Guardian book reviews 2023

Sunlight is not the best disinfectant, she points out; bleach is. Does being meek ever bring about justice? The pious tone-policers, she argues, are Unreasonably Reasonable; we could all do with pulling down a few more statues and in general being a bit more Reasonably Unreasonable.

Tell us about your favourite books in the comments. Read all fiction. Imogen Russell Williams highlights five of the best books for teenagers, including a superb graphic memoir, a poignant family saga and a chilling murder mystery. Read all young adult books. Read all crime and thrillers.

Guardian book reviews 2023

Set in revolutionary France, The Glutton Granta is inspired by contemporary reports of a peasant who would eat anything, from dead rats to forks; and explores poverty, desire and social chaos in thrilling prose. The Running Grave Little, Brown , the seventh Cormoran Strike novel by JK Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, sets the continuing romantic tension between her detective duo against an investigation into a religious cult in Norfolk. And Anne Michaels, known for the multi-award-winning Fugitive Pieces, returns with Held Bloomsbury, Nov , which spans generations in the aftermath of the first world war. Uncovered Terry Pratchett A Stroke of the Pen Doubleday, Oct assembles early short stories by the late Discworld creator, written under a pseudonym for newspapers in the 70s and 80s and only discovered after superfans combed through the archives. Expect comic fantastical fragments riffing on everything from cave people to Father Christmas. The one to make you laugh In the funny and deeply relatable Weirdo Faber, Sept , standup Sara Pascoe brings her quirky observational comedy to the story of a young woman navigating the trials of life — love, money, purpose — while trying to seem normal. The queer history Drawing on documents and images from real-life pioneers, the hugely ambitious Blackouts by Justin Torres Granta, Nov is an intimate, playful account of an old and a young man talking; but it builds into a rich, poetic reclamation of cultural inheritance. In Tremor Faber, Oct , a west African professor working in the US considers the meaning of art and storytelling in the face of a brutal past and violent present. Alternative world-building Golden Hill author Francis Spufford spins a sideways entertainment with Cahokia Jazz Faber, Oct , a murder mystery set in a version of s America. Cahokia was a Native American city in the centuries before European contact; here it lives on into the age of gangsters and speakeasies, a melting pot of drama and possibility. Meanwhile, the first in an epic fantasy trilogy from Kiran Millwood Hargrave, In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen Orion , celebrates magic, nature and adventure. Immersive YA The epistolary novel Yours from the Tower by Sally Nicholls Andersen, Sept explores the hopes, struggles and first loves of three friends at the end of the 19th century, who have left boarding school for very different lives.

Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor, Fleet Action-packed crime drama of corruption in contemporary India set around a wealthy family.

In Birnam Wood Granta , idealistic guerrilla gardeners in New Zealand run up against a ruthless billionaire. Zadie Smith also took on a new genre with her first historical novel, The Fraud Hamish Hamilton , which sets a gently comic portrait of 19th-century literary London, and a real-life trial which stirred up passionate emotions around class and identity, against harrowing testimony from a slave plantation. It expertly links Jamaican and British history, and offers a timely, quizzical reflection of our current age of globalisation and hypocrisy. This supple portrait of mothers and daughters, exploring the hangover of the patriarchal past in the shape of the famous poet who wrote about and abandoned them, may be her best book yet. Deborah Levy delves into the deepest patterns of family connection and self-invention in August Blue Hamish Hamilton , the riddling, elegant tale of a globe-trotting concert pianist whose subconscious is catching up with her.

Far be it from us to say you saw it here first. The class of includes a writer on an Emmy-winning Netflix show and a book publicist with a year career at the heart of the trade. From the turmoil of same-sex desire in Victorian England to the funny side of getting divorced in your 20s; from the trials of manhood in recession-hit Belfast to a genre-bending coming-of-age saga from Nigeria by way of Norwich: all are among the sundry riches to be found here. Anthony Cummins. We are going through a very difficult time in Nigerian history.

Guardian book reviews 2023

D uring the lockdown years, I kept reading articles by novelists saying how unproductive they were feeling, how virus narratives had colonised their subconscious minds, destroying the creative impulse. The Shards Swift, January is a riotous tale of privilege and psychosis at a swanky prep school. I loved it. To be honest, feels like a month-by-month parade of my favourite writers. The Bee Sting Hamish Hamilton, June is the tale of a dysfunctional family trying to hold things together. Her first novel since A Gate at the Stairs , this is an uncanny tale stretched between the 19th century and the present. Now, with A Spell of Good Things Canongate, February , she has delivered a poised and luminous love story set against the backdrop of a violent contemporary Nigeria.

Extensive farming definition ap human geography

Illustration by Observer Design. I loved it. The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism by Martin Wolf, Allen Lane With both capitalism and democracy under increasing stress across the world, journalist Martin Wolf makes the case that the marriage of these two systems is still the best way of organising society. This article is more than 6 months old. Out-of-this-world nature writing Samantha Harvey is a beautiful stylist; in Orbital Cape, Nov a group of astronauts look down on our fragile Earth. Spare by Prince Harry, Bantam The prince tells all in a memoir that was delayed following the death of his grandmother, the Queen, in September How to Think Like a Philosopher by Julian Ba ggini, Granta Baggini takes inspiration from the greatest philosophers to provide a toolkit for clear thinking in an era of misinformation. Read all translated fiction. The Bee Sting Hamish Hamilton, June is the tale of a dysfunctional family trying to hold things together. Man-Eating Typewriter by Richard Milward, White Rabbit The transgressive adventures of a psychopath in Swinging 60s London: this ingenious homage to the avant garde is told entirely in the gay slang Polari. Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor, Fleet Action-packed crime drama of corruption in contemporary India set around a wealthy family.

Set in revolutionary France, The Glutton Granta is inspired by contemporary reports of a peasant who would eat anything, from dead rats to forks; and explores poverty, desire and social chaos in thrilling prose.

Uncovered Terry Pratchett A Stroke of the Pen Doubleday, Oct assembles early short stories by the late Discworld creator, written under a pseudonym for newspapers in the 70s and 80s and only discovered after superfans combed through the archives. Among the A-listers putting pen to paper this autumn is Barbra Streisand, whose memoir My Name Is Barbra Century, Nov will look back at her six-decade career spanning stage, screen and the recording studio. Opinions is a new collection of the best of her nonfiction writing, all powered by a dry wit and penetrating insights into how society works, and who it works for. The story of a young man making his name in the dying days of the Roman empire, Sparrow is masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship. Read all food. In Birnam Wood Granta , idealistic guerrilla gardeners in New Zealand run up against a ruthless billionaire. Does being meek ever bring about justice? The answer is a combination of biology and biography. On Women by Susan Sontag, Hamish Hamilton A collection of essays from the s by one of the most influential feminists of the 20th century, gathered together here for the first time. After the Funeral by Tessa Hadley, Cape From a master of the short story, a collection teasing out the vast consequences of small events.