Category Archives: Books

Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude brings fame to Gabriel García Márquez’s Colombian hometown

Posted on by

Locals hope TV adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude will bring new life to Aracataca, birthplace of author’s magical realism

In sweltering mid-afternoon heat, children splash in the clear water of the canal that threads through town as elderly neighbours look on from rocking chairs on the porches of their sun-washed houses. Butterflies spring from every bush, sometimes fluttering together in kaleidoscopes.

At the foot of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada mountains, about 20 miles from the Caribbean coast, Gabriel García Márquez’s fictional world of Macondo lives on.

Continue reading...

Angela Merkel memoirs to be published in November

Posted on by

Freedom: Memories 1954-2021 will cover Merkel’s childhood, political rise and 16 years as German chancellor

Angela Merkel will release her long-awaited memoirs in November under the title Freedom: Memories 1954-2021, sketching her journey from life behind the Berlin Wall to the top echelons of power “more intimately than ever before”.

Merkel, whose image in Germany and abroad has been tarnished by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, will turn 70 in July. She notes that her life can be neatly cleaved into experiences in “two German states – 35 years in the German Democratic Republic, 35 years in reunited Germany”, according to the book’s English publisher, Pan Macmillan.

Continue reading...

Shirley Conran, campaigner and ‘queen of the bonkbuster’, dies aged 91

Posted on by

Bestselling author of Lace and Superwoman turned her attention to helping people overcome anxiety about maths

Shirley Conran, the author of Lace and Superwoman, has died aged 91, her son the designer Jasper Conran has announced.

The bestselling “queen of the bonkbuster” was also the founder of the Maths Anxiety Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to help people who experience anxiety or fear when faced with maths problems. Last week Conran was awarded a damehood in her bed in Charing Cross hospital in London for her services to mathematics education.

Continue reading...

‘Exceptional’: rare books of illustrations from Darwin’s ‘bird man’ on sale for £2m

Posted on by

The set of folios published by John Gould will be presented at Firsts book fair in London in mid-May

John Gould was one of the most sought-after taxidermists in 19th-century London, commissioned by King George IV to stuff the first giraffe to arrive in England.

But Gould’s lasting legacy is birds. He travelled the world documenting and cataloguing as many avian species as he could find, many of them never seen before, earning him the nickname the Bird Man and the appointment as official “bird stuffer” to the Zoological Society.

Continue reading...

‘We are disappearing’: chef Fadi Kattan aims to keep Palestinian heritage alive through food

Posted on by

Palestinian restauranteur speaks from Bethlehem, where food stalls are sparse as farmlands are under attack

Fadi Kattan looked forlornly at the stalls inside the Bethlehem vegetable market bearing small quantities of oranges, watermelons and cauliflowers. “This stall should be heaped with products, he said. “And over there should be piles of aubergines and courgettes.”

The watermelons from Jenin looked too small for the season, while he wasn’t sure where the boxes of oranges were from. They would normally be from Gaza. At Um Nabil’s stall in the West Bank market where Kattan is a regular customer, she told him she could no longer afford to bring in the best small local cucumbers or piles of green cherries from her village of Artas.

Continue reading...

Experts dismiss Kristi Noem’s ‘dubious’ claim to have met Kim Jong-un

Posted on by

South Dakota governor says she met North Korean dictator in same book in which she describes killing her dog

The South Dakota governor, Republican vice-presidential hopeful and self-confessed dog-killer Kristi Noem’s bizarre claim in a new book to have met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been dismissed by experts as “dubious” and not “conceivable”.

The Dakota Scout first reported Noem’s claim, which is in her forthcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward.

Continue reading...

Herculaneum scroll appears to shed light on Plato’s final hours

Posted on by

Newly deciphered passages describe Greek philosopher critiquing slave musician for her lack of rhythm

Newly deciphered passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on the final hours of Plato, a key figure in the history of western philosophy.

In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl.

Continue reading...

