http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/a-tide-of-green-ink-can-literature-face-the-storm-of-climate-change-1828433.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/a-tide-of-green-ink-can-literature-face-the-storm-of-climate-change-1828433.html ]]> <p> One flood does not make an apocalypse. Still, the worst-hit location of last week’s record-breaking inundations in Cumbria seemed almost too ominous to be true. </p> Features Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:17 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-movie-that-mattered-to-me-1828427.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-movie-that-mattered-to-me-1828427.html ]]> <p> The idea that someone is so overwhelmed by an individual film that it changes their lives and turns them, almost instantly, into a movie director is, perhaps, far-fetched. </p> Features Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-invention-of-the-jewish-people-by-shlomo-sand-trans-yael-lotan-1828432.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-invention-of-the-jewish-people-by-shlomo-sand-trans-yael-lotan-1828432.html ]]> <p> Shlomo Sand clearly intended his book as an explosive device, a big bang demolishing the myths of Jewishness on which both communal identity and Israeli state policies rest. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-great-silence-19181920-by-juliet-nicolson-1828436.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-great-silence-19181920-by-juliet-nicolson-1828436.html <p>On the last day of 1918 most of the population of the island of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides gathered at the little port of Stornoway, waiting to greet 500 returning soldiers and sailors. "Over six thousand men from Lewis had volunteered to serve in the war, a fifth of the island,'s total population. More than a thousand had been killed." </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/boyd-tonkin-books-on-the-borders-of-a-retail-breakdown-1828435.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/boyd-tonkin-books-on-the-borders-of-a-retail-breakdown-1828435.html ]]> <p> One of the world's greatest booksellers has just announced her retirement. </p> Features Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/one-minute-with-ian-blair-1828434.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/one-minute-with-ian-blair-1828434.html ]]> <p> <b>Where are you now and what can you see? </b> </p> <p> In my study, looking out at a very sodden garden. It is, however, brightened up by a winter-flowering cherry, which has suddenly broken out into intense white blossom. </p> Features Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/sex--violence-death--silence-by-gordon-burn-1828437.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/sex--violence-death--silence-by-gordon-burn-1828437.html ]]> <p>Gordon Burn was a one-off. The range of his interests and competence made him impossible to define. He was by turns a biographer of the Yorkshire Ripper and the Wests, a historian and analyst of sport, an original novelist, an enthusiast of poetry and a gifted journalist. It's as hard to find precursors for him (Hazlitt?) as to establish parallels. The qualities that mark out his writing are clarity, energy and an immediate grip on the reader's attention. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/black-water-rising-by-attica-locke-1828439.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/black-water-rising-by-attica-locke-1828439.html <p>At a charged meeting of disaffected dock workers, a former civil-rights activist tries to stir up the militant tendencies of the crowd. He fails miserably. As Jay Porter, once a radical and now a rather ramshackle attorney, observes, "They don't want a revolution. They want a bigger paycheck." It's a perfect summation of the themes that swirl through this superbly written and hugely compelling debut crime novel.</p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/getting-our-way-by-christopher-meyer-1828441.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/getting-our-way-by-christopher-meyer-1828441.html <p> Sir Christopher Meyer, former British Ambassador in Washington and more recently head of the Press Complaints Commission, is what was called in my wife's school a "notice box" and, in my school, "rather full of himself." Nothing wrong with that. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/letters-of-ted-hughes-ed-christopher-reid-1828451.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/letters-of-ted-hughes-ed-christopher-reid-1828451.html <p> In dreams, as another poet wrote, begin responsibilities. Whatever else happens in the lurching trajectory as poet, critic and national icon that these addictive letters record, Ted Hughes stays a serious dreamer. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-making-of-mr-grays-anatomy-by-ruth-richardson-1828450.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-making-of-mr-grays-anatomy-by-ruth-richardson-1828450.html <p> It is "what Mrs Beeton's is to cookery or Roget's is to thesauri". Like those tomes, Gray's Anatomy has now received its own biography, which is as fascinating and occasionally disconcerting as the work it describes. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/curiosities-of-literature-by-john-sutherland-1828449.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/curiosities-of-literature-by-john-sutherland-1828449.html <p> Though every page testifies to the well-stocked mind of Sutherland, it is particularly revealing of his chain of thought. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/everyday-drinking-by-kingsley-amis-1828448.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/everyday-drinking-by-kingsley-amis-1828448.html <p>Alcohol is customarily a pastime for writers rather than a topic, but Kingsley Amis wrote three jolly books on the subject. Gathered in this volume, his bluff musings ("Vintages – aargh! Most of the crap talked about wine centres on these") made the New York Times bestseller list. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/alices-adventures-in-wonderland--through-the-looking-glass-by-lewis-carroll-1828447.