TRENDS
'Lincoln in the Bardo' and other influences on Shehan Karunatilaka’s Booker Prize winning novel
The Sri Lankan author’s Booker Prize-winning novel, 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida', bears the mark of many other writers, adding up to a distinctive and unique whole.
LIFESTYLE-TRENDS
Blurbs and Louise Willder: Judging a book by the words on its cover
'Blurb Your Enthusiasm', an engaging and witty volume, explores the use of blurbs as an effective means of literary persuasion.
TRENDS
Nobel Prize in Literature 2022: Annie Ernaux excavates history and memory
The 82-year-old French writer has won this year’s Nobel Literature Prize for work that, as the chair of the Nobel committee put it, is an admirable and enduring achievement.
TRENDS
Eric Ambler’s spy thrillers still resonate today
In 'Cause for Alarm', Eric Ambler’s 1938 novel, an engineer in Fascist Italy is caught up in deadly games between European powers.
TRENDS
Each one of us contains many reading selves
Within every reader, there are at least three identities: the Child, the Critic, and the Learner.
TRENDS
A TikTok sensation, a fantasy epic, and a critique of colonialism
R.F. Kuang’s 'Babel' is an ambitious novel set in 19th century Oxford that lays bare the networks of colonialism and translation.
LUXURY-LIFESTYLE
What wine experts and book critics can learn from each other
A modest proposal to swap the language of book reviews with the vocabulary of wine appreciation.
TRENDS
There’s more to Japanese novels than Murakami
Newly translated work by Emi Yagi and Mieko Kawakami deal with how the interior worlds of single women are at odds with exterior expectations.
TRENDS
When books speak volumes
Emma Smith’s new work shows how books magically combine form and content, and the ways they have been created, presented, and suppressed over the years.
TRENDS
Wanted: More Comic Novels
Novels that are grim and serious may reflect the times we live in, but they miss something essential about fiction.
TRENDS
The promise and paradoxes of democracy
Two new books throw light on the past, present, and perils of a democratic system of government.
TRENDS
Where does Sherlock Holmes go from here?
There have been pastiches and parodies of the Sherlock Holmes stories almost from the start of his career. What does the future hold for the consulting detective?
TRENDS
Down and out in Paris
Edward Chisholm’s memoir about working as a waiter in a Paris restaurant reveals the shadows in the City of Light.
TRENDS
Stories from an Afghan State of Mind
Jamil Jan Kochai’s striking short story collection is set in the world of Afghan immigrants in the United States and their homeland, dealing with lives haunted by strife.
TRENDS
Two debut novels about lives shaped by the Internet
New work by Aravind Jayan and Sheena Patel portrays characters whose lives are mediated by the Internet, making them adapt and adjust.
TRENDS
MC Travel Special | Reading about travellers while travelling
A pick of new travel books that are the perfect companions to accompany you on your own travels.
TRENDS
The pleasures of skimming and scanning
It isn’t necessary to pore over every sentence of a book to reap its rewards, especially at a time when there’s so much to read.
TRENDS
Four ways of looking at a Wall Street tycoon
Hernan Diaz’s new novel probes the secrets at the heart of an American millionaire’s wealth and his efforts to manage his reputation.
TRENDS
The art of dictator novels
The genre of novels featuring dictators has flourished in Latin America, especially in work by Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Augusto Roa Bastos.
TRENDS
Canaries in the digital coalmine
What is it like to spend your days moderating social media posts? That is what a new novel by acclaimed Dutch author Hanna Bervoets throws light on.
TRENDS
An Indian traveller, soldier and storyteller in the Great War
Nariman Karkaria’s volume of travels and battlefield memories is the only First World War account by an Indian to have been discovered so far.
TRENDS
What’s the point of banning books?
In a digital age, those who want to get their hands on a book will find ways to do so. Why do people take the trouble to outlaw them?
TRENDS
What Jhumpa Lahiri found in translation
In her new volume of essays, the writer reveals what the Italian language means to her and reflects on the changes in her life and writing.
TRENDS
The Internet isn’t the only reason we aren’t reading enough books
Social media, streaming services and other websites are a constant distraction, but there are deeper causes for putting off reading.
