Top 10 books about roots
From American giants such as Toni Morrison and James Baldwin to memoirs by Xiaolu Guo and Vladimir Nabokov, Nadia Owusu picks the best works that explore notions of home
Tag: Fiction
Netflix smash Behind Her Eyes: Sarah Pinborough on writing ‘that ending’
Her duplicitous love triangle story is a hit – but some viewers are calling its mind-boggling twist ‘preposterous’. The horror and sci-fi veteran turned thriller-writer hits back
Isabel Allende: ‘Everyone called me crazy for divorcing in my 70s. I’ve never been scared of being alone’
The bestselling Chilean American novelist talks about her foundation for women, laughing too much to write romance – and what she’s learned from her grandchildren
Bernardine Evaristo: the forgotten black British novels everyone should read
The Booker-winning novelist is relaunching a series of neglected novels by black British writers. She explains why they deserve a new readership
Holocaust stories must be told, but their popularity is deeply uncomfortable
Remembering atrocious events is vital – but watching the bestsellers accrue and witnessing tourists taking selfies in Auschwitz-Birkenau has left me very uneasy
Drexciya: how Afrofuturism is inspiring calls for an ocean memorial to slavery
The alternative Black history of a deep-sea civilisation has planted the seed for proposals to memorialise the 1.8 million Africans who died in the Atlantic
Jenni Fagan: ‘I understand crisis. I grew up in a very, very extreme way’
From a childhood in care to dazzling readers with her debut The Panopticon, Fagan talks about writing her third novel, channelling rage, and why now is a pivotal moment for us all
Twisted brilliance: Patricia Highsmith at 100
Forbidden desires, strange obsessions and a singular talent for suspense… Carmen Maria Machado on the dark allure of the writer behind Ripley
2021 in books: what to look forward to this year
Kazuo Ishiguro returns with a novel about an artificial friend, Zadie Smith brings the Wife of Bath bang up to date, Bill Gates takes on the climate crisis … a literary calendar for the year ahead
Dylan Dog: the hit London-set Italian horror comic unknown in the UK
The Italian detective’s horror comic book adventures have sold 60m copies worldwide. So why is he not well-known in his fictional home?