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/alices-adventures-in-wonderland--through-the-looking-glass-by-lewis-carroll-1828447.html <p> As with so many of the excellent Oxford World's Classics, this new edition has the reader oscillating between text and annotation. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-domestic-manners-of-the-americans-by-fanny-trollope-1828445.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-domestic-manners-of-the-americans-by-fanny-trollope-1828445.html <p>Domestic Manners of the Americans is a traveller's account of the newborn republic between the War of Independence and the Civil War. An enchanting blend of topographical description, social commentary and robust rebuke, the book fizzes with the energy, fun and righteous indignation of a dumpy, middle-aged Bristolian called Fanny Trollope.</p> Features Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/walter-benjamin-and-bertolt-brecht-by-erdmut-wizisla-trans-christine-shuttleworth-1828444.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/walter-benjamin-and-bertolt-brecht-by-erdmut-wizisla-trans-christine-shuttleworth-1828444.html <p>Bertolt Brecht is back at the National Theatre this season and Enron, Lucy Prebble's hit, has been lauded as Brechtian epic theatre. Enron restages high capitalist folly in a compelling performance which merges YouTube, art installation and musical theatre. If "epic" in intention, its sheer spectacle proves inconsequential as political theatre.</p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/small-memories-by-jos-saramago-trans-margaret-jull-costa-1828443.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/small-memories-by-jos-saramago-trans-margaret-jull-costa-1828443.html <p>Portugal's Nobel laureate José Saramago has written that if you read his epigraphs, you already know what's in the book. That on the flyleaf to Small Memories comes from his novel The Book of Exhortations and reads "Let us be led by the child you were". The memories are not only small and immediate, vignettes with a sense of being interjected rather than relayed, but told with the immediacy of a child's gaze, so very different from an adult's reflection. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/1415-henry-vs--year-of-glory-by-ian-mortimerbrconquest-by-juliet-barker-1828442.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/1415-henry-vs--year-of-glory-by-ian-mortimerbrconquest-by-juliet-barker-1828442.html ]]> <p> The 15th century is emerging from the shadows into a crucial hinge period between medieval and modern Britain. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-wonder-girls-by-sarah-may-1828455.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-wonder-girls-by-sarah-may-1828455.html <p> The reader suspects all is not well in Middle England when Sylvia Henderson , an over-Botoxed,Valium-popping 'gym bunny' of a Suburban housewife turns to her husband after finding out their 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, and points to the trees outside: "They're watching us," she says, spookily. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-book-of-psalms-translated-by--robert-alter-1828454.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-book-of-psalms-translated-by--robert-alter-1828454.html <p> After tackling Genesis and the Books of Moses, Alter's supple translation moves on to what he describes as "the most urgent, personally present of all the books of the Bible". </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/modernism-the-lure-of-heresy-by-peter-gay-1828453.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/modernism-the-lure-of-heresy-by-peter-gay-1828453.html <p> Starting with Baudelaire as the founder of modernism, Gay gives an absorbing account of how international artistic rebellion became mainstream and lucrative. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/many-and-many-a-year-ago-by-selccediluk-altun-1828452.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/many-and-many-a-year-ago-by-selccediluk-altun-1828452.html <p> Music-loving aesthete and Turkish air-force pilot, Kemal enters a weird twilight existence in Istanbul after his plane crashes and a secret benefactor sets him up in a grand house in the haunted streets of old Balat. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/how-markets-fail-by-john-cassidy-1828440.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/how-markets-fail-by-john-cassidy-1828440.html ]]> <p> The crisis which engulfed the global financial system over the past two years was not just a function of greed on Wall Street (or in Scotland), stupidity, poor regulation or even property bubbles which got out of control. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-dead-hand-by-paul-theroux-1828438.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-dead-hand-by-paul-theroux-1828438.html <p> A dead hand might suggest a police procedural or a gory thriller for a novel subtitled "A Crime in Calcutta", but Paul Theroux prefers a metaphorical slant. </p> Reviews Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/winterland-by-alan-glynn-1827508.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/winterland-by-alan-glynn-1827508.html ]]> <p> Although the credit crunch is causing the odd hiccup, the city of Dublin maintains its frenzy of property development. </p> Reviews Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sarah-palin-memoir-tops-us-book-sales-1827888.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/sarah-palin-memoir-tops-us-book-sales-1827888.html ]]> <p>Republican former governor Sarah Palin's memoir "Going Rogue" shot to the top of the US bestseller list in its first week after publication, industry figures showed Wednesday.</p> News Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/madame-verona-comes-down-the-hill-by-dimitri-verhulst-1826784.