Our fatal addiction to narrative
Once, stories helped us make sense of reality, argues Peter Brooks – now they have devoured it.
ByLiterature
Immerse yourself in the captivating world of literature with our collection of articles, offering literary analysis, book recommendations, author spotlights, and thought-provoking discussions that celebrate the written word.
An A to Z of Carmen Callil
Her friend recalls the “fiery and bewitching” founder of Virago Press.
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The wonder of children’s art
A new book of pictures and drawings is an attempt to help adults recall what the world looks like to…
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From Marguerite Duras to Anthony Seldon: recent titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Bandit Country by James Conor Patterson and Looking To Sea by Lily Le Brun.
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The dark heart of Roald Dahl
A streak of pure nastiness runs through the author’s anarchic, beloved children’s literature – just as it did through his…
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What Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gets wrong about free speech
The author says she prefers to read non-fiction because she senses so many novelists holding back due to “social censure”.…
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Cho Nam-joo Q&A: “I want to live without colliding with humans”
The South Korean novelist on K-pop, regretting the future and escaping to another planet.
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From Lisa Nandy to An Yu: recent books reviewed in short
Also featuring a biography of Peter Beard and White Torture by Narges Mohammadi.
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The radical bookshops shaping Britain’s literary culture
Today’s indie bookshops are as influential in stirring up political and cultural life as those of the 1960s.
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Why Diego Garcia won the 2022 Goldsmiths Prize for fiction
Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams’s collaboration is a restlessly inventive novel about colonial injustice and human connection.
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Pachinko author Min Jin Lee: “I don’t want approval”
The Korean-American novelist on hate speech, cancel culture and exposing society’s unwritten codes.
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Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams: “Writers are subject to a sustained assault from the political class”
The 2022 Goldsmiths Prize-winning duo on Chagos, capitalism and collaborating on their mould-breaking novel Diego Garcia.
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What our homes reveal about ourselves
Living Rooms explores what domestic spaces say about class and belonging, from chintz to cleanfluencers.
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How #BookTok is changing literature
TikTok is having an “unprecedented” impact on publishing, but is it shaping a new wave of fiction?
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Diego Garcia is the first collaborative novel to win the Goldsmiths Prize
Natasha Soobramanien and Luke Williams’s politically charged novel has won the 2022 award for mould-breaking fiction.
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PJ Harvey on superstition, dialect and poetry
At a live Q&A with Frank Skinner, the musician shared her knowledge of Dorset folklore and read from her new…
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Kamila Shamsie Q&A: “Ali Smith’s books force me out of pessimism”
The author discusses her heroes, the cricketer Wasim Akram and Nelson Mandela, and her love of Wimbledon.
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From Yomi Sode to Jo van Gogh-Bonger: recent books reviewed in short
Also featuring Cleopatra’s Daughter by Jane Draycott and A Line in the World by Dorthe Nors.
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How Jacques Testard made Fitzcarraldo a prize-winning literary powerhouse
The publisher on the “arrogance” of the UK books industry and the transformative effect of three Nobel Prizes in the…
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Sara Baume: “I’m attracted to artists who find new ways to tread the same ground”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted Seven Steeples on the pandemic, the death of her father and the role of…
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