Latest from Books

Book review: We Need New Names

NoViolet Bulawayo was born in Zimbabwe, a year after the country gained independence from British rule.

Book review: The Signature Of All Things

From the author of <i>Eat, Pray, Love</i> comes a remarkable new novel - a total deviation from Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 bestseller, although just as likely to become a chart-topper.

Jamie Oliver: No stranger to controversy

No sooner does Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook hit the shops, than the Naked Chef goes and says something which whips up a frenzy.

Home-grown books a hit with Kiwi kids

Wizards and witches, vampires and the tale of a one-eyed donkey are what Kiwi children love to read about.

Other side to Austen story

Book review: Snake Bite

Since the novel <i>Puberty Blues</i> first scandalised the complacent Australian middle classes in 1979, there have been a couple of updates.

Interview with Eleanor Catton

The smartest young writer anyone is ever likely to have coffee with is cosily wrapped in a knitted jumper against the spring freshness.

Book review: The Young Desire It

As a coming-of-age story, this first novel by a young Australian writer would alarm those who leaped to condemn Ted Dawe's <i>Into The River</i>, which recently won this country's Young Adult Fiction award.

Lucky break

Talent and hard work are important but chance plays a big part, economist Tim Harford tells David Larsen.

When good children turn bad

Novelist Liz Jensen’s latest genre-bending novel, The Uninvited, is a modern ghost story that touches on bigger issues affecting the planet, she tells Arifa Akbar.

Book review: Let the games begin

Consumer Alert: this novel has nothing to do with the Olympics - except for one thing I'll mention later.

Kiwi's novel flying out the door

Copies of <i>The Luminaries</i>, the New Zealand novel short-listed this week for the Man Booker Prize, are flying off the shelves.

Personal, revealing memoir exposes Hawking's marriage traumas

The painful end of Stephen Hawking's first marriage, and the bitter acrimony of his second, have been described in detail by the Cambridge cosmologist for the first time in his autobiography.

Too much information

Parental oversharing has become commonplace thanks to social media. Emma Rowley meets the controversial blogger telling proud mums and dads to put a lid on it.

Book review: Gardens Of Stone

Book review: Constance

Based in New York, British writer Patrick McGrath has published seven novels and two short-story collections.

Book review: Max Gate

In fictionalising Thomas Hardy’s life, Damien Wilkins discovers some outrageous truths, writes Rebecca Barry Hill.

Book review: The Virgin And The Whale

He's a contender, Carl Nixon. He's an acclaimed playwright, has won significant awards for his short stories and he's come close with his novels, too