Kristi Noem’s story of killing her dog points to class two misdemeanor

Posted on by

South Dakota governor’s account of family dog Cricket killing neighbor’s chickens may be an offence, according to state law

Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful, may have committed a class two misdemeanor offence when her fated dog Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehair pointer Noem deemed “untrainable” for hunting pheasant, killed a neighbor’s chickens.

Under South Dakota law, “any person owning, keeping, or harboring a dog that chases, worries, injures, or kills any poultry or domestic animal is guilty of a class two misdemeanor and is liable for damages to the owner thereof for any injury caused by the dog to any such poultry or animal.”

Continue reading...

Kristi Noem defends killing dog: ‘Cricket had shown aggressive behavior’

Posted on by

South Dakota governor says she ‘understands why some people are upset’ about story of shooting family puppy but points to state law

Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful, on Sunday again defended killing a family dog and goat on her farm, two days after the Guardian revealed how she describes those actions in a forthcoming book.

“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20-year-old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book – No Going Back,” Noem wrote on Twitter/X.

Continue reading...

Conservatives condemn Kristi Noem for ‘twisted’ admission of killing dog

Posted on by

Revelation in new book that possible Trump running mate killed ‘untrainable’ hunting dog prompts widespread revulsion

Conservative pundits have condemned the South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate Kristi Noem, amid widespread horror over her admission in a new book that she killed both an “untrainable” dog and an unruly goat during a single day in hunting season.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a Trump White House staffer turned critic, said: “I’m a dog lover and I am honestly horrified by the Kristi Noem excerpt. I wish I hadn’t even read it. A 14-month-old dog is still a puppy and can be trained. A large part of bad behaviour in dogs is not having proper training from humans.

Continue reading...

PEN America cancels festival after authors drop out in support of Gaza

Posted on by

Cancellation of World Voices festival comes days after organization cancelled 2024 edition of its annual awards ceremony

The free speech organization PEN America has cancelled its World Voices festival after several authors withdrew their participation over the non-profit’s response to Israel’s military attacks against Gaza.

The festival was scheduled to take place on 8 May in New York City and Los Angeles. A prominent group of writers including Naomi Klein, a Guardian columnist; Isabella Hammad; and Zaina Arafat signed an open letter to PEN America in March announcing their decision not to participate in this year’s festival.

Continue reading...

Ruby Bridges: civil rights pioneer rejects claim book makes white children uncomfortable

Posted on by

US activist, 69, speaks to NBC amid growing effort to prevent I Am Ruby Bridges and other works being available to school students

Increasingly, the US civil rights icon Ruby Bridges – the first Black child to integrate a school in Louisiana – has seen some adults seek to prevent grade-school students from accessing the books and films that chronicle her story, saying the tale makes white children feel bad about themselves.

But that justification is “ridiculous” because “my biggest fans are kids all around the world”, Bridges told NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker in an interview airing on Sunday morning’s episode of the show.

Continue reading...

Tulsi Gabbard repeats false Hillary Clinton ‘grooming’ claim in new book

Posted on by

Ex-Democrat, reported contender for Trump running mate, sued Clinton for Russia remark but dropped case

Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman, has repeated a discredited claim about Hillary Clinton that previously saw Gabbard lodge then drop a $50m defamation suit in a new book published as she seeks to be named Donald Trump’s running mate for US president.

Accusing Democrats of making up “a conspiracy theory that [Trump] was ‘colluding’ with the Russians to win the election” in 2016, Gabbard claims: “Hillary Clinton used a similar tactic against me when I ran for president in 2020, accusing me of being ‘groomed by the Russians’.”

Continue reading...

Writers withdraw from PEN America literary awards in support of Gaza

Posted on by

Authors and translators say PEN America has ‘had no criticism of American complicity in the bombardment of Gaza’, in stark contrast to other national centres of the organisation

Thirty-one authors and translators have withdrawn their work from consideration for or declined PEN America’s 2024 literary awards over the organisation’s “failure to protect” Palestinian writers in Gaza.

