9 d. ago Men aren’t vanishing from fiction. The truth is more complicated

As debates over the ‘disappearing’ young male novelist rumble on, some authors and critics push back against claims that fiction has closed its doors to men. Hannah Ewens learns that the real problem is less about publishing and more about a wider societal issue

Politics

1 week ago Things That Disappear by Jenny Erpenbeck review – a kaleidoscopic study of transience

A collection of columns by the German Booker winner reveals a keen eye for details that mark the passing of timeJenny Erpenbeck wrote the pieces collected in this compact yet kaleidoscopic book for a column in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; published in German in 2009, they now appear in an English translation by Kurt Beals, following the immense success of Erpenbeck’s novel Kairos, which won the 2024 International Booker prize.It’s interesting and instructive to reflect on what German newspaper readers made of the column in the early years of the new millennium, nearly two decades on from the fall of the Berlin Wall. For while Erpenbeck adopted some of the features of the form – apparently throwaway observations on daily life, such as minor irritation at the difficulty of sourcing proper splitterbrötchen, an unpretentious pastry now pimped for a more elaborate and wealthy clientele – she consistently enlarged and complicated it. Into that recognisable tone of e...

Events

2 w. ago Booker prize winners, rap hits and Ryder Cups: interpreting the Ashes omens

History shows that surprisingly random factors can have an impact on whether England or Australia lift the urnContrary to what you may have read in some other publications, Josh Hazlewood’s hamstring injury is a massive boost to Australia’s hopes of victory in the first Test in Perth. The 34-year-old, you see, has proven beyond all doubt over an 11-year international career that he is a terrible hindrance to his team.Since the Tamworth-born terror made his Test debut in December 2014 he has played in 76 of Australia’s 107 Tests, of which they have won 39 (51%), while losing 24 (32%). Decent numbers, but it’s when you strip him from the side that they really thrive, with 22 wins (71%) and just five defeats (16%) in 31 games. His impact in the Ashes, if anything, is even more damaging: they have won 50% and lost 33% of their 18 games with him, but won 71% and lost just 14%, a single rogue game, of their seven without his malign presence. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Not OK? Booker winner Flesh ignites debate about state of masculinity

Toxic male behaviour of David Szalay’s protagonist reflects real-world concerns about a ‘crisis of masculinity’In the immediate aftermath of David Szalay’s book Flesh winning the Booker prize, one feature of the novel stood out: how often the protagonist utters the word “OK”.The 500 times István grunts out the response is part of a sparse prose style through which the British-Hungarian Szalay gives the reader few insights into the inner workings of a man whose fortunes rise and fall. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Sarah Jessica Parker to be honored with Carol Burnett Award at the Golden Globes

Sarah Jessica Parker has been named the winner of the Carol Burnett Award for 2026 for her outstanding contributions to television

Events

3 w. ago How did Sarah Jessica Parker become a judge of the Booker Prize?

Plus celebs go skating at Somerset House and Topjaw turns 10

Events

3 w. ago Celebrating literature is good – but I’m running out of patience with celebrity book clubs | Emma Brockes

Sarah Jessica Parker swept all before her at the Booker prize ceremony, but is fame the best way to encourage reading?In these turbulent times, we take small joys where we can find them. And this week we’ll take this: the spectacle of various literary people at the Booker prize award ceremony jamming themselves into photos alongside Sarah Jessica Parker. The actor – if you missed the long piece about it in the New York Times, or the many social media posts promoting Parker’s involvement – served as a judge for the Booker this year, a process that required her to read 153 books, some of them on the New York subway while being followed by a film crew. “Oh let me try!!!!” Parker had posted to Booker organisers last year, and for reasons that became obvious this week, they did.I know what you are going to say; that anything short of full-throated support for Parker’s adorable engagement with books in general and the Booker prize in particular is just unacceptable snobbery. There is noth...

Culture

3 w. ago Should I care what Sarah Jessica Parker thinks about books? | Emma Brockes

She swept all before her at the Booker prize ceremony, but I’m running out of patience with celebrity influence in publishingIn these turbulent times, we take small joys where we can find them. And this week we’ll take this: the spectacle of various literary people at the Booker prize award ceremony jamming themselves into photos alongside Sarah Jessica Parker. The actor – if you missed the long piece about it in the New York Times, or the many social media posts promoting Parker’s involvement – served as a judge for the Booker this year, a process that required her to read 153 books, some of them on the New York subway while being followed by a film crew. “Oh let me try!!!!” Parker had posted to Booker organisers last year, and for reasons that became obvious this week, they did.I know what you are going to say; that anything short of full-throated support for Parker’s adorable engagement with books in general and the Booker prize in particular is just unacceptable snobbery. There ...