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/madame-verona-comes-down-the-hill-by-dimitri-verhulst-1826784.html <p>Ageing, bereavement and death are sombre themes, yet this novel's treatment of them is agreeably entertaining. It is set in rural Flanders, where the widowed Madame Verona has become old and infirm. As the story opens one cold February day, she realises she can no longer walk unaided back up the hill from the village to her home. So she takes the clear-eyed decision that this is where her life should end. Accompanied by her latest dog – strays are always seeking her out – she ventures down the hill to sit out her final hours on a municipal bench as snow falls and freezing night descends. </p> Reviews Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/china-backs-writers-in-fight-against-google-books-1827048.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/china-backs-writers-in-fight-against-google-books-1827048.html ]]> <p>China said Google has probably breached copyright laws by scanning Chinese books for its online library and supported writers to "defend their rights", state media reported Tuesday.</p> News Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/two-novels-by-nobel-prizewinner-mller-set-for-english-publication-1827278.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/two-novels-by-nobel-prizewinner-mller-set-for-english-publication-1827278.html ]]> <p>Two titles by Nobel Prize-winner Herta Müller are due to be published in English. The first is a new novel called <em>Everything I Possess I Carry With Me</em>, which tells the story of a German-Romanian teenager sent to a Ukrainian labor camp. The second, <em>The Fox Was Always the Hunter</em>, is an earlier novel first published in Germany in 1992.</p> News Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/kindle-bestsellers-i-alex-cross-three-stephenie-meyer-titles-in-top-ten-1827387.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/kindle-bestsellers-i-alex-cross-three-stephenie-meyer-titles-in-top-ten-1827387.html <p>Amazon.com released a list of weekly bestselling e-books for its Kindle device on November 24. For the week ending November 21, James Patterson's <em>I, Alex Cross</em> was in the number-one slot. David Baldacci's <em>True Blue</em> and Dan Brown's <em>The Lost Symbol</em> followed in second and third.</p> News Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/costa-book-awards-shortlists-revealed-booker-prizewinner-in-the-running-1827293.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/costa-book-awards-shortlists-revealed-booker-prizewinner-in-the-running-1827293.html ]]> <p>Costa Awards are given annually to authors based in the United Kingdom and Ireland for what the jury deems the "most enjoyable books of the year." On November 24, shortlists for the 2009 awards were announced. Novel award finalists include Booker Prize-winner Hilary Mantel, Penelope Lively, Colm Tóibín, and the lesser-known author Chistopher Nicholson.</p><p> </p><p> </p> News Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/two-dead-authors-in-line-for-costa-prize-1826749.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/two-dead-authors-in-line-for-costa-prize-1826749.html ]]> <p> Not since judges of the Whitbread Prize shrugged off accusations of sentimentality to name Ted Hughes as the posthumous winner in 1998 has there been a dead author in line for a major book award. </p> News Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:30:20 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/rebels-and-traitors-by-lindsey-davis-1826411.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/rebels-and-traitors-by-lindsey-davis-1826411.html <p>Weighing in at 742 pages, Lindsey Davis's English Civil War epic is not – in any sense – a light read. How different from her jaunty detective stories about the marvellous Marcus Didius Falco, Roman Empire private eye.</p> Reviews Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/twilight-the-worlds-richest-bloody-franchise-1826440.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/twilight-the-worlds-richest-bloody-franchise-1826440.html ]]> <p> Have you been bitten? If you’re over 20, or happen to own a Y chromosome, the answer is probably not. But if you talked to a teenage girl at the weekend, or stepped into the crowded foyer of a cinema , you’ll almost certainly have been touched by the all-conquering vampire phenomenon that is Twilight. </p> Features Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/is-this-the-final-chapter-for-traditional-bookshops-1826541.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/is-this-the-final-chapter-for-traditional-bookshops-1826541.html <p>Just four months ago, Philip Downer, the chief executive of Borders UK, was hailing the bookseller's management buyout. "We are delighted that we have been able to secure the future for Borders," he said in July, after the deal was struck with the backing of the retail restructuring specialist Hilco. But that future is now looking bleak for the 45-store chain, which could be placed into administration as early as today.</p> Business Analysis & Features Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-future-of-the-book-among-2009-fil-forums-1826861.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-future-of-the-book-among-2009-fil-forums-1826861.html ]]> <p>The Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) is one of the largest events of its kind worldwide. Among its annual highlights are its public forums, which gather thinkers from the Spanish-speaking world and beyond. The 23rd edition of FIL, beginning November 28, will include a timely debate on "The Future of the Book," examining technological trends in reading and publishing.</p> News Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-matter-of-time-by-alex-capus-1825736.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-matter-of-time-by-alex-capus-1825736.html ]]> <p>The French-Swiss novelist Alex Capus bases his 10th book on a highly eccentric character and a farcical incident early in the First World War. Kaiser Wilhelm's outnumbered soldiers rattled sabres at Belgian troops and a small Royal Navy expeditionary force over the massive expanse of Lake Tanganyika in central Africa.</p> Reviews Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/rare-darwin-book-found-on-toilet-bookcase-1825928.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/rare-darwin-book-found-on-toilet-bookcase-1825928.html ]]> <p>A first edition of Charles Darwin's groundbreaking Origin Of Species, which languished for years in a toilet, will go under the hammer this week, on the 150th anniversary of the book's publication. </p> News Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/noted-translator-of-chinese-classics-dies-at-94-1826415.