books
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Ulysses and Finnegans Wake followed me round the house like hungry dogsThe novelist explains how reading James Joyce’s knottiest work helped her compose a version of his daughter Lucia’s tragic life -
Bruce Springsteen is a great songwriter – but that rarely makes for great memoirsAfter 18 albums, the star is publishing his autobiography. Precedent suggests he’ll be hard pressed to make his book match the quality of his music
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Ali Smith and HG Wells – post your questions nowOn Tuesday 27 September at 1pm, we’ll be joined by author and HG Wells fan Ali Smith to discuss his life and works, as well as her own writing -
The Arab of the Future – terrifying school days in SyriaThe second volume of Riad Sattouf’s acclaimed graphic memoir takes a darker turn as he endures school and his father is complicit in a terrible crime
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What are you reading this week?Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
news
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'He has a real shot': Stephen King talks about his horror of a Trump presidencyThe Shining author says Republican candidate’s campaign ‘scares me more than anything else’, adding that decline in reading has blunted voters’s ‘nose for bullshit’
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Angela Leighton translates Leonardo SciasciaTaking two turns at bringing the Italian poet’s Hic et Nunc into English, Leighton steers a fascinating course between strict and free renderings
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The fight to save comics from the censorFrom worried parents to policemen with built-in ‘Satan detectors’, underground comics have never lacked enemies. And for 30 years Neil Gaiman and his friends have fought back in the name of free speech
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not the booker prize
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What Will Remain by Dan Clements – vivid accounts of army lifeThese stories owe a great deal to Hemingway, and if they don’t quite live up to Papa’s example they are still vivid, affecting record of soldiers’ experience in Afghanistan
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The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel – a very overheated tale
Reading the shortlist The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel – a very overheated tale
This story of dark passions in a sun-scorched small town addresses some heavy questions but cannot bear their weight -
The Less Than Perfect Legend of Donna Creosote by Dan Micklethwaite – a touch of manic pixie dream girlAs its title would suggest, this is flawed book, not helped by stock characters, an irritating, clever-clever style and an underdeveloped plot
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Chains of Sand by Jemma Wayne – trouble in IsraelA perceptive depiction of the fragility of life in an embattled land gets drowned out by strident politics, in the first of this year’s Not the Booker shortlist
regulars
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100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time100 Best Nonfiction Books of All TimeThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 35 – The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper (1945)The Austrian-born philosopher’s postwar rallying cry for western liberal democracy was hugely influential in the 1960s
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The first book interviewThe first book interviewTiffany McDaniel: 'The novel was there saying, "Let me out!"'The author of The Summer That Melted Everything explains how her debut was forged during a fever of writing, when she finished a novel in eight days
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Top 10sTop 10sJohn Sweeney's top 10 books on corruptionFrom Macbeth to Robert Maxwell and Mussolini’s son-in-law, the investigative reporter and crime novelist picks his favourite books featuring ‘plot No 2 in literature’
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PodcastPodcastAmos Oz on his novel Judas – books podcastThe Israeli novelist Amos Oz talks about prose, poetry and politics in his latest novel, Judas
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Born to Run by Bruce SpringsteenThe singer’s candid memoir sheds light on his long-standing battle with depression
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Another Day in the Death of America by Gary YoungeThe Guardian writer’s vital study humanises the poor murder victims whose deaths went largely unnoticed
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The Bestseller Code by Jodie Archer and Matthew L JockersTwo US scholars analysed bestselling books using an algorithm. Their findings don’t make for uplifting reading
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The Mystery of Being Human: God, Freedom and the NHSRaymond Tallis’s sparky, secular new essay collection offers a biting defence of state-funded health care
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Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts – a sumptuous and readable bookChristopher de Hamel sheds light on the world’s most famous illuminated manuscripts
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Hero of the Empire: The Making of Winston Churchill – gripping adventureCandice Millard’s account of the young Churchill’s daring involvement in the Boer war sheds light on the politician and the conflict
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The Trees – environmental dystopia with an unlikely heroAli Shaw’s third novel is intriguing and imaginative but his characters are not always convincing
