Books
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Neil Gaiman to produce adaptation for TVAuthor set to adapt Mervyn Peake’s gothic fantasy series for TV, after years of talks -
Prize reverses nationality decision on Taiwanese authorThe literary prize announces that it will no longer list authors by nationality, but by country or territory, after drawing criticism when it bowed to pressure from China
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Jane Smiley picks her favouritesChildhood classics, colourful racers and memoirs of horse whisperers … the novelist and horse lover gallops through the best riding reads -
Shakespeare’s Originality by John Kerrigan – what the Bard pilfered and changedShakespeare inhabited a literary culture in which imitation was applauded. This erudite study teases out his alchemical transformations of what he had read or seen -
Overland by Graham Rawle – the illusion of homeA Hollywood set designer plays God as he builds an ersatz town to hide an aircraft factory, in this beguiling story grounded in historical events
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Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman – at one with the universeThe physicist and novelist’s discursive essays on the mysteries of the physical world are full of wonder and insight -
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy – short, sensual, embattled memoirThe author describes the end of her marriage and the death of her mother with compelling grace and candour
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Macbeth by Jo Nesbø – something noirish this way comesThis retelling of Macbeth as a gritty crime thriller suffers from not pushing Shakespeare’s play far enough -
Patient X by David Peace – a curious collageDavid Peace’s attempt to inhabit the mind of the late, tortured Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa exposes the limitations of his style -
Mothers by Chris Power – a daring debut short story collectionA compelling examination of alienation, absurdity and the things that are left unsaid
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The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal – life on the fringes of sweeping changeAn exile looks back on her Irish childhood and lost love – and yearns for something greater -
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin – is it better to know your own fate?Debauchery and wild times turn to frustration and fear after four siblings are told the exact dates on which they will die -
From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan – waves of compassion and angerThe lives of a Syrian refugee, a heartbroken carer and a crooked moneyman cross with poignant results
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Teenagers have seen things that would make milk curdleThe YA novelist on researching addiction, dealing with transphobes and why she loves writing for teens -
The best new picture books and novelsGriffins and Goorialla, knights and spies – and all the fun of a feast -
The Wren Hunt by Mary WatsonTwo factions battle each other for survival in this complex and slippery tale of ancient spells cast in contemporary Ireland -
We need a black girl fantasy book every monthAuthor of Children of Blood and Bone says her debut novel was a response to genre fiction in which the characters were always white
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I just want to blow a hole in it allViv Albertine’s new memoir is a chronicle of outsiderness that goes beyond her years in the Slits to explore class and gender, her parents and sibling rivalry, and why she’s done with men -
There is a certain amount of glee at the sheer, sheer foolishness of BrexitThe author talks about his Enniscorthy childhood, his enigmatic Brooklyn heroine – and why Boris Johnson is right about the Irish border -
The sex scenes were quite a challengeThe Gavin and Stacey creator has turned a forgotten script into her debut novel. There are no rules to writing a book, she says
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Fascist rhetoric is creeping back into the mainstreamThe editor of the New York Review of Books on Trump, Brexit – and A Tokyo Romance, his memoir of life in Japan where he once went on stage as Hitler in a jockstrap -
I read my first novel aged 22The novelist on her Irish heritage, the passing of time and why she’s glad she didn’t start young -
I’ve slowed down. I can’t believe I published eight books in 10 yearsThe books interview: fifteen years after they made it on to Granta’s best young British novelists list, the two authors discuss self doubt, obsessions and making a home abroad
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Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them -
Sean Penn's debut novel – repellent and stupid on so many levelsThe Oscar-winning actor’s first foray into fiction, Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, has met with derision online. But how bad can it be? -
What to read
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Nick Chater picks five books to explore the mysteries of the mindConfabulator, storyteller, illusionist … psychology and neuroscience suggest that everything we thought we knew about the inner world is false -
Madeleine Thien: ‘I can read a book over years, and not feel I have to finish it’Books that made me Madeleine Thien: ‘I can read a book over years, and not feel I have to finish it’
The Canadian writer wishes she’d written Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities and was moved by Robert Macfarlane’s The Wild Places -
Books coming in 2018
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A literary calendarEssays from Zadie Smith, Arnhem from Antony Beevor and novels from Julian Barnes, Sarah Perry, Pat Barker, Rachel Cusk … and Bill Clinton. Place your book orders now
You may have missed
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Anne Enright on Ireland's abortion referendumIn the coming weeks, voters in Ireland will have the chance to repeal the eighth amendment, which recognises the equal rights to life of a foetus and the mother during pregnancy. We must send a message to the world, the author declares -
It wasn’t until my twin passed away that I had a story that I wanted to tellThe books interview: Diana Evans’s new novel is a soulful portrait of family life as Obama came to power. She talks motherhood, her chair-buying habit and the ‘particular solitude’ of being a lone twin -
Writing is like being gloriously drunkThe award-winning author made headlines when he went back to his day job in the civil service. He talks about seeing ghosts and almost giving up writing -
What can we learn about our wellbeing from memoirs of illness?Simon Gray, Christopher Hitchens, Joan Didion ... some of the most vivid memoirs have been accounts of illness. But what can they teach us about being well?
Dare YOU face the orcs? The return of 1980s game books Fighting Fantasy