Books
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New book Peril follows Fear and Rage, and is based on hundreds of interviews as well as diaries, secret orders and phone transcripts -
The white woman behind the popular Instagram account @soyouwanttotalkabout has apologised after claims that she has co-opted the black author’s brand
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Astrid Roemer, the Surinamese winner of the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, came under fire after showing support for Dési Bouterse, who was convicted of murder -
An unlikely keepsake taken from Simone’s last London concert has become the basis of an unusual memoir by the longtime Nick Cave collaborator -
From Mary Shelley’s sole survivor to David Farrier’s survey of the traces we leave behind … author Cal Flyn on the most potent predictions
Summer reading
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From missing lighthouse keepers to the healing power of trees ... 50 new fiction and nonfiction books to enjoy. Plus recent paperbacks to pack and the best children’s stories
What to read
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Here are some of the best paperbacks out in August, including outstanding short stories, uplifting true tales, and a guide to becoming an expert -
Robert McCrum has reached a verdict on his selection of the 100 greatest novels written in English. Take a look at his list -
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From spectral dreamscapes to The Year of the Sex Olympics, a lovingly researched history of British TV recalls the brilliant, the bizarre and the unworldly -
The first major study of revered author and academic WG Sebald reveals an obsessive and brilliant mind -
An astute analysis of how a corporation transformed the economic landscape for women around the world -
The Japanese Breakfast frontwoman finds making kimchi is the best way to grieve her tough Korean mother in this droll memoir
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The novelist adds her voice to the growing trend for feminist essays with a variable collection of thoughts on the endless shaming of women through their bodies -
Mingling fact and fancy, this epic of digression and procrastination is wonderfully poignant -
A novel about anxiety and ambition asks what it means to be both Indian and American
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Hollow by B Catling; The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix; Girl One by Sara Flannery Murphy; A Master of Djinn by P Djèlí Clark; and Too Near the Dead by Helen Grant -
A coming-of-age novel set in 1980s Liverpool explores repressed trauma and religious belief -
Paula Hawkins, Stephen King, Laura Lippman and Joanne Harris return with sublime tales of the unexpected
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A zombie thriller, a flooded world, poetry and a very worried pig … plus the best new YA novels -
From a giggly desert island to the humble hero of the Titanic, these illustrated tales will buoy up young minds -
The author was repeatedly told that no one wanted to read fun books with disabled heroes. Now she has won the £5,000 Waterstones children’s book prize for her debut, A Kind of Spark
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The physicist‑turned-YA novelist talks about choosing to set The Upper World in south London, and how it was snapped up by Daniel Kaluuya for Netflix. Plus read an extract -
The Burnt Sugar author remembers summer 2007, when her grandmother arrived to help her set up home – and teach her some life lessons -
The award-winning author on Beckett, Marxism, and why she resists identifying herself as a writer
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The novelist on making Philip Larkin his fictional father, why writing has become a battle, and his new work about race in the US -
The Booker-winning novelist knew when she read the Iliad that she would write about Briseis one day -
The South African author struggled to find a publisher for her Booker-nominated novel An Island, which only had a print-run of 500 copies. She talks about rejection, her country and believing in herself
Regulars
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The novelist, whose A Passage North has been longlisted for the Booker prize, on being inspired by Descartes and the influence of Robert Musil -
Written towards the end of the poet’s life, this mysterious exchange shows him reflecting on the ‘spirit’ he has lost -
If you’re reading a novel, the chances are you’ll be able to relate to characters who love reading, too. These works showcase some of literature’s finest bibliophiles
You may have missed
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Drawing on writers from Anton Chekhov to Kit de Waal, Donal Ryan explores the art of writing short fiction. Plus Chris Power on the best books for budding short story writers -
I dreaded doing without my device’s dopamine dripfeed, but insomnia was out of control. Now I’m not only sleeping but reading with real pleasure
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Silicon Valley makes billions by stealing your attention. No wonder it’s so hard to focus… -
When the 2011 riots broke out, they were widely dismissed as plain criminality. A new work by artist Baff Akoto tells a different story – and shows how the civil unrest implicates us all
Most viewed
Carol Rumens's poem of the week Phantom or Fact: A Dialogue in Verse by Samuel Taylor Coleridge