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/noted-translator-of-chinese-classics-dies-at-94-1826415.html ]]> <p>Poet Yang Xianyi, who translated numerous Chinese classics into English, died in Beijing Monday at the age of 94, state press reported.</p> News Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/three-cups-of-tea-sequel-out-december-1-1826430.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/three-cups-of-tea-sequel-out-december-1-1826430.html ]]> <p>Published in 2006, Greg Mortenson's <em>Three Cups of Tea</em> has sold more than three million copies in 39 countries. Mortenson's new book, <em>Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan</em>, out December 1, follows the author's continued efforts to build schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.</p> News Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/romance-passion/dear-john-the-flock-is-doing-fine-the-dying-art-of-the-billetdoux-1824081.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/romance-passion/dear-john-the-flock-is-doing-fine-the-dying-art-of-the-billetdoux-1824081.html <p> When it comes to love, the great and witty manual remains Ovid's The Art of Love. There's one couplet that would make any modern Casanova or Casonovette laugh knowingly. "Et quotiens scribes, totas prius ipse tabellas," warned Ovid in Book 2. "Inspice: plus multae, quam sibi missa, legunt." To translate, "Whatever you write, make sure all previous letters have been erased from your tablets. Many girls read more than was ever sent to them." Or, more colloquially: be careful to delete those emails and text messages.</p> Romance & Passion Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/contact-by-jan-morris-1824082.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/contact-by-jan-morris-1824082.html <p>What a neat idea: gather together all those apparently inconsequential conversations and meetings from your travels and offer them as a book. And with 50 years scouring the globe for stories, the travel writer Jan Morris is surely just the person to satisfy with both volume and variety of experience. </p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/bloods-a-rover-by-james-ellroy-1824083.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/bloods-a-rover-by-james-ellroy-1824083.html <p>There comes a point in this third and final instalment of the Underworld USA trilogy, James Ellroy's epic trawl through America's dark heart, when you want the ride to stop so you can get off. But you can't. It's so compelling that you have to see it through to the end. After which you can breathe fresh air again and look into the light while your stomach settles. Finishing it is like waking from a nightmare. The adult kind: fascinating despite its gruesomeness.</p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-girl-next-door-by-elizabeth-noble-1824084.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-girl-next-door-by-elizabeth-noble-1824084.html <p>"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail..." This advice from Ralph Waldo Emerson is used by Elizabeth Noble as the epigraph of her novel and she explores it in all sorts of unexpected ways. </p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/he-knew-he-was-right-by-john-amp-mary-gribbin-1824088.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/he-knew-he-was-right-by-john-amp-mary-gribbin-1824088.html <p>Born in 1919, James Lovelock was raised by a feminist mother and artistic father, and has gone on to become a ground-breaking scientist, radical, free thinker and inventor. So, what has he been right about? Mainly that the most critical global problem facing us is environmental. </p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/forgotten-authors-no-43-richard-hughes-1824094.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/forgotten-authors-no-43-richard-hughes-1824094.html <p>Richard Hughes first came to public attention in 1917, at the age of 17, when his schoolmaster sent one of his essays to The Spectator. He wrote the world's first radio play, called Danger, broadcast in 1924. He became a journalist, travelled extensively, married the painter Frances Bazley, and spent a decade as a scriptwriter at Ealing Studios – but he only managed to write four adult novels, two of which have ostensibly similar plots.</p> Features Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/eclipse-by-nicholas-clee-1825480.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/eclipse-by-nicholas-clee-1825480.html <p>This week sees the announcement of the 2009 William Hill Sports Book of the Year and, appropriately for an award sponsored by bookies, the shortlist of six contains a rattling good saga of horseracing folk. </p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-paper-bridge-a-return-to-budapest-by-monica-porter-1824087.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-paper-bridge-a-return-to-budapest-by-monica-porter-1824087.html <p>Paper is the great tool any writer must use to build bridges, and the bridges Monica Porter must build are many and complex. Chief among them is one between her chosen life in London and her cultural heritage from that historically beleaguered nation at the meeting point of east and west, Hungary. </p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/napoleons-haemorrhoids-by-phil-mason-1824086.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/napoleons-haemorrhoids-by-phil-mason-1824086.html <p>The history of Europe might have turned out very differently had Napoleon not had an attack of haemorrhoids that intervened with his usual battlefield surveillance. How such seemingly tiny events can have large consequences is the subject matter of Phil Mason's entertaining book. Tiny paragraphs are organised under categories including history, politics, war, science, art, sport, crime and business.</p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-lost-logo-by-stephen-brown-1824085.