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Books

  • Jenny Erpenbeck and Michael Hofmann at the International Booker prize ceremony at Tate Modern.

    ‘It was high time I told our stories’
    Jenny Erpenbeck on her International Booker winner Kairos

  • Igbo refugees after the collapse of Biafra in 1970

    Fiction
    The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma review – a brutal journey

    Aminatta Forna
    The victims of Nigeria’s bloody civil war are given a voice in this tale of a man’s quest to find his estranged brother
  • ‘I had fangs and I was furry’ … Emil Ferris.

    Emil Ferris
    We can’t enter a future without our humanity

    The My Favorite Thing Is Monsters author returns with Book Two, which warns against the ‘monstrousness’ of social conformity
  • Streetwise … Lagos, Nigeria, where Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle is set.

    Five of the best
    Books about west African cities

  • The US-Mexico border wall in Campo, California.

    Politics books
    Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer review – seeking sanctuary

    Charlie English
  • Zoey’s blankly affable gaze makes her strangely endearing.

    Fiction
    Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan review – ‘the perfect girlfriend’

    Carrie O'Grady
  • Donna Summer.

    Music books
    The Secret Public by Jon Savage review – how pop drove LGBTQ+ liberation

    Alex Needham
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What to read

  • Composite image of best paperbacks May 2024

    Paperbacks
    This month’s best paperbacks: Richard Osman, Rebecca F Kuang and more

  • Streetwise … Lagos, Nigeria, where Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle is set.

    Five of the best
    Five of the best books about west African cities

    • Read on

      100 best novels of all time
      From The Pilgrim's Progress to True History of the Kelly Gang

    • Books of the century so far

      The 100 best books of the 21st century

    • Composite for the 100 best nonfiction books of all time list

      100 best nonfiction books of all time
      From Naomi Klein to the Bible – the full list

Non-fiction reviews

  • Michiko Kakutani

    Society books
    The Great Wave by Michiko Kakutani review – overcoming ‘permacrisis’

    Tim Adams
  • CHINA-HEALTH-VIRUS<br>This photo taken on January 25, 2020 shows medical staff wearing protective clothing to protect against the deadly COVID-2019 coronavirus as they work at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan. - Doctors on the frontline of China's new coronavirus epidemic are facing a daunting task: treat an ever-growing number of infected patients and risk getting infected themselves due to a drastic shortage of masks and other protective equipment. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP) / TO GO WITH China-health-virus-hospital,FOCUS by Eva Xiao and Ludovic Ehret (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)

    Pandemic books
    Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control; Wuhan: A Documentary Novel – reviews

    Mark Honigsbaum
    Dali L Yang’s critique of China’s response in the early days of the Covid pandemic is thoroughgoing if academic, while poet Liao Yiwu’s account mixes fact and fiction to extraordinary effect
  • Farmer Giles Establishment, Christmas Day, 1830.<br>ENGLAND - JUNE 19: Seven people are seated round the kitchen table brandishing knives and forks and glasses; a woman at one end is carving meat from a large roast; at the other end a man on his feet is holding up a jug. A small boy, standing on a bellows, stretches up to the table to drink from a plate; two others are eating on the floor using a stool as a table. A dog is sitting looking up at the table. Coloured etching by William Heath, published by T McLean, 1830. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

    Health, mind and body books
    Rumbles by Elsa Richardson review – gut reaction

    Steven Poole
    A vivid cultural of digestion, from ancient Greece to All-Bran
  • The now closed and derelict Severalls Mental Hospital, Colchester. This infamous lunatic asylum is now awaiting redevelopment.<br>DNBXA7 The now closed and derelict Severalls Mental Hospital, Colchester. This infamous lunatic asylum is now awaiting redevelopment.

    Memoir
    The Bullet by Tom Lee review – a complicated inheritance

    Declan Ryan
  • Protesters gather in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, Washington, June 2020

    Society books
    Morning After the Revolution by Nellie Bowles review – the perils of failing to toe the party line

    Rachel Cooke
  • Benji Waterhouse

    Health, mind and body books
    You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here by Benji Waterhouse review – the doctor won’t see you now

    Rachel Clarke
  • Detail from The Bachelor Party by Louis Wain.

