, 2026
· 1 min read
Ann Patchett
A woman’s encounter with the stepfather she hasn’t seen for decades leads to a revived bond – but is it all too perfect?I blame Meryl Streep. Once she’s in your…
May 25, 2026
· 1 min read
Books
This heartfelt story of attraction and friendship, shortlisted for the Women’s prize for fiction, is sensitively read by Dan BottomleyThe debut novel from Rozie Kelly – shortlisted for this year’s…
May 21, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
This vivid story of a Caribbean childhood in 1960s Bradford does not stint on accounts of poverty and systemic abuse, yet is pungent with wit and colour‘I remember growing up…
May 21, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
What makes this love story fresh is the precise attention to the contemporary environment: the way characters live both in and out of the physical worldThe opening section of I…
May 20, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
Sharp’s deadpan debut reads like a gen Z update on The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, playfully skewering modern literary tropesThe unnamed 28-year-old narrator of Avigayl Sharp’s debut novel teaches…
May 19, 2026
· 1 min read
Fiction
In this warm and tender debut, the family of Barbados-born Lucinda must try to document her decades in Britain after the Home Office threatens her with deportationThere is a particular…
May 18, 2026
· 2 min read
Food
From James Bond’s breakfasts to the kimchi fried rice in Crying in H Mart, a book’s food can often linger longer in our memories than its characters or storylinesSign up…
May 14, 2026
· 2 min read
Books
This moving work about an irascible woman in her 70s who conducts her most intimate relationships through letters has been shortlisted for the Women’s prize Epistolary novels were once all…
May 14, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
Radical hope and rage combine in this tale of ecological precarity and resistance among sex workers on a brothel island ‘Yes, you will leave this place,” the chorus of child…
May 13, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
His first story collection, Reward System, was a cult hit. Now comes a novel that’s a bleakly funny appraisal of millennial relationships, technology and ennui. He talks about love, precarity…
May 10, 2026
· 2 min read
Fiction
Bringing Manchester’s Curry Mile to vibrant life, the #Merky prize-winning author’s cross-genre work focuses on the lives and language of young British men. He discusses identity and inspirationOn a stretch…
May 3, 2026
· 1 min read
Children and teenagers
Caring canines; daring donuts; a golden monkey; a boy from another planet; a dark take on Little Women and moreThe Good Deed Dogs by Emma Chichester Clark, Walker, £12.99Three very…
January 23, 2026
· 1 min read