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-lost-logo-by-stephen-brown-1824085.html <p>"Stephen Brown and Dan Brown are similar in several significant respects," declares the autobiographical blurb in this hoot of a book. "They even share the same DNA (debatable narrative ability)." </p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/celebrity-actors-lend-their-voices-to-audio-bible-project-1825875.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/celebrity-actors-lend-their-voices-to-audio-bible-project-1825875.html <p>A complete audio version of the New King James Bible was released in October by Christian publishing company Thomas Nelson. A nearly four-year project<em>, The Word of Promis</em>e, all 98 hours and 79 CDs worth, uses more than 600 actors, plus full score and sound effects, to tell every story of the Old and New Testament.</p> News Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/google-books-hearing-set-for-february-18-1825172.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/google-books-hearing-set-for-february-18-1825172.html ]]> <p>A US judge set February 18 for a hearing on the revised legal settlement between Google and US authors and publishers that would allow the Internet giant to scan and sell millions of books online.</p> News Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/jungrsquos-the-red-book-out-of-the-vault-and-inspiring-dialogue-1825410.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/jungrsquos-the-red-book-out-of-the-vault-and-inspiring-dialogue-1825410.html ]]> <p>Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung's original illuminated manuscript, <em>The Red Book</em>, only seen previously by a handful of people, is now on display for the first time at the Rubin Museum of Art, in New York City, through January 25, 2010. Some well-known artists will discuss the work.</p> News Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-books-cashing-in-on-the-crash-1823810.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-books-cashing-in-on-the-crash-1823810.html ]]> <p> One of the few welcome consequences of the global recession has been a modest upsurge in economic literacy, or at least interest. That's not to be exaggerated; most people still don't know their asset-backed securities from the elbows, but at least we're making some attempt to redress that deficit of understanding. </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:27 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/comic-relief-zadie-smiths-passion-for-british-comedy-1823815.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/comic-relief-zadie-smiths-passion-for-british-comedy-1823815.html ]]> <p> As this decade sinks towards an end, its frothy beginnings now feel like a dream. </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/boyd-tonkin-how-to-ruin-a-great-writers-good-name-1823816.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/boyd-tonkin-how-to-ruin-a-great-writers-good-name-1823816.html ]]> <p>What, apart from being dead and, in their different ways, remarkable, do the following authors have in common: Kingsley Amis, Saul Bellow, Roberto Bolaño, Jorge Luis Borges, William Burroughs, Italo Calvino, John Cheever, Ralph Ellison, Janet Frame, Allen Ginsberg, Czeslaw Milosz, Yukio Mishima, Edward Said, Susan Sontag, Hunter S Thompson, John Updike, Evelyn Waugh... and Vladimir Nabokov? </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/one-minute-withmary-beard-1823818.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/one-minute-withmary-beard-1823818.html ]]> <p> <b>Where are you now and what can you see? </b> </p> <p> I'm in a little rented cottage in Aberdeen. It's midday – so it'll soon be dark. I can see my laptop, and I'm about to write a lecture. </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/poison-shadow-and-farewell-your-face-tomorrow-part-3-by-javier-mar237as-trans-margaret-jull-costa-1823821.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/poison-shadow-and-farewell-your-face-tomorrow-part-3-by-javier-mar237as-trans-margaret-jull-costa-1823821.html <p> Jack Deza, the narrator of Javier Marías's 1500-page trilogy, Your Face Tomorrow, is an acute observer who reflects on other people's behaviour, rather as a novelist hopes to do. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/jealousy-the-other-life-of-cathrine-m-by-cathrine-millet-trans-helen-stevenson-1823820.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/jealousy-the-other-life-of-cathrine-m-by-cathrine-millet-trans-helen-stevenson-1823820.html ]]> <p> In The Sexual Life of Cathérine M., the French art critic Cathérine Millet shocked readers in 40 languages with her explicit revelations of years of sexual adventure. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/bad-money-by-louise-patten-1823819.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/bad-money-by-louise-patten-1823819.html <p> The financial world, for all its scandals, crashes and intrigues, has produced remarkably few good novels. Dickens and Zola in their different ways wrote about crashes, and there was of course Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/commonwealth-by-michael-hardt-amp--antonio-negribrfirst-as-tragedy-then-as-farce-by-slavoj-zizek-1823817.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/commonwealth-by-michael-hardt-amp--antonio-negribrfirst-as-tragedy-then-as-farce-by-slavoj-zizek-1823817.html ]]> <p> One of history's most discredited ideologies is having a comeback - not as a political force but as a commodity in the marketplace. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/free-radical-by-vince-cable-1823822.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/free-radical-by-vince-cable-1823822.html ]]> <p>At times of crisis, Britain needs political heroes, epic figures to guide it through the wreckage and towards a more hopeful future. In the 1940s Churchill played the role of the great titan. After the war Attlee and Bevan became heroic figures. In the late 1970s enough of the country turned to Margaret Thatcher to ensure she won a series of landslide general elections. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-piano-teacher-by-janice-yk-lee-1823836.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-piano-teacher-by-janice-yk-lee-1823836.html <p> When Claire Pendleton accompanies her new husband to Hong Kong in 1951, her suburban prejudices - she was raised in Croydon - soon melt away. