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.

Spare by Prince Harry, Bantam The prince tells all in a memoir that was delayed following the death of his grandmother, the Queen, in September Bloodbath Nation by Paul Auster, Faber A devastating reflection on years of American gun culture from the acclaimed writer and film-maker. Pirate Enlightenment by David Graeber, Allen Lane In this posthumous work, the anthropologist and Occupy movement leader makes the case that Enlightenment values were best embodied by a ramshackle utopia in late 17th-century Madagascar. It also covers his short-lived medical career and time at the BBC. Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor, Fleet Action-packed crime drama of corruption in contemporary India set around a wealthy family. Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan, Daunt Following the brilliant short-story collection The Dominant Animal, a tough, beautiful novel about a horse trainer drawn from conversations between subject and author.

Guardian book reviews 2023

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. In Tremor Faber, Oct , a west African professor working in the US considers the meaning of art and storytelling in the face of a brutal past and violent present. Alternative world-building Golden Hill author Francis Spufford spins a sideways entertainment with Cahokia Jazz Faber, Oct , a murder mystery set in a version of s America. Cahokia was a Native American city in the centuries before European contact; here it lives on into the age of gangsters and speakeasies, a melting pot of drama and possibility. Meanwhile, the first in an epic fantasy trilogy from Kiran Millwood Hargrave, In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen Orion , celebrates magic, nature and adventure. 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.

This pitch-black debut, lurching from comedy of manners to grand guignol, will be catnip to fans of Saltburn.

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. Justin Torres won the National Book award in the US for the dreamlike and innovative Blackouts Granta , which chops up historical texts and uses images and absence to construct a shadow history of queer desire and erasure. Two first novels drew on the crime genre: Kala by Colin Walsh Atlantic , a tale of bright-burning teenage friendship and slow-fade adult disappointment in a small Irish town, is a page-turner to rival Tana French.

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. Justin Torres won the National Book award in the US for the dreamlike and innovative Blackouts Granta , which chops up historical texts and uses images and absence to construct a shadow history of queer desire and erasure. Two first novels drew on the crime genre: Kala by Colin Walsh Atlantic , a tale of bright-burning teenage friendship and slow-fade adult disappointment in a small Irish town, is a page-turner to rival Tana French. And No One Dies Yet by Kobby Ben Ben Europa places a trio of gay Americans looking for their ancestral roots in Ghana against a string of murders, for a playful and daringly executed expose of history, diaspora and the exploitation of African voices.

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.

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Most viewed. Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer by Jeffrey Boakye, Faber For , a debut about music and money-making on a 90s estate from the writer and educator. A comedy scriptwriter tests out this social rule in the follow-up to Rodham. Influential by Amara Sage, Faber YA debut about social media, internet fame and cancel culture, with a heroine whose parents have put her whole life online. Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor, Fleet Action-packed crime drama of corruption in contemporary India set around a wealthy family. As Kiper points out in her lucid explanations of what is known about memory and consciousness, and the brain biology of self-control, no one can be perfect in such a situation: the carers, too, are victims of the disease. Divisible by Itself and One by Kae Tempest, Picador Poems of gender, transformation and the body in a collection about authenticity and conformity. This pitch-black debut, lurching from comedy of manners to grand guignol, will be catnip to fans of Saltburn. Observer book of the week. The Shards Swift, January is a riotous tale of privilege and psychosis at a swanky prep school. Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson, Viking The author of the Costa-winning debut Open Water captures three summers in the life of a young Black man, to highlight father-son relationships, faith, friendship — and the power of dancing.

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.

A comedy scriptwriter tests out this social rule in the follow-up to Rodham. Farming adventures; tales from the set of The Sound of Music; King Arthur reimagined; unrest in near-future London and more. The months leading up to Christmas are typically when famous actors and musicians spill the beans in books. Explore more on these topics Books Autumn arts preview Fiction Crime fiction Science fiction books Poetry Children and teenagers reviews. The Ferryman by Justin Cronin, Orion From the author of vampire bestseller The Passage, a new epic about a hidden island paradise which is not what it seems. Alternative world-building Golden Hill author Francis Spufford spins a sideways entertainment with Cahokia Jazz Faber, Oct , a murder mystery set in a version of s America. Free Therapy by Rebecca Ivory review — delicious reveals and rug pulls in stories of aimless women. Influential by Amara Sage, Faber YA debut about social media, internet fame and cancel culture, with a heroine whose parents have put her whole life online. 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. Finally, two novels to look forward to later in the year.