Nilanjana Roy

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Wednesday, 14 February, 2024

Books
What makes a literary city?
Some emerge naturally but others need a nudge, with bookshops, festivals and more, to welcome readers and writers
Wednesday, 31 January, 2024

Books
The British Library cyber breach was an attack on the world’s knowledge
The impact from last year’s ransomware incident has spread to scholars, readers and writers across the globe
Monday, 15 January, 2024

Books
Our enduring fascination with Kafka
As the centenary of the writer’s death approaches, is our world looking more Kafkaesque than he could ever have imagined?
Monday, 1 January, 2024

Books
The bliss — and benefits — of slow reading
Enjoying a book at a leisurely pace teaches you to sharpen your attention and improves your understanding
Tuesday, 5 December, 2023

Books
Take refuge in the gossip of the gilded age
Memoirs of the socialites and swells of an earlier era offer perfect festive reading — without today’s celebrity spin
Tuesday, 21 November, 2023

Books
The delights of year-end reading lists
Why ‘best books’ round-ups provide seasonal score-keeping fun — and a timely reminder of the benefits of venturing outside your usual genres
Saturday, 28 October, 2023

Books
Let animal spirits haunt your Halloween stories
No tale of ghosts and scares is complete without the spooky presence of a feared familiar
Tuesday, 3 October, 2023

Books
Margaret Atwood, John Grisham and me — was AI right to use our books?
Many authors are discovering that their writing has been fed into the AI blender — and I am among them
Saturday, 23 September, 2023

ObituaryGita Mehta
Gita Mehta, writer and journalist, 1943-2023
Her colourful books and intrepid reporting sidestepped stereotypes of India in favour of a more nuanced portrait
Friday, 22 September, 2023

Fiction
The novelists painting a human picture of Modi’s divided India
Fiction goes where news falls short, bringing depth and nuance to the lives of people crudely labelled by politics or religion
Wednesday, 6 September, 2023

ReviewFiction
Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li — brittle fractures of the heart
The short stories in the writer’s third collection are quiet, subtle and often agonisingly wrenching
Friday, 25 August, 2023

Fiction
The pleasures of bilingual reading
Younger people seem more open to reading in translation — or in a second language — and it’s changing their world view
Tuesday, 8 August, 2023

Books
Why memoirs of life under repression are essential reading
Two writers from China’s Uyghur minority show how easy it is to forget the repressed and silenced
Wednesday, 26 July, 2023

Books
You’re never alone with a book
Reading in public can be a surprisingly social activity
Friday, 14 July, 2023

Books
The genius of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22
The black humour of the 1961 classic that spurred one of the most memorable catchphrases of the century remains timeless
Friday, 30 June, 2023

ReviewFiction
Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang — a savage and compelling satire
A compulsive portrait of plagiarism, literary envy and the pressures on young writers in the social media age
Friday, 9 June, 2023

Books
Do political insiders have the power to thrill?
Not all former spies and politicians have the skill to write the twists and turns of an edge-of-your-seat thriller
Friday, 26 May, 2023

Books
Our time-poor lives, lived against a ticking clock
Tired of endless books on time management? An artist and a watchmaker, no less, share wisdom about this most precious resource in modern life
Friday, 12 May, 2023

Non-Fiction
The cookbooks that feed the soul
Never mind online recipes — I buy food books for their storytelling and culinary lore
Friday, 28 April, 2023

Poetry
Enheduana, the woman who wrote before the rest
A new translation brings to life the astonishing voice of the Sumerian princess who was a poet, a priestess — and the world’s first named author
Friday, 14 April, 2023

Books
The writers fighting caste inequalities
A bold generation of novelists, journalists and academics is demanding sweeping structural changes and access to resources, land and capital
Wednesday, 29 March, 2023

Non-Fiction
Farewell to Dubravka Ugrešić, a fearless prophet
A sharp observer of democracy who witnessed the break-up of Yugoslavia, she wrote truths that made you laugh — until you cried
Tuesday, 14 March, 2023

Biography and memoir
The persistence of the trauma memoir
Where should the lines be drawn in the encouragement, promotion and marketing of stories about the misery of others?
Friday, 24 February, 2023

Fiction
The case against rewriting Roald Dahl
Yes, sensibilities evolve — but outmoded or offensive beliefs can be flagged up in ways short of expunging them altogether
Friday, 3 February, 2023

Fiction
Don’t knock romance novels — they’re big business
The much-derided genre is not only a sure earner for the publishing industry — it also moves with the times