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/alexander-pushkin-by-robert-chandler-1823835.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/alexander-pushkin-by-robert-chandler-1823835.html <p> Hesperus's "Brief Lives" series of short biographies offers a sound and accessible alternative to the blockbuster literary life. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-national-gallery-an-illustrated-history-by-alan-crookham-1823834.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-national-gallery-an-illustrated-history-by-alan-crookham-1823834.html <p> Archivist Alan Crookham takes us from the gallery's birth in 1838 ( with its sum collection of 38 works) to the appointment of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, its first director, whose grand tour around Europe to amass artworks may leave the current incumbent, Nicholas Penny, green-eyed with envy. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/fred-astaire-by-joseph-epstein-1823833.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/fred-astaire-by-joseph-epstein-1823833.html <p> Hollywood legend holds that when a film executive watched Fred Astaire's first screen-test, his assessment was grim: "Balding. Can't sing. Dances a little." </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/kings-of-the-water-by-mark-behr-1823832.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/kings-of-the-water-by-mark-behr-1823832.html <p> Mark Behr is best known for his debut The Smell of Apples, a novel that exposed South Africa's Afrikaner culture at its most unappealing. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/writing-in-the-dark-by-david-grossman-trans-jessica-cohen-1823831.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/writing-in-the-dark-by-david-grossman-trans-jessica-cohen-1823831.html <p> In August 2006, David Grossman signed, along with fellow writers Amos Oz and AB Yehoshua, a statement calling for a ceasefire in Israel's summer campaign in southern Lebanon. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-if-this-is-a-manthe-truce-by-primo-levi-1823825.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-if-this-is-a-manthe-truce-by-primo-levi-1823825.html <p> I can't remember how old I was when I read Primo Levi's If This is a Man, and The Truce (two interlinked books in one volume), but it wasn't my youth and impressionability which gave it such power. </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/john-piper-myfanwy-piper-lives-in-art-by-frances-spalding-1823824.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/john-piper-myfanwy-piper-lives-in-art-by-frances-spalding-1823824.html <p> Frances Spalding has a superb track-record as a writer on British art. She is an archaeologist of lives: a delver and unearther par excellence. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/delhi-noir-edited-by-hirsh-sawhney-1823823.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/delhi-noir-edited-by-hirsh-sawhney-1823823.html <p> I hope that no copies of Delhi Noir ever fall into the hands of the city's police. If they do, many of the 14 authors of these nerve-shredding tales of life – and death – on the wrong side of the tracks in India's capital may face a sweaty hour or two the next time they need to renew a permit or report a crime. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-whole-day-through-by-patrick-gale-1823839.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-whole-day-through-by-patrick-gale-1823839.html <p> Middle-class melancholia has long been the subject matter of Patrick Gale's fiction. Here he examines a familiar mid-life dilemma: "Did I make the right choice?" Laura Lewis, an accountant in her forties, has returned to Winchester to care for her elderly mother. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/land-of-my-neighbours-by-barry-pilton-1823838.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/land-of-my-neighbours-by-barry-pilton-1823838.html <p> After previous novels set in the Welsh valleys, Barry Pilton's latest full-bodied farce is set in the tiny town of Abernant. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/granta-108-chicago-1823837.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/granta-108-chicago-1823837.html <p> "Dedicated to the hustle," as Ben Ratliff writes of South Side rock'n'roll innovator Bo Diddley, breezy, bruising Chicago has always had to battle for the cultural limelight against its swankier coastal rivals. </p> Reviews Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/michael-crichtons-pirate-latitudes-published-posthumously-1824590.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/michael-crichtons-pirate-latitudes-published-posthumously-1824590.html ]]> <p>On November 24, Michael Crichton's final complete novel will be published internationally by HarperCollins. <em>Pirate Latitudes</em> was discovered as a complete manuscript in the author's files after his death in 2008.</p> News Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/weekly-book-agenda-guadalajara-book-fair-popular-new-releases-1824734.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/weekly-book-agenda-guadalajara-book-fair-popular-new-releases-1824734.html ]]> <p>The week of November 23 begins with the release of the posthumous Michael Crichton title <em>Pirate Latitudes</em>, followed by the start of the FIL book fair in Guadalajara. Coming soon: follow-up releases to <em>Three Cups of Tea</em> and <em>Eat, Pray, Love</em>.</p> News Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-red-velvet-turnshoe-by-cassandra-clark-1823090.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-red-velvet-turnshoe-by-cassandra-clark-1823090.html <p>Cassandra Clark's book is a cheat – but it cheats in the way that most authoritative historical crime fiction must. After all, any attempt to recreate the speech (and thought processes) of characters living in the 14th century has to be a conjuring trick that convinces us we're in the distant past, but doesn't render the language so archaic that it's impossible to relate to the characters. </p> Reviews Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/orhan-pamuk-ray-bradbury-to-lead-fil-international-programs-1823319.