The popularity of such books as Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club, and Kathryn Harrison's controversial The Kiss, has led columnists to call ours "the age of memoir." And while some critics have derided the explosion of memoir as exhibitionistic and self-aggrandizing, literary theorists are now beginning to look seriously at this profusion of autobiographical literature. Informed by literary, scientific, and experiential concerns, How Our Lives Become Stories enhance...

Catherine and Heathcliff's, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father, passionate but doomed love forms the core of this extraordinary tale. Catherine's brother Hindley's hatred and humiliation of Heathcliff leads to tragedy when Catherine marries another and Heathcliff returns newly wealthy to enact his revenge on all who wronged him.

In this love letter to reading, curated by Pandora Sykes in aid of the National Literacy Trust, bestselling and beloved writers share their favourite books: the ones they hold most dearly, that they return to time and again and that helped make them the writers they are.

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM :

NICK HORNBY * RUTH OZEKI * ANN PATCHETT * BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH * MARIAN KEYES * ELIZABETH STROUT * DEBORAH LEVY * TESSA HADLEY * ELIF SHAFAK * GEORGE THE POET * LEILA SLIMANI * ALI SMITH * DEREK OWUSU ...

A revelatory collection of letters from the nation's favourite storyteller.

‘History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.’

One day in 1988, an enigmatic priest knocks on Pieter Waterdrinker’s door with an unusual request: will he smuggle seven thousand bibles into the Soviet Union? Pieter agrees, and soon finds himself living in the midst of one of the biggest social and cultural revolutions of our time, working as a tour operator ... with a sideline in contraband.

Thirty years later, from his apartment on Tchaikovsky Street in Saint Petersburg, where he lives w...

Hundreds of thousands of euros from alleged bribes stashed in a suitcase. Deleted text messages setting out deals worth billions of euros. There's no shortage of drama in the EU's unofficial capital.

How is this possible? And how do we keep 'Brussels' under control?

These are crucial questions for the fledgling democracy that is the European Union – especially now that leaders with little interest in democratic values are coming to power in a growing number of member states. And the gap be...