The GuardianBooks American Dirt: why critics are calling Oprah's book club pick exploitative and divisive The Guardian - André WheelerAmerican Dirt, the third novel by Jeanine Cummins, begins with a group of assassins opening fire on a quinceañera cookout. We watch Lydia’s entire family get killed, one by one. Only Lydia and her eight-year-old
The GuardianBooks I am the 'book murderer', but I tear them apart out of love The Guardian - Sign inWe should never bisect the things we love. Friends, nations, puppies. I would argue an exception for pizza. But over the last 24 hours I have found that almost everyone on the internet agrees we should
The GuardianBooks Highfire by Eoin Colfer review – a joyous fantasy for grownups The Guardian - David BarnettIrish author Eoin Colfer mined the tropes of contemporary fantasy in his bestselling Artemis Fowl children’s books about a tweenage criminal mastermind facing off against pixies, fairies and trolls. Those
The GuardianBooks Agency by William Gibson review – a world in an instant The Guardian - M John HarrisonAgency’s author now finds himself referenced by prime-ministerial fixer Dominic Cummings William Gibson has never believed that science fiction predicts the future: it only ever talks about the present.
The GuardianBooks The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather review – the hero who infiltrated Auschwitz The Guardian - PD SmithHe appeared in Poland’s first Soviet-style show trials in March 1948, accused of being a traitor Just after Witold Pilecki’s arrival at Auschwitz concentration camp in September 1940, Deputy Commandant
The GuardianBooks Ballet Shoes gets 21st-century update from Carrie Hope Fletcher The Guardian - Alison FloodBallet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild’s classic tale of three adopted girls hoping for – or dreading – a life on the stage, is to be reimagined for the modern era by writer and actor Carrie Hope Fletcher. Endorsed
The GuardianBooks Half of a Yellow Sun ends abruptly - but at the right time The Guardian - Sam JordisonIt’s a historical fact that the Biafran war lasted from 1967 until 1970. But like all apparently objective historical facts, this one feels more subjective the more you look at it. For whom, exactly, the
The GuardianBooks My greatest honor: I wrote a book that touched people living in poverty The Guardian - Stephanie LandI want those invisible, forgotten people, and their stories, to come into the light. I want them to feel seen. I want people to see them Three weeks after my first book was published, I sat on a ragged
The GuardianBooks Dedicated followers: collectors of book inscriptions share their notes The Guardian - Elle HuntCrowley changed his lover’s name to 'Christ' so it read as religious poetry. In his copy, he wrote ‘Jerome’ The book tells you a story before you’ve read a word of it. On the cover is Charlie Brown, carrying
The GuardianBooks Poetry book of the month: Arias by Sharon Olds – review The Guardian - Kate KellawayThe American Sharon Olds goes where many poets would fear to tread and others not dream of treading. Like a curious child, she wanders past No Entry signs on to private land. Or, at home, she alights subjects
The GuardianBooks Dear Life by Rachel Clarke review – somewhere towards the end The Guardian - Nicci GerrardClarke repeatedly describes her own fallibility: the mistakes she makes, the fear and recoil she feels Dying is what we do. Rich and poor, quickly or slowly, in pain or in peace, young and old and somewhere
The GuardianBooks Christopher Tolkien obituary The Guardian - John GarthChristopher Tolkien, who has died aged 95, edited and published a huge body of writings left by his father, JRR Tolkien, extending the world of Middle-earth created in The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of
The GuardianBooks Bob Sutcliffe obituary The Guardian - Arthur MacEwanMy friend Bob Sutcliffe, who has died aged 80, was an economist whose book, British Capitalism, Workers and the Profits Squeeze (1972), co-authored with Andrew Glyn, was much read by socialist economists
The GuardianGeorge Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Phwoar: the truth about George Orwell's romantic 'arrangements' The GuardianAppearance: George Orwell’s wife letting him get off with his ex-girlfriend. That’s grim. What is? The idea of a sexually aroused Orwell? Yes! Look, just because you happen to equate Orwell with damp,
The GuardianCelebrity News Lee Child letting go of his creation is a tale told by other bestsellers The Guardian - Alison Flood“Not much surprises me these days but this news did,” said Ian Rankin of Lee Child’s revelation this weekend that his brother, Andrew Grant, would be continuing the Jack Reacher series. Child said: “For
