BOOKS / Recommended

One Art: Selected Letters of Elizabeth Bishop edited by Robert Giroux, Chatto pounds 25. A wonderfully moving selection of letters by one of America's finest poets. Review by Jamie McKendrick, 30 April.

The Bridge over the Drina by Ivo Andric, tr. Lovett F Edwards, Harvill pounds 8.99. A genuine modern classic: four centuries in the life of a bridge near Sarajevo. Review by Hugo Barnacle, 16 April.

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, Allen Lane, pounds 20. Are words learned or innate? An erudite and witty analysis of the miraculous human urge to talk and write. Review by Robert Winder, 15 April.

Innocents in Africa by Drury Pifer, Granta, pounds 15.99. A tragic but warm evocation of racial bitterness in a memoir of South African childhood in the Thirties. Review by Doris Lessing, 7 May.