New Idea

1 min read

Natalie Portman is reading Normal People by Sally Rooney. The award-winning novel is a portrait of Connell and Marianne’s relationship, from their life as teenagers in a small Irish town to when they move to Dublin for uni. ■

Woman & Home

2 min read

In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, dramatic events mark the relationship between governess Jane and gruff Edward Rochester. They do marry, but only after facing a series of challenges that include a hidden wife locked in an attic, a devastating fire i

Entertainment Weekly

1 min read

BY Jesse Ball PAGES 253 GENRE Novel FEW WRITERS CAN RESIST THE road trip—the chance encounters of strangers who’d never otherwise collide; the claustrophobic intimacy that’s forced among families and friends; the revelation that meets majestic lan

Woman's Weekly

1 min read

Growing up, sisters Rajni, Jezmeen and Shirina were never close, but, respecting their mother’s dying wishes, they travel to India together to carry out the final rites. In a life-affirming read that’s emotional and humorous, we see tensions play out

SFX

1 min read

RELEASED 3 MARCH 304 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Sara Holland Publisher Bloomsbury Adolescence is hard enough at the best of times, but throw in a murdered brother, a mother on death row and a high school full of bullies that really don’t apprecia

You South Africa

1 min read

EMMANUEL CASTIS sure knows how to sweep a woman off her feet. The Trackers actor proposed to his long-term partner SHARLENE ECONOMOU, at the luxury Komati George Lodge in Mpumalanga in front of her family and friends last month. The couple have been

India Today

1 min read

At the centre of Poomani's novel, Heat, is Chidambaram, a boy who, in an act of daring and planning beyond his years, strikes down his elder brother's killer, Vadakkuraan. A powerful land-grabber, Vadakkuraan is always surrounded by his own armed men

Entertainment Weekly

1 min read

PAGES 348 | GENRE Fiction REVI EW BY Leah Greenblatt @Leahbats LET US NOW PRAISE DIFFICULT books: the ones whose refusal to play by the conventional rules of form and storytelling confound and dazzle us, and maybe even aim to drive us a little bit

TIME

1 min read

JENNIFER EGAN JOINED THE WHO’S WHO of American letters in 2011 when she won a Pulitzer for A Visit From the Goon Squad, an interlinked-story-collection-as-novel that bucked more than a few conventions. Her new novel Manhattan Beach is more convention

TIME

1 min read

Edith and Helen Calder haven’t spoken in decades. The sisters’ rift began after the death of their father, who left all the money from the family’s farm to Helen so she could fulfill her dream of opening a brewery. In J. Ryan Stradal’s The Lager Quee

Watch

1 min read

In this latest of the best-selling FBI Thriller series, agents Savich and Sherlock are solving their most twisted case yet, involving a missing CIA analyst and a kidnapper with powerful connections. For nearly a decade, Taddeo followed three American

Entertainment Weekly

1 min read

BY Valeria Luiselli PAGES 375 GENRE Fiction HOWEVER WE DECIDE WHAT defines a Great American Novel in 2019, it must feel a lot like what’s inside Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive. Not only because the narrative unfolds across a literal r

Cricket Magazine

2 min read

A house painter named Mr. Popper dreams of being an Antarctic explorer. When he gets a penguin, his dream comes true. Soon one penguin turns into two, and soon a dozen penguins are in the household. It’s too expensive to take care of ten babies, so M

TIME

1 min read

CERTAIN BOOKS LEAVE READERS FEELING THEY KNOW EVERY MINUTE detail of a character’s inner life, as if they were lifelong companions and daily confidants. Paul Auster’s massive new novel, 4 3 2 1, is such a book. The concept behind the 866-page tome b

The Millions

1 min read

After six months of smashing success on our list, The Practicing Stoic surely becomes the first philosopher's resource to grace our Hall of Fame. The post The Millions Top Ten: November 2019 appeared first on The Millions.

Literary Hub

3 min read

As I write this, more than 250 million people have been ordered to stay at home in attempt to slow the coronavirus pandemic. For many of those those lucky enough to be simply quarantined and not sick (or caring for anyone who is), the days have been

Writing Magazine

2 min read

‘I hadn’t intended to write The Death of Mungo Blackwell for at least three more years. My agent had been actively shopping my indie-published series for middle grade readers with no success. The market just wasn’t acquiring middle grade. My agent re

Woman & Home

1 min read

Set in Cornwall in the winter of 1972, three lighthouse keepers seemingly vanish from a locked tower 15 miles out to sea during a storm. But what really happened? Inspired by a real story, this beautifully written novel alternates between the narrati

The Atlantic

1 min read

A new dynamic collection of short stories from Emily Fridlund revels in discomfort and disorientation.

Writing Magazine

1 min read

‘When I read the submission draft of How the One Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, I was drawn by the immediacy of Lala’s story, the awful brutality that she, her mother and grandmother all endure in different ways, and their stoicism and honesty and ca

Woman & Home

1 min read

I first read this when I was nine and it terrified me. We’d just moved into a Victorian house, where my bedroom was in the attic. I was convinced Bertha Mason lived in the box room and would set fire to me each night. The ‘mad woman in the attic’ is

Literary Hub

3 min read

One of my favorite things about skulking around old bookstores is the possibility of chancing upon a first edition of a beloved author’s early work and looking at it in its original context—not repackaged nor redesigned, not yet Made into a Major Mot

New Zealand Woman’s Weekly

1 min read

She lives in Wellington and teaches English literature, film and media studies. The H.G. stands for Hannah Gabrielle. She has written lots of short fiction and this is her debut novel. This novel was inspired by… “The years I spent at Victoria Unive

SFX

1 min read

RELEASED 7 MAY 596 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Nick Martell Publisher Gollancz It’s a bold move to have the protagonist of a novel introduce their tale by describing it as “the greatest story ever told”, but Nick Martell’s fantasy adventure falls f

Literary Hub

1 min read

Gre Iles most recent book, Mississippi Blood, concludes his Natchez Burning trilogy. What was the first book you fell in love with? Arty the Smarty by Faith McNulty. I was three or four years old when I read that, and it shaped me as a writer. It’s

Literary Hub

1 min read

Scott Turow’s latest book, Testimony, is available now from Grand Central.  What was the first book you fell in love with? The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, which I read during one of my many malingering periods of absence from grade school at the

New Zealand Woman’s Weekly

1 min read

Born in Wellington, she now lives in Melbourne, working as a newspaper journalist. This is her first novel. This novel was inspired by… “My career as a journalist and by my extended family. My great, big, fat, political, union, social-justice family

New Zealand Listener

2 min read

Bernard Beckett began writing The Tunnel of Dreams a few years back as bedtime reading for his twin boys, completing a section each day. The novel opens with twins Arlo and Stefan deciding to investigate an abandoned house late at night. They spot a

Literary Hub

1 min read

Alexander McCall Smith, best known for the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, sees his latest book, My Italian Bulldozer, hit American shelves today. What was the first book you fell in love with? When I was a very young boy I had a book called G

Woman

1 min read

It’s Christmas 1845, and the Bronte sisters are back as amateur detectives when they discover the bones of a child have been found in the walls of a local house. It’s not long before they’re on to a trail of other lost children. An absolute treat for