The GuardianBooks Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week? The Guardian - Guardian readers and Sam JordisonWelcome to this week’s blogpost. Here’s our roundup of your comments and photosfrom the last week. Lucky Alex42 has just discovered PG Wodehouse and The Inimitable Jeeves: My first Wodehouse, but certainly
The GuardianBooks States of the Body Produced by Love by Nisha Ramayya review – a difficult beginning The Guardian - Stephanie Sy-QuiaNisha Ramayya’s collection, States of the Body Produced By Love, is a thorny debut, though containing sustained flashes of brilliance. Fans of Maggie Nelson or Anne Carson may find themselves in familiar
The GuardianBooks The Self Delusion by Tom Oliver review – how we are connected and why that matters The Guardian - Richard KerridgeAs capitalism has become global, the consumerist idea of self has spread. But Oliver hopes we may be approaching a tipping point Should we try to think of ourselves not as individuals but as parts of physical
The GuardianPoetry Poem of the week: Harlem Shadows by Claude McKay The Guardian - Carol RumensI hear the halting footsteps of a lass In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall Its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass To bend and barter at desire’s call. Ah, little dark girls who in slippered
The GuardianBooks The age of the individual must end – our world depends on it The Guardian - Tom OliverLast month, as I travelled to see family for a very mild Christmas in the UK, I thought about the bushfires simultaneously raging across Australia. They are just one example from a long series of extreme
The GuardianJane Austen Miss Austen by Gill Hornby; The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow – review The Guardian - Stephanie MerrittThe Jane Austen industry is the gift that keeps on giving. Just when you think every possible avenue for adaptation, interpretation, sequels, prequels, rewrites, biographies and spin-offs must have been
The GuardianBooks A Pushkin theme park? How about Discworld World, StephenKingLand … The Guardian - Alison FloodThere are lovers of fairytales and lovers of Russian literature and lovers of theme parks, and sometimes, just sometimes, everyone’s wishes can be met in one place. News arrives that a new Russian theme
The GuardianBooks Pills, Powder and Smoke by Antony Loewenstein; Say Why to Drugs by Dr Suzi Gage – review The Guardian - Will SelfWhy not visit Mexico? Or one of the major South American coca producers? Or Afghanistan? There are two key problems with books that attempt to be objective about illegal drugs. The first is that for the
The GuardianBooks In brief: The Teacher; Ladies Can’t Climb Ladders; Liar – reviews The Guardian - Hephzibah AndersonThis spare, enigmatic novella seizes from the start. It’s a fictional biography of one Elsa Weiss, an aloof but admired English teacher at a Tel Aviv high school who jumped to her death from the roof her
The GuardianBooks Grown Ups by Marian Keyes – one big happy family? The Guardian - Hannah BeckermanKeyes skilfully peels back the layers of Cara’s insecurities about food, about her body The Caseys are a sprawling Irish family who gather at every possible opportunity: anniversaries, birthdays and holidays.
The GuardianBooks Jonathan Safran Foer: ‘Why don’t Extinction Rebellion issue specific ideas? They are awfully vague’ The Guardian - Tim AdamsThe goal is not to perfect a virtuous identity for yourself. The goal is to reduce the carbon in the atmosphere There have been many proposed solutions to the climate crisis – from outright bans on fossil
The GuardianBooks Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth review – trenchant satire of screen addiction The Guardian - Hephzibah AndersonWhile Jenny’s apps depict her living her best life, her world – her very self – is crumbling around her Emma Jane Unsworth’s virtuoso new novel is far too canny to convey anything so gauche as a “message”,
The GuardianBooks Threshold by Rob Doyle review – chasing intangible chemical highs The Guardian - Anthony CumminsThe fronting masks a sincere interest in the nigh-on impossibility of communicating a mind-altering experience Long before the English-language rise of autofiction, Geoff Dyer figured out the benefit keeping
The GuardianHappiness How to make the world happier – and why it should be our first priority The Guardian - Richard LayardWhoever is happy will make others happy too... How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl There is a wind of