    Biography books
    Catland by Kathryn Hughes review – paws for thought

    Sam Leith
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Fiction & poetry reviews

  • Hari Kunzru (2)

    Fiction
    Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru review – sex, drugs and conceptual art

    Abhrajyoti Chakraborty
  • Enniscorthy County Wexford Eire Republic of Ireland<br>ABHFW1 Enniscorthy County Wexford Eire Republic of Ireland

    Fiction
    Long Island by Colm Tóibín review – the sequel to Brooklyn is a masterclass in subtlety and intelligence

    John Self
    This follow-up, set 20 years on, kicks off with a marriage in crisis and skilfully conveys how blind we are to our own motivations
  • Terror strikes at a California shopping mall in Abir Mukherjee’s Hunted.

    Crime and thrillers roundup
    The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

    Laura Wilson
    Hunted by Abir Mukherjee; Bonehead by Mo Hayder; When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips; The Mystery of the Crooked Man by Tom Spencer
  • Detail from So Long Sad Love by Mirion Malle.

    Graphic novel of the month
    So Long Sad Love by Mirion Malle review – an irresistible celebration of female courage

    Rachel Cooke
  • Allen Bratton.

    Fiction
    Henry Henry by Allen Bratton review – a Shakespearean tangle of hedonism and duty

    James Smart
  • Miranda July.

    Fiction
    All Fours by Miranda July review – larger than life

    Lara Feigel
  • Saoirse Ronan and Domhnall Gleeson in the 2015 film adaptation of Brooklyn.

    Fiction
    Long Island by Colm Tóibín review – happy ever after?

    Clare Clark
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Children's and YA books

  • Detail from The Whisperwicks: The Labyrinth of Lost and Found by Jordan Lees.

    Children's book reviews round-up
    The best new chapter books

    Kitty Empire
  • The Magic Callaloo by Trish Cooke, illustrated by Sophie Bass.

    Children's book roundup
    The best new picture books and novels

    Imogen Russell Williams
    An ungrammatical egg; a demystifying approach to death; 10 new poets to read aloud; and a stunning gothic mystery
  • Terrible Horses, by Raymond Antrobus and Ken Wilson-Max. PR pics from Walker Books - with words removed

    Children's book reviews round-up
    Picture books for children – reviews

    Imogen Carter
    Bashful cats and lonely ponies stalk the pages of this month’s choices
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Interviews

  • Coco Mellors.

    Author Coco Mellors
    I needed from the book something that I needed in my life – a sense of hope

  • Taylor Sam headshots 3 2024 9

    Sam Taylor
    Translating is like X-raying a book. You get a deep tissue read

    The US-based writer and translator on his new novel set in 1930s Vienna, his deep connection with the authors he has worked with and why he always returns to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History
  • Views her work as defying a state that condones a war against women ... Cristina Rivera Garza.

    ‘The only healing will be through justice’
    Pulitzer winner Cristina Rivera Garza on femicide in Mexico

    Through writing about her sister Liliana’s murder 30 years ago, the author found a community of those whose female friends and family members had also been killed. Yet the authorities still fail to act
  • Miranda July.

    ‘I was in a kind of ecstatic freefall’
    Artist Miranda July on writing the book that could change your life

  • OBserver Books<br>Author pic - Deborah Levy photographed at Gokyuzu restaurant, in Green Lanes, N4.

    Deborah Levy
    Writing and swimming help each other

  • Colm Tóibín.

    ‘This is much more intimate’
    Colm Tóibín on writing a sequel to Brooklyn, 15 years on

  • Ponomarenko in Kyiv’s Independence Square

    ‘I have my iPhone, X and a brain in my head’
    Ukrainian journalist and social media star Illia Ponomarenko

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Regulars

  • Hari Kunzru at home in Brooklyn.

    The books of my life
    Hari Kunzru: ‘I am just as enchanted by The Great Gatsby now as when I first read it as an A-level student’

  • Illustration of a mantrap with a speech bubble inside

    Big idea
    The big idea: the simple trick that can sabotage your critical thinking

    Influencers and politicians use snappy cliches to get you on side – but you can fight fire with fire
  • Franz Kafka.

    Where to start with
    Where to start with: Franz Kafka

    Inscrutable bureaucracy and monstrous insects may not sound immediately appealing, but once you’re lost in Kafka’s world you won’t want to escape
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