TRENDS
Beasts of England review: Ingenious update of George Orwell’s Animal Farm for our times
The engine of the novel is the way that real-life events are transformed into analogies as it cycles through various episodes in the animals’ lives.
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Literary fiction needs a dose of entertainment
People are reading less literary fiction than ever. One reason is that it’s boring.
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Book review of 2023 Booker-longlisted Prophet Song by Paul Lynch: Love in a time of dystopia
Paul Lynch’s Booker-longlisted Prophet Song is a vivid, harrowing novel of a woman and her family in a repressive time.
TRENDS
Paris Olympics 2024 | Why our cities need pavement booksellers
Pavement booksellers make the habit of reading democratic and accessible. It’s a pity that they’re being relocated and diminished.
BOOKS
How to choose a novel in a bookshop
Books offer clues to their contents before you read their first lines. Deciphering them can help you decide whether they’re worth picking up.
TRENDS
Wandering Souls book review: Artfully constructed story of what refugees lose and gain
Wandering Souls, the debut novel of Cecile Pin, is an act of memory, imagination and empathy. Pin, of Vietnamese and French heritage, has said that the novel is partly based on the story of her mother.
TRENDS
How novelists deal with the present
What strategies do fiction writers use when writing about contemporary affairs, and how effective are they?
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Booker Prize 2023 Longlist | Coping with loss through the game of squash
Chetna Maroo’s Western Lane, one of the shortest novels on the Booker Prize longlist, could also be the most affecting.
TRENDS
Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi’s engrossing debut novel revolves around issues of translation and cultural appropriation
Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi’s The Centre covers a lot of ground in showing how languages, cultures and attitudes feed on each other through a machinery of appropriation.
TRENDS
Online rating: How many stars will you give this piece?
Online star ratings for books can become a way of avoiding engagement and not thinking deeply enough about them.
TRENDS
The unbearable relevance of being Milan Kundera
Given Milan Kundera's involvement with the Prague Spring, the banning of his books, and his subsequent exile from Czechoslovakia, it’s only natural that his concerns revolved around the struggle for freedom and individuality in a world of domineering ideologies.
TRENDS
This International Booker 2023 shortlisted novel foreshadowed the violent protests in France
Shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize, GauZ’s Standing Heavy offers a satirical take on immigrants and consumerism in France.
TRENDS
How celebrity and fans reshape our world
Two new books explore the impact of larger-than-life personalities and their devotees in a digital age.
TRENDS
Tipu Sultan’s tiger and the plunder of potential
Tania James’s new novel, Loot, is an ingenious tale of efforts to reclaim Tipu Sultan’s famous mechanical tiger.
LIFESTYLE
Tribute: The Cormac McCarthy multiverse
The writer’s distinctive style and themes explored the many facets of American frontiers and ways of life.
TRENDS
Sagging middle: Too-long novels are losing the plot
It’s a pity that most works of fiction are far too long when there are so many examples of short, compelling novels.
TRENDS
Maugham, Mayhem and Murder in Colonial Penang
Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng’s new novel recreates the atmosphere of the Far East in the first decades of the twentieth century.
TRENDS
Tribute: Martin Amis and the importance of good sentences
What are the characteristics of a notable prose style, and why is it worthy of attention in the first place?
TRENDS
Indians in America: Where it all began
Brinda Charry’s new novel recreates the life and times of a boy from the Coromandel Coast who lands in 17th century Virginia.
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Ending of movies, books, series: Do spoilers really spoil everything?
Spoiler alert: advance information about the endings of movies, TV shows and books may not be the end of the world.
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Can you love the art but hate the artist?
Two recent books discuss how to approach the artwork of those accused of abuse and bigotry.
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The meaning of nice, and why we should use this four-letter word more
An argument in favour of using the word “nice” – and also living up to it.
TRENDS
Enter Ghost book review: Hamlet in Palestine
Isabella Hammad, one of Granta’s best young British novelists, explores questions of art and activism in her new novel, Enter Ghost.
TRENDS
An Admirable Point book review: Mark the exclamations!
A new book takes an entertaining and enlightening look at the use and misuse of the exclamation mark over the years.
