On the kindness of book people
Also this week: Yodelling for Kafka and how water connects us all.
ByNovels
Elif Shafak’s warning from history
There Are Rivers in the Sky is the Turkish novelist at her ambitious and empathetic best.
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The 2024 International Booker shortlist reviewed
From a Korean Scheherazade to Brazilian spirits, the grief of surviving a suicide to the magic of brief encounters.
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Paul Auster’s literary legacy
The novelist, who has died at the age of 77 in Brooklyn, leaves behind a body of work haunted by…
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2024: The year in fiction
This year’s books highlights include new works from Kevin Barry, Sarah Perry and Ali Smith.
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Notes on trying
For readers and writers, novels require enormous effort. Why do we persist in seeking meaning in their pages?
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Italo Calvino’s imaginary worlds
The Italian writer, born 100 years ago, first sought to reflect political reality – and then to redefine it.
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Kate Briggs: “I took a philosophical vocabulary and offered it to a baby”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted The Long Form on “patchwork” novels, and why childcare is a political act.
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John le Carré, the great deceiver
The duplicity that defined his spy novels also enabled his relentless pursuit of sexual pleasure.
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The darkness of the secret world: Mick Herron and John Gray in conversation
The bestselling author of the Slough House series and the philosopher discuss spy thrillers, the allure of the Cold War…
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Benjamin Myers: “Historical fiction is not all tabards and turnips”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted Cuddy on being a heathen, and why he wants to see a ghost.
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Anthony Horowitz Q&A: “I admire Rishi Sunak for his resilience and work ethic”
The novelist on optimism, late-night plot anxiety, and being born 25 years too late.
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Richard Milward: “I use humour as a coping mechanism”
Polari is the “perfect slang for a freewheeling anarchist”, says the author of the Goldsmiths-shortlisted Man-Eating Typewriter.
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The 2023 Goldsmiths Prize shortlist celebrates northern fiction
The award for “fiction at its most novel” is dominated this year by authors from and writing about the north…
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The curse of the cool girl novelist
Her prose is bare, her characters are depressed and alienated. This literary trend has coagulated into parody.
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Anne Enright’s damaged lives
In The Wren, The Wren, the Irish author rigorously traces the line between love and trauma.
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Evelyn Waugh is laughing at you
His lethally coherent worldview still turns reality into a farce.
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EP Thompson’s dystopian visions
His science fiction novel tackled two fears: atomic annihilation and AI determinism.
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John Le Carré and the spectre of British decline
The 1970s London of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was a place of decay. What defines it now?
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Cormac McCarthy’s art of war
In Blood Meridian the author reaches the dark heart of the American novel – where violence is timeless.
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