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/orhan-pamuk-ray-bradbury-to-lead-fil-international-programs-1823319.html ]]> <p>The 23rd edition of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) will welcome world-renowned writers including Orhan Pamuk, Ray Bradbury, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa for its international literary programs. Beginning this year on November 28, FIL is a nine-day gathering of authors, publishers, artists, and intellectuals from throughout the Spanish-speaking world and beyond.</p> News Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/twilight-author-stephenie-meyer-is-americarsquos-jk-rowling-1823480.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/twilight-author-stephenie-meyer-is-americarsquos-jk-rowling-1823480.html ]]> <p>Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight<em> </em>series of teen vampire books, lives modestly in the town of Cave Creek, Arizona in the same house for the last decade. Based on the book sales and films' phenomenon, she may be the next JK Rowling, author of the<em> </em>Harry Potter books.</p> News Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/former-uk-poet-laureate-to-chair-2010-man-booker-jury-1823388.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/former-uk-poet-laureate-to-chair-2010-man-booker-jury-1823388.html ]]> <p>Sir Andrew Motion, former UK Poet Laureate, will serve as Chair of the judges for the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, according to an annoncement November 18.</p> News Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/colum-mccann-wins-major-us-fiction-prize-1823577.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/colum-mccann-wins-major-us-fiction-prize-1823577.html ]]> <p>Colum McCann's September 11 novel <em>Let the Great World Spin</em> picked up the 2009 National Book Award for Fiction, one of the most significant literary awards in the US next to the Pulitzer Prize. Winners were announced November 18 during a ceremony in New York City.</p> News Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-white-horse-trick-by-kate-thompson-1822284.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-white-horse-trick-by-kate-thompson-1822284.html ]]> <p>Kate Thompson's The White Horse Trick does the impossible: it's a cracking travel story blending Irish mythology with climate chaos. Add to that an eccentric fairy who has a craving for tobacco with some splendid family showdowns and you get a teenage novel which would not feel out of place in any book group. </p> Reviews Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/why-teens-are-staying-up-until-twilight-1822118.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/why-teens-are-staying-up-until-twilight-1822118.html ]]> <p> He turned to look at me with a wistful expression. His golden eyes held mine and I lost my train of thought. I stared at him until he looked away. </p> News Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:54:09 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/to-sea-and-back-by-richard-shelton-1821721.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/to-sea-and-back-by-richard-shelton-1821721.html ]]> <p>The opening is magical. Skirting the threat of killer whales and dolphins, a cock salmon, fattened by three years of rich feeding in the Arctic seas, begins the "sequence of navigational steps that would return him to the Highland burn where his life had begun". After encountering the scent of his watery birthplace, the fish has to wait months in deep pools for the winter thaw that permits his journey upstream. Snagged by an angler's hook, he experiences "the unpleasant realisation that, for the first time... he was being led captive by powers he did not understand".</p> Reviews Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/raise-the-red-lantern-author-wins-asian-book-prize-1822043.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/raise-the-red-lantern-author-wins-asian-book-prize-1822043.html ]]> <p>The Chinese author behind Oscar-nominated film "Raise the Red Lantern" has won a major Asian literary prize with his latest novel, set during the Cultural Revolution, organisers said Tuesday.</p> News Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-waters-edge-by-karin-fossum-1821233.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-waters-edge-by-karin-fossum-1821233.html ]]> <p> Shortly before they come across the dead body of a half-naked small boy, Reinhardt and Kristine Ris, a couple in their thirties, see by the forest barrier a tall shifty man. Kristine does not like the look of him, but he reminds her of somebody. Later, in the police station, she realises: "Hans Christian Andersen." When the police inspector himself – Karin Fossum's grave, indomitable Sejer, accompanied by his dedicated sidekick, Skarre – catches up with this lone individual, he too is struck by the resemblance. </p> Reviews Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:46 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/exposed-the-most-intimate-secret-of-erotic-blogger-belle-de-jour-1821249.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/exposed-the-most-intimate-secret-of-erotic-blogger-belle-de-jour-1821249.html ]]> <p>As an anonymous blogger, Belle de Jour became an internet phenomenon with her Diary of a London Call Girl, and a publisher's dream with her bestselling memoirs explicitly detailing her many encounters.</p> News Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/larceny-she-wrote-patricia-cornwell-sues-1821267.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/larceny-she-wrote-patricia-cornwell-sues-1821267.html ]]> <p>A flashy Ferrari disappears. Then the aggrieved owner begins to suspect that her bank accounts have leaked tens of millions of dollars without explanation. If this was the plot of an airport suspense novel, you'd expect violence before 20,000 feet. If it was real-life America, you'd expect a fat lawsuit.</p> News Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/nabokovrsquos-laura-manuscript-up-for-auction-1821468.