Catcher in the Rye at 75

The quintessential novel of teenage angst is now 75 years old, and though attitudes to it and its reclusive author have changed over time, it remains a landmark in 20th century cultural history.

In praise of Annie Dillard

The American novelist and essayist Annie Dillard, who has died at the age of 81, suffused her prose with poetry and pioneered a mystical form of creative nonfiction the public loved and critics misunderstood.

The castle

Jon Ronson’s new book explores a generation of men adrift in a world of rapid cultural change and economic disempowerment in which traditional roles have disappeared or been disparaged leaving only madness or despair to fill the void.

Rediscovering Lesbia Harford

Lesbia Venner Harford was a woman who knew she’d die young but became a revolutionary all the same in both her private life and radical politics during and after the First World War.

Read for Ukraine

Russia is weaponising language and culture as part of its “Russian World” (Russkii Mir) agenda and its invasion of Ukraine aims to eradicate the concept of Ukrainian culture as well as national identity, so every book by Ukrainian authors bought in the west is an act of defiance against Putin.

Reading Richard Flanagan

Richard Flanagan’s latest book “Heresies” is a collection of 24 occasional pieces published between 2009 and 2025 and display the deep thinking and reading of one of Australia’s leading writers.

The disreputable birth of the novel

Ask someone today why they enjoy reading novels and they will likely say it allows them to escape real life and immerse themselves in a different world. This escapism is seen as positive today, but for centuries novel reading was thought to corrupt readers for precisely these reasons.

Seven books you won’t have heard of

Recognised classics and bestsellers tend to hog the literary limelight but dedicated readers know there are plenty of great books out there that don’t necessarily get the attention they deserve.

On the calculation of volume

On the Calculation of Volume is a fantasy series written by Danish writer Solvej Balle exploring an infinite time loop in a fresh and intriguing way.

They want to believe

Amanda Lohrey’s new novel captures the uncertainties of reason, doubt and belief in telling the story of an ageing psychiatrist in his sixties who takes on a new group of patients who all claim to have been abducted by aliens.

The many lives of Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for writing “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” in 1792 but while it helped lay the foundations of western feminist thought, she was far more radical and prolific than this single book suggests.

A rising of the lights

Steve Toltz’s new novel offers some ideas about the place of humans in a world redefined by AI and the precious solace of personal connection.