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The best new picture books and novelsBack to school with a fairy-vampire, plus funfairs, foxes, babies and racehorses
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The best recent crime novelsOut of Bounds by Val McDermid; Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman; Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre; Black Night Falling by Rod Reynolds; Blackwater by James Henry
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Sex & Death edited by Sarah Hall and Peter HobbsDeath appears suddenly and forcefully in this collection of new and unpublished works – while actual sex is more elusive
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A thrilling domestic psychodramaMiracle, fraud or medical anomaly? A gripping investigation into an Irish girl’s fasting by the writer of Room
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A modern-day Irish tragedyThis is an extraordinary portrait of adultery, loneliness and betrayal in a closed small town community
people
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The deliciously creepy ghost stories of E NesbitThe author of The Railway Children and Five Children and It was familiar with the darker aspects of life, which she explored in some decidedly adult stories
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Elizabeth Jane Howard: in search of enduring loveHow can someone who writes so perceptively about love make so many mistakes in their own life? Artemis Cooper on an author whose work has stood the test of time
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Shaun Tan completes graphic novel after author Mel Tregonning's suicideMel Tregonning’s Small Things tells of a lonely boy, struggling with worry. But the author also had mental health issues, and died before it was finished
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The novel was there saying "let me out!"The author of The Summer That Melted Everything explains how her debut was forged during a fever of writing, when she finished a novel in eight days
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Guardian children's books festival 2016Join Mog author Judith Kerr, Charlie and Lola creator Lauren Child and other star authors and illustrators at the Unicorn theatre, London on 23 October for a day celebrating the choicest children’s books
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Guardian children's fiction prize 2016, the longlistWe announce the eight wonderful authors and books that have been longlisted for our prize, this year judged by David Almond, SF Said and Kate Saunders
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Enter the Guardian young critics competition 2016Review one of the Guardian children’s fiction prize 2016 longlisted books as an individual or a school book group and be in with a chance of winning books, national book tokens and an invite to meet authors at our award ceremony – enter here!
A selection of our favourite literary content from around the world
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The Little Library CaféThe Little Library CaféFood in books: pea soup from Roald Dahl's The WitchesDahl’s centenary and the change of the season inspire Kate Young to magic up a fresh and summery pea soup
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Interview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore by Literary HubInterview with a Bookstore: Magers and Quinn in MinnesotaComplete with a ‘Heraldry and Chivalry’ section, Magers and Quinn is renown for its eclectic and extensive book range. Its booksellers share why they want a hot tub and their favourite regulars
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pictures, video & audio
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Amos Oz on his novel JudasThe Israeli novelist Amos Oz talks about prose, poetry and politics in his latest novel, Judas
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Gruffalo Hamlet among fundraising Shakespeare cards designed by starsEmma Thompson, Simon Callow and the League of Gentlemen join children’s authors and illustrators in fundraiser, auctioning framed postcards for reading charity the National Literacy Trust
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Deborah Levy and the Booker shortlistAs the Booker prize announces a shortlist that’s long on surprises, we talk to Deborah Levy and assess the contenders for this year’s award
you may have missed
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How Nazi drug abuse steered the course of historyGerman writer Norman Ohler’s astonishing account of methamphetamine addiction in the Third Reich changes what we know about the second world war
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Margaret Atwood on rewriting Shakespeare’s TempestHow do you update a play about a castaway sorcerer, a malevolent creature and an air spirit? Margaret Atwood on the prisoners, politicians and hackers who make up her modern day Tempest
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The art of living well in the age of plentyCancel your gym membership and come off the Paleo diet. Your basic human needs are all catered for, and life is too short to spend in the pursuit of longevity
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How the Thames Estuary broadened cultural horizonsIt was Conrad’s gateway to the heart of darkness, HG Wells envisaged Martians on its misty shores. Now artists from around the world are exploring the mysteries of the Thames Estuary
My trans picture book was challenged – but the answer to hate speech is more speech
In pictures Banned Books Week 2016: the 10 most challenged titles
Banned Books Week Celebration launches with call to read books the 'closed-minded' want shut