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  • From the series Zwischen den Jahren ( Between the Years) by Valentin Goppel. Published by Gost books £40 https://gostbooks.com/products/zwischen-den-jahren

    Observer book of the week
    Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us by Lucy Foulkes review – deep dive into the teenage mind

    Kate Womersley
  • Anita Desai

    Interview
    Anita Desai: ‘After I left India, I had to train myself to express my opinions’

    Emma Brockes
    At 87, the Indian author has been shortlisted for the Booker prize three times, and has written her first novel in a decade. She talks about leaving India to teach and write around the world – and feeling like a stranger everywhere
  • books

    Politics books
    ‘It was an awakening’: Diane Abbott, Nicola Sturgeon, Rory Stewart and more on the books that shaped their politics

    From Animal Farm to The Female Eunuch ... Caroline Lucas, Alan Johnson and others reveal the books that get their vote
  • Author Maggie Nelson in Cindy’s diner in Eagle Rock California on 4th May 2017. Please credit Cindy’s diner in caption if used. Pic © Dan Tuffs dan@dantuffs.com +1 310 774 1780

    Interview
    Maggie Nelson: ‘I was overwhelmed with grief when Prince died’

    Alex Clark
  • Biyi Bándélé

    Book of the day
    Yorùbá Boy Running by Biyi Bándélé review – a historic hero

    Helon Habila
  • TGbooks136madmax

    Tom Gauld's cultural cartoons
    Tom Gauld on when book festivals go rogue – cartoon

  • Battered red text book with the word English on the cover with a magnifying glass on top of it

    Book of the day
    The Truth About English Grammar by Geoffrey K Pullum review – the pants rule and other pipe dreams

    Steven Poole
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What to read

  • Composite image of best paperbacks February 2024

    Paperbacks
    This month’s best paperbacks: Zadie Smith, Matthew Perry and more

  • The Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque and Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul at sunset.

    Five of the best
    Five of the best books about Turkey

    • Read on

      100 best novels of all time
      From The Pilgrim's Progress to True History of the Kelly Gang

    • Books of the century so far

      The 100 best books of the 21st century

    • Composite for the 100 best nonfiction books of all time list

      100 best nonfiction books of all time
      From Naomi Klein to the Bible – the full list

  • A man walks by flags picturing the face of Atatürk during a protest.

    History books
    The Endless Country by Sami Kent review – After Atatürk

    Elçin Poyrazlar
  • Our vivid teenage years can define our adulthood.

    Health, mind and body books
    Coming of Age by Lucy Foulkes review – our formative years

    David Shariatmadari
    From being popular to taking risks, a myth-busting study of adolescence
  • Women fighting for their rights during the 1970 s

    Society books
    Sexed by Susanna Rustin review – a new history of British feminism

    Fiona Sturges
    The Guardian writer offers a mostly even-handed account of the successes, failures and faultlines within the feminist movement
  • A student protester near Tiananmen Square in 1989.

    History books
    At the Edge of Empire by Edward Wong review – changing state

    John Simpson
  • Young men at La Caverne, a Soho bar and club, July 1955.

    Society books
    Some Men in London: Queer Life, 1945-1959 review – when being gay meant going underground

    John Self
  • David Baddiel.

    Autobiography and memoir
    My Family: The Memoir by David Baddiel review – sex, lies and the making of a standup

    Tim Adams
  • Boris Berezovsky. Leaves Bow Street Magistrates Court, wearing a mask depicting Vladamir Putin, the Russian president. London. 02-04-2003. Photograph by Martin Godwin.

    History books
    The Kremlin’s Noose by Amy Knight review – vital primer on Putin’s Russia and Boris Berezovsky’s death

    Luke Harding
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  • Train travel in Inner Mongolia.

    Fiction
    The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks review – a wild journey

    Suzi Feay
  • Reindeers migrate in The End of Drum-Time.

    Fiction
    The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen review – a sweeping Sámi epic

    Erica Wagner
    Scandinavian missionaries wreak destruction on the Sámi way of life in an atmospheric tale of love and colonial conflict
  • An open notebook with handwritten notes and old postcards.

