Books
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This intelligent and knowing debut about a female academic’s dangerous obsession with a younger professor is less risk-taking than it thinks it is
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The author on life improving with age, her crush on Richard Osman and eloping in Vermont
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You can’t fault the former health secretary’s proposals for improving patient care, but his slick prose fails to acknowledge the damage inflicted on the NHS by his party during his tenure as health secretary
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The experience of her own son’s drug addiction inspires the novelist’s overwhelming dive into grief, regret and love
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A welcome humanising of Floyd might have benefited from a wider focus, including Black women’s experiences of racism and a global perspective
What to read
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From Ukrainian history to Putin’s kleptocracy and Gogol’s stories, author and former Russia correspondent Oliver Bullough chooses the best titles
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Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some exciting new paperbacks, from brilliant non-fiction about sex and gender to acclaimed novels
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By telling the life stories of his bipolar father and a convicted murderer he tried to save from the electric chair, Stafford Smith raises urgent moral questions about behaviour and justice
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This creative book is a hymn to the gay-friendly buildings treasured by film-makers, artists and activists
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Set over one day in Dublin, this gentle, empathetic debut explores love and loss through the stories of two women
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This rollicking adventure set in gold rush America features an unforgettable protagonist
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A 12-year-old girl in rural Kenya has the power to see into her country’s painful past in this compelling, beautifully written novel
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The further chronicles of a Turkish-American student in the 1990s showcase a wonderfully idiosyncratic comic voice
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Fiction I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg review – rock bottom in a ‘rest home’
First published in 1964, this striking account of Greenberg’s years in a psychiatric hospital reveals her boredom and fear – and the ignorance of the era
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Astral phenomena, Greek goddesses, deadly family curses and the best new YA fiction
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The American author on how his own experience of psychedelic therapy sparked his debut novel, and his poems about the opioid epidemic
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The DJ and writer on coming to terms with being a novelist, the appeal of middle-aged men and the book that broke her heart
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The author of the acclaimed The Secret Life of Church Ladies on the Black American Christian community, sexual shame and coming to terms with her queerness
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Oded Galor’s ‘Sapiens’-like history of civilisation predicts a happy ending for humanity. But should we trust him?
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The gay writer who was banned from visiting a London school discusses why young LGBT+ people need representation more than ever
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The Shakespeare critic and author on her new history of books and readers, and how it’s made her think about the contents of our shelves
Regulars
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The author on being inspired by Nina Stibbe and taking comfort in the works of Nancy Mitford
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This powerful institution is filled with brilliant people – but is it holding Britain back?
You may have missed
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Mounting tensions with Russia, a global pandemic and a reckless scramble for nuclear energy: the echoes of 1957 are alarming – we would do well to heed them
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From the ad executive turned charcoal burner to the woman who built a new life in the woods, a new genre of books about radical reinventions is proving a runaway success
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Monique Roffey, the Costa-winning author of The Mermaid of Black Conch, on the lit-boom that’s happening on the Caribbean island
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The king and queen of popular fiction Marian Keyes and Richard Osman on their successes and struggles