Guardian book reviews 2023

Tell us about your favourite books in the comments.

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.

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. His second novel, Small Worlds Viking, May , is a similarly lapidary coming-of-age story set over three years in the life of an extraordinary young man. Their enthralling second, Mister Mister Tinder, May , is about the enigmatic Yahya Bas, sitting mute in a government detention centre after being captured in Syria. The Ghost Theatre Bloomsbury, May finds its way into the hidden corners of Elizabethan London, telling the story of a group of misfit actors. Beautifully written and completely convincing.

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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.

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.

Guardian book reviews 2023

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.

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In the tale of six astronauts circling the Earth, Harvey beautifully evokes the wonder and fragility of our planet and its inhabitants. School of Instructions by Ishion Hutchinson, Faber A book-length poem about the experience of West Indian soldiers in the first world war. The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller, Fig Tree Following the Costa-winning Unsettled Ground, an investigation of grief, atonement and survival, in which a young woman takes part in a mysterious vaccine trial. In The Race to Be Myself Merky, Oct the double Olympic champion finally makes herself heard as she reflects on her rural beginnings and early running career, the shock at learning of her hyperandrogenism meaning she has no womb and naturally elevated testosterone levels and her treatment at the hands of the press and sporting bodies. 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. One worrying lesson is that, even today, we are not doing nearly as much as we should to increase our resilience against the awakening of large volcanoes. Delivery charges may apply. Read all fiction. Divisible by Itself and One by Kae Tempest, Picador Poems of gender, transformation and the body in a collection about authenticity and conformity. Read all romance. 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. All Before Me by Esther Rutter review — the healing power of place and poetry. 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. Sleeping on Islands: A Life in Poetry by Andrew Motion, Faber The former poet laureate guides us through his life in poetry, from encounters with Larkin and Auden to the act of composition itself. This article is more than 6 months old.

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.

As destructive as a lava flow but more terrifyingly mobile was the apocalyptic forest fire that engulfed parts of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, in Silence All the Noise by Caster Semenya, Merky The South African Olympic gold medallist tells the story of her life, including the toll taken by the intense international scrutiny of her body and gender. Their relationship prompts the author to recall moments from her own youth and to reflect, acutely and without sentimentality, on memory and the passing of time. So, he knows whereof he speaks, and that makes his message all the more sobering. A comedy scriptwriter tests out this social rule in the follow-up to Rodham. Memoir by Nazanin Zaghari -Ratcliffe, Chatto The British-Iranian woman wrongly imprisoned in Iran between and writes about her incarceration and the fight to get her out. Reuse this content. Ootlin by Jenni Fagan, Hutchinson Heinemann Novelist and poet Fagan writes powerfully about her childhood as a ward of the state, a rootless existence that fostered a fascination with storytelling. This article is more than 3 months old. An unmissable rediscovery from , Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke Daunt , turns a cold eye on the family dysfunction of the English upper class. Read all crime and thrillers. Reuse this content.