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Books

  • A female about to take a swim in a cool lake

    Book of the day
    Dream State by Eric Puchner review – an epic tale of paradise lost

    Sarah Crown
  • Maggie Nelson.

    Autobiography and memoir
    Pathemata by Maggie Nelson review – a writer’s attempt to describe chronic pain

    Sinéad Gleeson
    Woolf said language ‘runs dry’ when it comes to convey the reality of illness. Here is an impressive effort to do just that
  • Keith Douglas photographed during the second world war.

    Carol Rumens's poem of the week
    Vergissmeinnicht by Keith Douglas

    A soldier comes face to face with another he has killed, aghast to recognise his dead opponent’s humanity
  • Natasha Lyonne in Russian Doll.

    Feature
    Love Groundhog Day and Russian Doll? These are the novels for you

  • Illustration of a robot putting human in a waste paper bin

    The big idea
    Can we stop AI making humans obsolete?

  • illustration of bookstore

    Cartoon
    Tom Gauld on the comprehensive bookshop

  • Day Of Action Protests Across The Country<br>WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 05: Protesters attend a "Hands Off" rally to demonstrate against U.S. President Donald Trump on the National Mall on April 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. Protests against Trump administration policies and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are being held nationwide in what organizers are calling a National Day of Action. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

    Feature
    ‘Protest shapes the world’: Rebecca Solnit on the fight back against Trump

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What to read

  • Composite Image of Best Paperbacks April 2025

    Paperbacks
    This month’s best paperbacks: Elif Shafak, Richard Ayoade and more

  • Terry Pratchett.

    Where to start with
    Where to start with: Terry Pratchett

    • Brian by Jeremy Cooper; You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue; The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger.

      What we're reading
      What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in April

Non-fiction reviews

  • a fast flowing river

    Science and nature books
    Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane review – streams of consciousness

    Blake Morrison
  • Hungarian-born architect and furniture designer Erno Goldfinger in 1968, in front of the Balfron Tower in Poplar, London, which he designed.

    History books
    The Alienation Effect by Owen Hatherley review – meet the brutalists

    Pratinav Anil
    The remarkable story of how British culture was transformed by émigré architects, filmmakers and writers
  • Joan Didion.

    Joan Didion
    Notes to John by Joan Didion review – an invasion of privacy

    Lara Feigel
    There’s a crude fascination in seeing the contents of a literary celebrity’s therapy sessions, but no one comes out of it well
  • The White Lotus

    Friendship
    Bad Friend by Tiffany Watt Smith review – refreshingly frank portraits of female friendship

    Kitty Drake
  • Queen’s John Deacon, Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor on stage in Illinois

    Music books
    Men of a Certain Age by Kate Mossman review – close encounters with charismatic male rockers

    Fiona Sturges
  • Rutger Bregman

    Health, mind and body books
    Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman review – why you should quit your job to make the world a better place

    Rowan Williams
  • A pile of various white block letters

    Language books
    Enough Is Enuf by Gabe Henry review – the battle to reform English spelling

    Matthew Cantor
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Fiction & poetry reviews

  • Edward St Aubyn.

    Fiction
    Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn review – troubled minds and family mysteries

    Anthony Quinn
  • Young couple lying in bed reading books

    Fiction
    Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley review – a delightfully grounded romance

    Ella Risbridger
    This irresistible love story braids the personal and the political – from Brexit to who gets to use the spare room as an office
  • Sayaka Murata.

    Fiction
    Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata review – a future without sex

    Caleb Klaces
    The Convenience Store Woman author imagines the creep of a new worldview, in a novel that highlights the weirdness of normal life
  • Jo Harkin.

    Fiction
    The Pretender by Jo Harkin review – a bold and brilliant comedy of royal intrigue

    Imogen Hermes Gowar
  • Nell Zink.

    Fiction
    Sister Europe by Nell Zink review – all the ideas Trump deems most dangerous

    Rita Bullwinkel
  • Bionic visions in Luminous.