Politics

3 w. ago Sarah Jessica Parker meets Queen Camilla at Clarence House reception for Children's Booker Prize

The Queen was full of compliments for Hollywood legend Sarah Jessica Parker as she welcomed her to Clarence House .

Politics

3 w. ago ‘It’s notoriously hard to write about sex’: David Szalay on Flesh, his astounding Booker prize

The novel’s protagonist is violent, libidinous and so inarticulate he says ‘OK’ some 500 times. So how did the author turn his story into a tragic masterpiece?When we meet the morning after the announcement of this year’s Booker prize, David Szalay, the winner, seems an extremely genial and gentle author to have created one of the most morally ambiguous characters in recent contemporary fiction. His sixth novel, Flesh, about the rise and fall of a Hungarian immigrant to the UK, is unlike anything you have read before.Szalay (pronounced “Sol-oy”) is often described as “Hungarian-British”, but that has offended Canadians this morning, he says. His mother was Canadian and he was born in that country, where his Hungarian father had moved a few years earlier. “I’m arguably more Canadian than Hungarian.” Now 51, he grew up in England, graduated from Oxford University, and lived in Hungary for 15 years. To make things more confusing, he is over from Vienna, where he now lives with his wife...

Politics

3 w. ago One of my favourite books of the year just won the Booker Prize – and it’s 22% off on Amazon

Judge Sarah Jessica Parker described whittling down the list as “real agony”

Politics

3 w. ago David Szalay’s Flesh is the most deserved Booker Prize winner in years

The British-Hungarian author’s triumph caps off what has already been a wonderful year for the UK’s most prestigious award for fiction, writes Martin Chilton

Politics

3 w. ago David Szalay wins Booker prize with ‘extraordinary and singular’ novel Flesh

The British-Hungarian author’s novel exploring modern masculinity was chosen unanimously as this year’s winner, says judging chair Roddy Doyle

Culture

3 w. ago The risky strategy of Booker winner Flesh pays off | Justine Jordan

The protagonist’s inner life is hidden from the reader in this highly original novelDavid Szalay wins 2025 Booker prize for ‘dark’ FleshReflecting on the Booker judging process, chair Roddy Doyle stressed the “singularity” of Flesh, the most unusual novel on the shortlist. In his sixth book, Hungarian-British writer David Szalay takes a classic story arc – one man’s journey through life, from childhood to old age – and presents it in a radically new and challenging way, scooping out the interiority that usually powers the novel form.We meet his protagonist, István, as a bored 15-year-old in a Hungarian backwater. He is seduced by a middle-aged neighbour into a relationship suffused with shame and disgust; a confused act of violence knocks his life off course; he joins the military and is stationed in Kuwait; he moves to London and works as a bouncer before the rising tides of global capital carry him, for a while, into the monied elite. And all the while, we are cut off from his tho...

Events

3 w. ago Andrew Miller is bookies’ favourite to win 2025 Booker prize

The Land in Winter has shortest odds of victory, ahead of Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and SunnyAndrew Miller is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the 2025 Booker prize, which will be announced on Monday evening in London.The English author tops the William Hill odds at 6/4 for The Land in Winter, a novel set in 1960s England which follows two marriages struggling under the weight of postwar class divisions, professional dislocation and emotional estrangement. Miller was previously shortlisted for the Booker in 2001 for his novel Oxygen. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Two authors named as favourites to win 2025 Booker Prize for fiction

British novelist Andrew Miller and Indian author Kiran Desai are the favourites to win the award at a ceremony in London on Monday

Culture

3 w. ago Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai are favorites to win the Booker Prize for fiction

British novelist Andrew Miller and Indian author Kiran Desai are the favorites to win the Booker Prize for fiction at a ceremony in London

Politics

3 w. ago ‘I had a year to write it from scratch’: the 2025 Booker finalists on the stories behind their novels

A newspaper report about a missing girl, the memory of a midwinter emergency Susan Choi, Andrew Miller, David Szalay and others on what inspired their shortlisted books The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny Continue reading...

Culture