Sublimation by Isabel J Kim (Picador, £18.99)This debut novel from an award-winning Korean-American short fiction writer is a fantastical reimagining of the immigrant experience. Here, anyone who crosses a border not intending... Read more »
There are, MR James tells us, five conditions that must be met for a perfect ghost story: the pretence of truth, a “pleasing terror”, no explanation of the machinery, no gratuitous horror, and... Read more »
It’s that time again. That time when we bring you a glimpse into the books we’re most excited about for the rest of the year, starting with the first ones publishing in... Read more »
Shahrnush Parsipur, the celebrated Iranian writer whose subversive works of feminist fiction saw her repeatedly imprisoned, has died aged 80. A pioneer of women’s literature in Iran, Parsipur excoriated the country’s patriarchal... Read more »
Patrice Lawrence has been named the new Waterstones children’s laureate, and is planning to use her appointment to highlight how reading helps communities “connect and cohere” in “times of fragmentation”. Lawrence, known... Read more »
‘We left Warrington at 5.15am this morning to get here,” Emma tells me, standing in a queue that stretches down Walton Street. It is just after 9am on a Saturday in Oxford,... Read more »
Three paragraphs, from three different hotel reviews. Can you tell which, if any, were AI‑generated? “The hotel is in a great location for everything. Lots of places to eat and drink. The... Read more »
Museums are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Ignore the problems of the past and they’re criticised for being problematic. Rewrite their labels according to changing politics and they’re called... Read more »
A story widely accused on social media of being written using AI has gone on to win the overall Commonwealth short story prize. Jamir Nazir’s story The Serpent in the Grove went... Read more »