Fiction
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra
In a snow-covered village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as her father is abducted in the middle of the night by Russian soldiers. Their life-long friend and neighbour, Akhmed, has also been watching, and when he finds Havaa he k
TransAtlantic - Colum McCann
1919. Emily Ehrlich watches as two young airmen, Alcock and Brown, emerge from the carnage of World War One to pilot the very first non-stop transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to the west of Ireland. Among the mail being carried on the aircraft is a lJames Salter reads Break it Down by Lydia Davis
James Salter, the veteran American novelist and short story writer, reads a story by Lydia Davis, winner of the 2013 Man Booker international prize Lisa Allardice Tim Maby
And The Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini, review
A sprawling emotional tale from Khaled Hosseini draws in Helen Brown.TransAtlantic, by Colum McCann, review
Freya Johnston enjoys an Irish novelist's take on the emigre experience.
Nostalgia, By Jonathan Buckley
Get beyond the vaguer-than-vague title and this is some book: a minor-key masterpiece of restraint, invention and the fine art of keeping expectations deliberately low, then elegantly surpassing them. Nostalgia is set in the fictitious Tuscany town of Cas
The Hive by Gill Hornby - review
It's all lunches, Pilates and a bit too much Boden in this charming school-gate saga A third of the way into Gill Hornby's much-hyped school-gates comedy, things almost take a surprising turn. Rachel, the main mum, has recently been left by her husband a
Front Row: Dan Brown; Wagner at 200; Eddie Braben remembered; Mary Beard's Cultural Exchange
Arts news with Mark Lawson, including an interview with bestselling writer Dan Brown.
The Freemasons' Code: Dan Brown reveals the message that told him the door to the lodge is open
His best-selling novels illuminate the shadowy organisations that supposedly run the world. But Dan Brown was “honoured” to receive an invitation to join the Freemasons, the arcane fraternity whose tentacles are said to extend into the highest echelon