Long Island by Colm Tóibín review – the sequel to Brooklyn is a masterclass in subtlety and intelligence
John Self
Society books
Morning After the Revolution by Nellie Bowles review – the perils of failing to toe the party line
Rachel Cooke
The former New York Times journalist exposes the excesses of hyper-‘woke’ culture and the suffocating impact of groupthink in this enjoyable study of a topsy-turvy world
Fiction
Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru review – sex, drugs and conceptual art
Abhrajyoti Chakraborty
The novelist’s love triangle has its sights set on the elite insularity of the New York art world but its plot is programmatic
Pandemic books
Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control; Wuhan: A Documentary Novel – reviews
Mark Honigsbaum
Memoir
The Bullet by Tom Lee review – a complicated inheritance
Pulitzer winner Cristina Rivera Garza on femicide in Mexico
‘I was in a kind of ecstatic freefall’
Artist Miranda July on writing the book that could change your life
The artist and filmmaker has always enjoyed challenging convention. Now she has written a novel which takes a breathtaking look at menopause, sex, death and transformation
Deborah Levy
Writing and swimming help each other
The novelist and memoirist on stamina and solitude, the influence of surrealist art on her work, and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s revelatory travel writing
‘This is much more intimate’
Colm Tóibín on writing a sequel to Brooklyn, 15 years on
‘I have my iPhone, X and a brain in my head’
Ukrainian journalist and social media star Illia Ponomarenko
‘It was just so much fun’
The Ministry of Time author Kaliane Bradley
‘I can say things other people are afraid to’
Margaret Atwood on censorship, literary feuds and Trump
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
Regulars
The books of my life
Hari Kunzru: ‘I am just as enchanted by The Great Gatsby now as when I first read it as an A-level student’
Big idea
What does progress look like on a planet at its limit?
Putting endless growth above our wellbeing and the environment is no longer viable
Where to start with
Where to start with: Franz Kafka
Inscrutable bureaucracy and monstrous insects may not sound immediately appealing, but once you’re lost in Kafka’s world you won’t want to escape
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.
You may have missed
Alice Munro remembered
Reading her stories is like watching a virtuoso pianist perform
Should plants be given rights?
What new botanical breakthroughs could mean
Paul Auster remembered
A literary voice for the ages
Franz Kafka
What we learn about Kafka from his uncensored diaries
Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.