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/nabokovrsquos-laura-manuscript-up-for-auction-1821468.html ]]> <p>On December 4, readers will be able to bid on Nakobov's original manuscript for <em>The Original of Laura</em>, two weeks following the book's publication in New York and London on November 17.</p> News Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/major-prizes-honor-asian-american-spanishlanguage-writers-1821709.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/major-prizes-honor-asian-american-spanishlanguage-writers-1821709.html ]]> <p>Three major book prizes awarded November 16 to 20 recognize writing from the Asian, American, and Spanish-language literary fronts.</p> News Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/european-publishers-give-google-book-deal-cautious-welcome-1821725.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/european-publishers-give-google-book-deal-cautious-welcome-1821725.html ]]> <p>European book publishers gave a cautious welcome Monday to new proposals by Internet giant Google to clear the way for millions of books to be sold on-line.</p> News Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/king-of-tall-tales-why-childrens-author-philip-ardaghs-is-literatures-biggest-joker-1818796.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/king-of-tall-tales-why-childrens-author-philip-ardaghs-is-literatures-biggest-joker-1818796.html ]]> <p> When I meet Philip Ardagh for coffee in late October, the winner of this year's Roald Dahl Funny Prize has not yet been announced. But Ardagh is sure he knows which of the six shortlisted books will win – and it's not his own.</p> Features Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/so-bright-and-delicate-by-john-keats-1818797.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/so-bright-and-delicate-by-john-keats-1818797.html <p>Following the opening earlier this month of Bright Star, Jane Campion's film about the love affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne, Penguin has clearly decided to target young, love-sick girls, which inevitably means lots of flowers on the cover of this collection of letters and poems from Keats to his neighbour. Yet I'm not sure those girls will find what they're looking for in this book: the bulk is about the misery and pain of the reality of love, not its joys. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle-by-shirley-jackson-1818798.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle-by-shirley-jackson-1818798.html <p>Shirley Jackson's brilliant kind of American Gothic is offered up for our consumption in this, her final novel, first published in 1962. She liked to mix the gothic and the domestic and much of her writing centred on houses; a reflection, perhaps, of how the domestic sphere impinged on women's lives after the Second World War. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/under-the-dome-by-stephen-king-1818801.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/under-the-dome-by-stephen-king-1818801.html <p>Stephen King's publishers claim that Under the Dome took 25 years to write. As he explains, he hasn't spent the past two and a half decades working on this novel, but sat down to write in 1976 and then, after producing 75 pages in a fortnight, abandoned the manuscript. In 2007, he started again. "It was," he writes, "a terrific idea and it never entirely left my mind."</p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/an-education-by-lynn-barber-1818802.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/an-education-by-lynn-barber-1818802.html <p>When the journalist Lynn Barber was a 16-year-old in 1960, for some inexplicable reason she got into the car of a smooth-talking older man she'd never met before. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-dead-hand-by-paul-theroux-1818800.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-dead-hand-by-paul-theroux-1818800.html <p>A psychoanalyst would have a field day with this book. In A Dead Hand, the veteran US travel writer Paul Theroux has created a literary crime novel of sorts set in Calcutta, told through the eyes of a veteran American travel writer, Jerry Delfont. Delfont is suffering writer's block (the novel's title is another phrase for the condition), and fears that he's washed up creatively, spiritually and emotionally.</p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-dawn-of-green-by-harriet-ritvo-1818799.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-dawn-of-green-by-harriet-ritvo-1818799.html <p>Manchester is a thirsty city. To see just how thirsty, take a walk in the Lake District on a hot day, when water levels in the lakes are low. At Thirlmere and Haweswater, dry-stone walls marking the field edges lead straight down into the dark water. For these are no ordinary lakes: they are man-made, and their waters cover fields, roads, farms and even churches, flooded to make way for the grand reservoirs that fill Manchester's taps. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/forgotten-author-no-42-william-fryer-harvey-1818803.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/forgotten-author-no-42-william-fryer-harvey-1818803.html <p>Looking back at these columns, it seems that the fastest way to become a forgotten author is to be compared to some of the century's greatest writers. In 1955, The Times Literary Supplement praised William Fryer Harvey as the equal of MR James and Walter De La Mare, at which point he started a decline into such obscurity that even the internet is of little help in locating his fiction.</p> Features Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/legend-of-a-suicide-by-david-vann-1818808.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/legend-of-a-suicide-by-david-vann-1818808.html <p>Suicide is always horribly violent. It's the death that wreaks maximum havoc on those left behind. Whether writing about it can be therapeutic is doubtful, but David Vann has drawn upon it to produce this striking – and sometimes shocking – work of literature. This is a collection of five interlinked short stories plus a novella, which constitute an extended fictionalised treatment of Vann's father's disturbing and untimely exit from life.</p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000