    Science fiction
    Luminous by Silvia Park review – a major new voice in SF

    Adam Roberts
  • Sophie Kemp author photo

    Fiction
    Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp review – wild, absurd and wickedly funny

    Yagnishsing Dawoor
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Children's and YA books

  • gozzle

    Children and teenagers
    The best new picture books and novels

    Imogen Russell Williams
  • Padraig Kenny's chapter book After

    Children's books
    The best new chapter books

    Kitty Empire
    A classic Yeti romp with 28 possible endings, a Blade Runner-style thriller and more adventures on the Thames with Jessie Burton
  • Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob, Huw Aaron

    Children's book roundup
    Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

    Imogen Russell Williams
    Sleepy monsters; a wacky broken robot; a search for magical treasures and more
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Interviews

  • Saba Sams.

    Interview
    Writer Saba Sams: ‘I wanted it to be sexy and really messy’

  • Jeanette Winterson, photographed at her home in London. Jeanette Winterson is an English writer, who became famous with her first book, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against conventional values. Other novels of hers have explored gender polarities and sexual identity, and later novels the relations between humans and technology. She is also a broadcaster and a professor of creative writing. She won a Whitbread Prize for a First Novel, a BAFTA Award for Best Drama, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the E. M. Forster Award and the St. Louis Literary Award, and the Lambda Literary Award twice. She holds an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

    10 Chaotic Questions
    Jeanette Winterson: ‘I’d like to go up in space as a very old lady and just be pushed out’

    The Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit author on being a good landlord to a grumpy ghost, her optimism about AI and the ideal size for cats
  • Sayaka Murata.

    Interview
    ‘Marriage feels like a hostage situation, and motherhood a curse’: Japanese author Sayaka Murata

    Lisa Allardice
    The Convenience Store Woman author is renowned for challenging social norms in darkly weird near-future fiction. She discusses sex, feminism and her struggles to be an ‘ordinary earthling’
  • Kiley Reid.

    Q&A
    Novelist Kiley Reid: ‘Consumption cannot fix racism’

    Hephzibah Anderson
  • Katie Kitamura portraits

    Interview
    Novelist Katie Kitamura: ‘As Trump tries to take away everything I love, it’s never been clearer that writing matters’

  • Author Kaliane Bradley, Walthamstow Wetlands, London, for Books Q&amp;A, New Review, 04/04/2025 Sophia Evans for The Observer

    Interview
    Kaliane Bradley: ‘I dreaded the book going to people I know’

  • A head-shot of Oisín Fagan, who's leaning against a fence.

    Interview
    Novelist Oisín Fagan: ‘I was at the altar of literature and had its fire in me’

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Regulars

  • Margaret Drabble.

    The books of my life
    Margaret Drabble: ‘Our family had a passion for Georgette Heyer’

  • Illustration of a robot putting human in a waste paper bin

    Big idea
    Better at everything: how AI could make human beings irrelevant

    The end of civilisation might look less like a war, and more like a love story. Can we avoid being willing participants in our own downfall?
  • Richard Flanagan.

    Audiobook of the week
    Question 7 by Richard Flanagan audiobook review – a bold memoir of life and near-death

    History and autobiography are brilliantly intertwined as the Booker-winning author explores the choices and chance connections that shape our existence
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You may have missed

  • The Mutehekau Shipu river in Quebec

    Feature
    Is this river alive? Robert Macfarlane on the lives, deaths and rights of our rivers

  • ‘Scene’ in scare quotes … Adult Entertainment at the Haggerston pub in Dalston.

    Feature
    ‘Funny, sexy and a bit weird’: inside the new wave of literary parties

  • Joan Didion with her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, and husband John Gregory Dunne.

    Joan Didion
    ‘I dealt with everyone at a distance’: what do Joan Didion’s therapy diaries reveal about guilt, motherhood and writing?

    Alex Clark
  • stack of books with the top one fanned open

    Feature
    A new chapter for publishing? Book subscription services launch their own titles

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