Loss
Sisters under the skin: Han Kang’s The White Book reviewed
Before the narrator of The White Book is born, her mother has another child; two months premature, the baby dies…
The tragedy of a brother’s drowning
Nicholas Shakespeare is full of admiration for Richard Beard’s painful inquest into the death of his brother
How to survive grief — and be of comfort to others
If a single book could help you to be kinder and more compassionate, could expand and deepen your understanding of…
Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream is unforgettable
In Delmore Schwartz’s story ‘In Dreams Begin Responsibilities’, a young man dreams he is watching his father and mother’s engagement…
Love and loss in America’s wide open spaces
We know our way around Raymond Carver’s blue-collar cityscapes and Updike’s urban angst and despair. Rick Bass opens a window…
Jenn Ashworth’s fourth novel charts a family’s struggle with sickness and loss over generations
After a curtain-twitching cul-de-sac, a Preston shopping precinct, and the Church of the Latter-Day Saints brought to Lancashire, Jenn Ashworth…
All at sea — trying hard to stay afloat
‘This happens to other people.’ The Guardian journalist Decca Aitkenhead says she had heard the phrase countless times, interviewing the…
Julie Myerson captures the sorrow that surpasses all understanding
As its title suggests, Julie Myerson’s tenth novel is about stoppage: the kind that happens when one suffers a loss…
A fairytale return for Graham Swift
The opening of Graham Swift’s new novel clearly signals his intent. ‘Once upon a time’ tells us that this will…
The perfect big bang that opens this book was too good to be true
Houses, as any plumber will testify, do sometimes blow up in gas explosions, destroying their contents and inhabitants, but would…
You’ll never look at dried pasta in the same way again
A calculated ordinariness unites the protagonists in Graham Swift’s new collection of short stories. In each of these mini fictions,…
A deafening silence
One morning in 2007, the music critic Nick Coleman woke up to find that he was profoundly deaf in one…
Most Popular
- Read
- Recent
- Read
- Recent
Editor’s Choice
Cartoons