Nine out of 10 longlistees for the PEN/Jean Stein book award, worth $75,000 (£60,143), have withdrawn their books. Christina Sharpe, Catherine Lacey and Joseph Earl Thomas are among the withdrawing writers.

Continue reading...

‘I can’t explain it’: Salman Rushdie says his survival in knife attack was a miracle

Posted on by

Despite his lack of faith, the author believes ‘something happened that was not supposed to happen’ on the day he was attacked

Salman Rushdie has revealed an abiding sense that his survival after a brutal knife attack two years ago was a miracle, in spite of his lack of spiritual faith. “I do feel that something happened that was not supposed to happen and I have no explanation for it,” Rushdie said this weekend before the publication of Knife, his account of the incident.

“I certainly don’t feel that some hand reached down from the sky and guarded me,” but it still presents a contradiction, he admits, “for one who doesn’t believe.”

Continue reading...

Top Israeli spy chief exposes his true identity in online security lapse

Posted on by

Exclusive: Yossi Sariel unmasked as head of Unit 8200 and architect of AI strategy after book written under pen name reveals his Google account

The identity of the commander of Israel’s Unit 8200 is a closely guarded secret. He occupies one of the most sensitive roles in the military, leading one of the world’s most powerful surveillance agencies, comparable to the US National Security Agency.

Yet after spending more than two decades operating in the shadows, the Guardian can reveal how the controversial spy chief – whose name is Yossi Sariel – has left his identity exposed online.

Continue reading...

Lynne Reid Banks, author of The Indian in the Cupboard, dies aged 94

Posted on by

Writer was one of the first female news reporters on British TV, interviewing stars including Charlie Chaplin and Audrey Hepburn

The author Lynne Reid Banks has died at the age of 94.

The novelist, known for writing books including the children’s story The Indian in the Cupboard, died of cancer “peacefully with her family around her” on Thursday afternoon, her agent, James Wills, said.

Continue reading...

Alexis Wright nominated for $60,000 Stella prize for second time

Posted on by

Judges have described the Waanyi writer’s fourth novel Praiseworthy as ‘a canon-crushing Australian novel for the ages’

Stella prize winner Alexis Wright has been nominated for the $60,000 award a second time, for her 700-page “canon-crushing” novel Praiseworthy.

The Waanyi writer won the Stella prize, intended to reward the work of Australian women and non-binary authors, in 2018 for her biography Tracker.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

Surge of interest in Ethiopian culture boosts case for return of treasures, says Sissay

Posted on by

Poet who is curating country’s first Venice Biennale pavilion says ‘part of the heart’ of the country was looted and is being held in museums

An Ethiopian cultural surge – including a first national pavilion at the Venice Biennale and the rise of stars such as Ruth Negga and The Weeknd – is making the country’s calls for restitution of looted colonial-era artefacts harder to ignore, according to Lemn Sissay.

The poet and author, who is curating the country’s inaugural Biennale pavilion, where Tesfaye Urgessa’s work will be on show, said the event would be part of a significant cultural push from the east African country and its diaspora over the last two decades.

Continue reading...

‘I wanted to end my life’: ‘Bookseller of Kabul’ rebuilds destroyed business

Posted on by

Shah Muhammad Rais was devastated when Taliban destroyed his shop, but now he is sending books to Afghanistan via the internet

Shah Muhammad Rais first opened his bookshop in the Afghan capital in 1974. By 2003, when his story was made famous by the bestselling book The Bookseller of Kabul, the business had collected about 100,000 books, in different languages, about literature, history and politics. The collection included works of fiction and nonfiction, with everything from richly illustrated children’s tales to dense academic tomes.

After the Taliban stormed Kabul in 2021, Rais fled to the UK, telling the Guardian last year that he feared the group would destroy his cherished business. His fears came true.

Continue reading...