Antonia Fraser: “I don’t like being unpopular”
The historian on growing up as “a boy”, her “last” biography, and the joy of having close male friends in…
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.
Simone de Beauvoir and the art of loss
Sixty years ago, the French writer’s unflinching memoir of her mother’s death tested the limits of her existentialism.
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How not to drown
Growing up as a fish out of water.
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Virginia Woolf’s living book
The writer’s diaries reveal a mind striving to capture the elusive moment.
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A TikTok publishing house is bad news for books
Do we really want our literary landscape to be overrun with romance novels, trashy thrillers and scientifically dubious self-help?
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What is Annie Ernaux hiding?
What the Nobel Laureate teaches us about shame, confession and secrecy.
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From Ferdinand Mount to Isabel Waidner: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Crisis Actor by Declan Ryan and Women We Buried, Women We Burned by Rachel Louise Snyder.
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Joyce Carol Oates, online and off
The novelist reflects on Twitter, autofiction and our lack of a “sense of history”.
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Lorrie Moore’s American afterlife
Moore’s new novel is an absurd, profound treatise on death and grief that only stumbles when it reaches for a…
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Goodreads is degrading our literary culture
Everyone can, and should, be a critic. But the reviews website is having a sinister effect on books.
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Why literary snobs don’t get Bridget Jones
Moralising critics forget the importance of fiction holding up a mirror to society’s flaws.
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From Leïla Slimani to Laura Cumming: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Penance by Eliza Clark and White Hot by Matt Roller and Tim Wigmore.
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Death and literature in Ukraine
Kyiv’s thriving literary scene was marred by the death of the novelist Victoria Amelina.
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Lucinda Williams: “Poor women? After a while that becomes ridiculous”
The songwriter on her stroke, country vs rock, and why she hates “feminists in music using the fact that they’re…
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What Cormac McCarthy knew
The American novelist understood the bleak truth that the world defies human understanding or control.
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Eat, Pray, Surrender
How Elizabeth Gilbert gave up on literature.
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The high plain style of Cormac McCarthy
The late American novelist wrote with a strange and streamlined grandeur, and sounded like nobody else.
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Cormac McCarthy’s existential Westerns
In his career-defining Border Trilogy, the late novelist summoned the ghosts of America’s bloody history.
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Annie Ernaux’s acts of revenge
The Nobel laureate on abortion, the “shame” of her upbringing and forging a new working-class literature.
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Martin who?
Not everyone is convinced of Martin Amis’s genius.
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