    Fiction
    The Last Sane Woman by Hannah Regel review – the precariousness of the creative life

    Lucy Popescu
    An aspiring artist who dreams of being successful confronts frustration and failure in an assured debut novel
  • The London Book Fair<br>LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 05: Monique Roffey, writer, and winner of the Costa Book of the Year in 2020, for The Mermaid of the Black Conch, at the London Book Fair at Olympia, on April 5, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

    Fiction
    Passiontide by Monique Roffey review – flawed but well-told tale of a feminist uprising

    Kadish Morris
  • Kaliane Bradley.

    Fiction
    The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley review – time-travel romance is a sparkling delight

    Bidisha Mamata
  • Slemish mountain near Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

    Fiction
    Ghost Mountain by Rónán Hession review – a delightful fable

    Frank Cottrell-Boyce
  • Frightened rabbits in Alia Trabucco Zerán’s Clean.

    Fiction in translation
    The best translated fiction – review roundup

    John Self
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  • Hot Dog by Doug Salati

    Children's books
    Picture books for children – reviews

    Imogen Carter
  • Adiba Jaigar author photo to be used with collab with Faridah credit Aleksandria Rudenko

    Children's book reviews round-up
    Young adult books roundup – reviews

    Fiona Noble
    A teen romance centred on Eid, an exploration of toxic masculinity and a thriller from the queen of YA crime are among this month’s highlights
  • Raymond Antrobus’s Terrible Horses, illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max.

    Children and teenagers
    Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

    Imogen Russell Williams
    Golden numbers; an intergalactic snail trail; an immersive guide to art; a tale of hope amid poverty; and a girl who can’t lie
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  • Jeremy Cooper, author, photographed at his home near Taunton, Somerset

    Interview
    Jeremy Cooper: 'My agent strongly advised me against writing fiction'

  • Sulaiman Adonnia<br>20240530 Brussels, Belgium: Author Sulaiman Adonnia in his home

    Sulaiman Addonia
    I’m taking writing back to the rock’n’roll era!

    The Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist on childhood trauma and its effect on his work, the importance of sex in stories and paying homage to your imagination
  • Naomi Klein.

    Naomi Klein
    Nobody’s perfect – but that’s not an excuse for doing nothing

    The Doppelganger writer and winner of the Women’s prize for nonfiction on the war in Gaza, current credibility of the left and posters for her book being torn down in London
  • VV Ganeshananthan: she is pictured standing outdoors in a park with trees in the background; she is in her mid-40s and has shoulder-length dark, wavy hair; she wears a black dress with a lighter pattern plus a gold pendant necklace.

    ‘Don’t read just one book about Sri Lanka’
    VV Ganeshananthan on her civil war novel

  • Investment management firm Baillie Gifford no longer sponsors Hay festival.

    ‘I wouldn’t call it a victory’
    Fossil Free Books organisers on Baillie Gifford’s exit from literary festival funding

  • Lorrie Moore.

    Lorrie Moore
    I identify with Beth in Little Women, who dies

  • Shehadeh reads his Orwell prize-winning book, Palestinian Walks, outside Ramallah, in the West Bank, 2014.

    Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh
    All this solidarity from the world – yet nothing has changed

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Regulars

  • Daniel Handler

    The books of my life
    Daniel Handler AKA Lemony Snicket: ‘I return to Toni Morrison’s Beloved every five years’

  • A woman wearing a necklace with a camera instead of a pendant

    Big idea
    The big idea: can you inherit memories from your ancestors?

    The science of epigenetics suggests we can pass on trauma – but trust and compassion too
  • Rachel Cusk.

    Where to start with
    Where to start with: Rachel Cusk

    From a novel sequence that dispenses with much of what we expect from fiction to fearlessly honest memoirs of motherhood and divorce, Cusk is a challenging writer. But also a genius
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You may have missed

  • Amanda Giles
Battle Library, Oxford Road, Reading, 
RG30 1EE

    The long read
    ‘If there’s nowhere else to go, this is where they come’: how Britain’s libraries provide much more than books

    Aida Edemariam
  • A goldfish pond with lilies made from the pages of books

    Summer reading
    50 new books to dive into

  • Summer reading 2024

    Summer reading
    Your holiday reading list, chosen by Zadie Smith, David Nicholls and more

  • Diane Park outside Wave of Nostalgia

    Independent bookshop week
    Meet the people behind three of the UK’s brilliant independent bookshops

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