Books
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From a midwife in the 18th century to a labour ward in London in the 1970s, Sarah Knott’s reading suggestions for Mother’s Day
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Pinch of Nom is selling like … hotcakes. And that speaks volumes about our abiding love for books on the kitchen shelf
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The former Labour MP on his political thriller set in post-Brexit Britain and why he’s keen to read David Cameron’s memoirs
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A shocking tale of solitary confinement in Iran, told with deadpan humour. It all begins with avocados …
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A powerful and beautifully written account, centred on the experience of the author’s father, and identifying a crisis in care
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Volume three of Smith’s Seasonal Quartet offers a powerful vision of lost souls in a divided Britain
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The death of a Moroccan immigrant in a small California town exposes secrets, lies and a legacy of violence
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A comic novel about love, lust and social angst at the dental surgery vividly evokes English provincial life in 1980
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This forerunner to Brave New World is a protest against social control with a love story at its heart
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A fascinating glimpse into the life of a contemporary Kuwaiti woman and her place within conservative Arab culture
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Two men with a road to build: the US author’s latest novel is a lean parable about war and its aftermath
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A scruffy puppy’s friendship, a young adventurer’s guide to the wild, poltergeist spooks and scroll down for the best new books for teens
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Anti-trafficking campaigner Onjali Q Raúf was inspired to write adventure story The Boy at the Back of the Class by a Syrian mother and baby she encountered in a Calais camp
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Number of books featuring African Americans has more than doubled in the past decade, with Asian Americans tripling
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Scams are rife, particularly when some authors can rake in thousands each month – but high-profile victims of plagiarism warn ‘day of reckoning is coming’
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On this week’s show, academic Robin DiAngelo talks about her book White Fragility and Margaret Busby reflects on her new collection of black female writers, New Daughters of Africa
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In 2015, Ali Smith embarked on a project to write four novels in real time, engaging with the political events of the day. She had no idea what was about to unfold. As Spring is published, she explains why they are more than just Brexit books
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Moroccan-born author Laila Lalami talks about finding her voice, who gets control of the narrative and how it feels to be a Muslim in America today
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The 2016 EU referendum was technically indicative, but the result was felt to be binding. So what does the term mean?
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What to read
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The author on devouring The Hobbit, falling under the spell of The Tempest, and the novel that made her cry on a plane
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From a midwife in the 18th century to a labour ward in London in the 1970s, Sarah Knott’s reading suggestions for Mother’s Day
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Books of 2019
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The Goldfinch takes flight in cinemas, Robert Macfarlane goes underground and Margaret Atwood continues The Handmaid’s Tale … what to look forward to in the world of books
You may have missed
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The unveiling of artificial intelligence that can write fiction and journalism caused alarm. But how does its prose compare with George Orwell’s – and can it report on Brexit?
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We are now producing and consuming more food than ever, and yet our modern diet is killing us. How can we solve this bittersweet dilemma?
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The west has assumed that Maoism, like Soviet communism, has been left in the dust: no European rebels these days carry a Little Red Book. But the ideology is resurgent in China and remains hugely influential elsewhere
Kate Clanchy Poetry makes children feel important, that they’re heard
Extract ‘So many of our children had a loss to mourn. Isn’t that what poetry’s for?’