Sally Rooney is a great political writer – her new novel is proof
Intermezzo, the Irish writer’s fourth novel, is a sensual and sad millennial tale. But there’s more to her world view than many people admit
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Intermezzo, the Irish writer’s fourth novel, is a sensual and sad millennial tale. But there’s more to her world view than many people admit
The American novelist behind The Circle talks about the Roald Dahl debacle – and how he became a victim of censorship too
The list of set texts offered by exam boards needs a revamp. So what should be added to the curriculum, and what should be dropped?
The new superstar of South American horror on Falklands propaganda, death squads and the evil she ‘can’t stop writing about’
Sally Rooney is back with a new novel, Boris Johnson’s memoir hits bookshops and Putin’s greatest political foe publishes posthumously
Serhii Plokhy’s Chernobyl Roulette records the 2022 occupation of the nuclear site – but the drama is often buried behind background detail
Who said comics have to be comic? This year’s crop gave us haunted spas, apocalyptic visions – and the beauty of pastoral France
This Christmas, young readers can look forward to tales of His Majesty, three wily monkeys and a sumptuous reimagining of Peter Pan
Looking for a Christmas present for the music-lover in your life? Try Johnny Cash's lyrics, Sly Stone's memoir or Paul McCartney's snapshots
Our top thinkers turned the quest for hard truths into a mind-blowing funride
Year two of the war produced breathless tales of resistance, rebuttals to Russian propaganda, and the death of a promising young writer
This year, marriage went under the microscope in engrossing tales of mutual obsession, catastrophic union and doublethink
Emperor of the Seas, Jack Weatherford’s new history of Kublai Khan’s reign, brings to life a thriving – and rather civilised – empire
In Perfection: 400 Years of Women’s Quest for Beauty, Margarette Lincoln surveys a history that’s long, depressing and curiously static
Extra Time Beckons, Penalties Loom, Adam Hurrey’s comprehensive history of football lingo, is fun, affectionate and far from snobby
John Nichol’s The Unknown Warrior tells the fascinating history of the grave, while never portraying it as a fix-all for grievers
The American novelist behind The Circle talks about the Roald Dahl debacle – and how he became a victim of censorship too
Judges insist selection based on merit and not a response to criticism over lack of women in 2023’s contest
The list of set texts offered by exam boards needs a revamp. So what should be added to the curriculum, and what should be dropped?
The new superstar of South American horror on Falklands propaganda, death squads and the evil she ‘can’t stop writing about’
In James Fox’s warmly written debut novel, The Boy in the Suit, a poor mother-son duo raid funerals for free canapés
Cobweb, a new novel by the War House author, follows a little dog heading to London amid the aftermath of Britain’s triumph at Waterloo
Evenfall, a very modern fantasy by the TV presenter and comedian, sees a young boy and his best friends reckon bravely with destiny
Out of This World, a clever suite of poetry for readers of seven-plus, toggles between old memories and future dreams with panache
Book two in Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s Geomancer series, The Storm and the Sea Hawk, follows a young girl’s quest against the ‘wolf queen’
Children’s literature is far more important than adult fiction – here are 12 writers that belong on every bookshelf (and six best banished)
Ukrainian author Okasana Lushchevska’s new book Silent Night, My Astronaut imagines the war through a seven-year-old girl’s eyes
The late children’s writer on his childhood reading, why his characters were never cruel and saying goodbye in his latest work
In Eavan Boland’s posthumous collection Citizen Poet, essays on nationhood, history and language fizz with life and energy
Our Poetry Book of the Month reviews include an extraordinary posthumous collection from Gboyega Odubanjo and JH Prynne’s unlikely lullabies
Christopher Childers has spent 10 years on The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse – and his translations sing from the page
From Raymond Chandler's slippery similes to a scene Austen hid, a new exhibition reveals great writers' early drafts and discarded ideas