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News
AI poetry rated better than poems written by humans, study shows

The big idea
Why we should take teenage love more seriously
Adolescent passions shape our future selves, and can be every bit as powerful – and perilous – as adult relationships

Religion
On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy review – in the presence of a higher power
Rob Doyle
Philosopher Simon Critchley’s painstaking attemptto explore transcendent experience provides a fascinating overview of Christianity’s great outliers

History books
The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad by Simon Parkin review – the lost heroes of Soviet horticulture
Mark Honigsbaum

Carol Rumens's poem of the week
Renacuajos by Michael Schmidt

Observer book of the week
Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik review –the seductress and the sphinx
Rachel Cooke

Thrillers
The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter review – an innovative spy tale
Alexander Larman

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What to read

Autumn books
From a new Murakami to a memoir by Cher: the best books of the autumn

Paperbacks
This month’s best paperbacks: Leonard Cohen, Sigrid Nunez and more

Where to start with
Where to start with: Alan Garner
What we're reading
What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in October

Society books
V13 by Emmanuel Carrère review – harrowing account of the Paris attacks trial
Chris Power

Biography books
Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik review – friendship and rivalry in LA
Rebecca Nicholson
The journalist and author of Hollywood’s Eve makes no pretence of impartiality as she charts the difficult relationship between two chroniclers of California

Religion books
We Who Wrestle With God by Jordan Peterson review – a return to God… by way of the Brothers Grimm and The Lion King
Andrew Anthony
The Canadian psychologist’s zealous exegesis of the Bible as a moral rulebook for life is long-winded and out of touch

Film books
Box Office Poison by Tim Robey review – Hollywood’s fascinating flops
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Biography books
Her Lotus Year by Paul French review – Wallis Simpson’s Shanghai story
Rachel Cooke

History books
The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad by Simon Parkin review – the botanists who defied Hitler
Charlie English

Essays
The Position of Spoons, and Other Intimacies by Deborah Levy review – portrait of the artists
Freya Berry

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Fiction in translation
Suggested in the Stars by Yōko Tawada review – a linguistic odyssey
Ellen Peirson-Hagger

Fiction
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty review – secrets and lies in Maine
Michael Donkor
The virtues of truth-telling are explored in this tale of one man’s need to confront and reveal his past

Fiction
The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe review – a blue murder mystery
Alex Clark
Set during Liz Truss’s premiership, Coe’s multilayered study of how things quickly fell apart is a whodunnit with a villain hiding in plain sight

Fiction
Killing Time by Alan Bennett review – a cut above
Clare Clark

Fiction
The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe review – ingenious cosy crime spoof
Justine Jordan

Fiction
Morning and Evening by Jon Fosse review – the Nobel laureate’s mystical account of where we begin and end
Yagnishsing Dawoor

Science fiction roundup
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup
Lisa Tuttle

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Children's books
Young adult books roundup – reviews
Fiona Noble

Children's book roundup
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
Imogen Russell Williams
Spellbinding witches; memories of home; treasure hunters; fake facts; fearsome creatures; a great guide to graphic art and more

Children's book reviews round-up
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new chapter books
Kitty Empire
From young werewolves’ adventures with vampirestohard-up funeral crashers and the late Jeremy Strong’s wonderful final tale

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Interview
‘Why do I have an interest in such horrible things?’: Emmanuel Carrère on the Paris terror attacks trial
Mark O’Connell

Interview
Granta publisher Sigrid Rausing: ‘Working while grieving was consoling’
Lisa Allardice
The editor and author on completing the memoir by her late friend, Swedish writer Johanna Ekström, where she stands on the assisted dying bill and what she’s reading

Interview
Deborah Levy: ‘A writer’s career is choppy – I was 50 when I found success’
Her ‘living autobiographies’ and novels have earned her legions of fans, but that success was hard won. Deborah Levy talks about stamina, boldness, and finding delight in the details

Interview
Anne Michaels: ‘Language can’t represent brutality’

Interview
Alan Bennett at 90: ‘What will people think? I don’t care any more’

Interview
Eliza Clark: ‘I don’t think we respect female writers’
Hephzibah Anderson

Interview
Novelist Jonathan Coe: ‘Liz Truss was very unimpressed to meet me’
Emma Brockes

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Regulars

The books of my life
Garth Greenwell: ‘I didn’t read Middlemarch until my late 30s. Why didn’t someone intervene? ’

Big idea
The big idea: why we should take teenage love more seriously
Adolescent passions shape our future selves, and can be every bit as powerful – and perilous – as adult relationships

Audiobook of the week
A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry audiobook review – love, chaos and creativity
The singer-songwriter’s atmospheric memoir reveals many musical adventures and doesn’t shy away from exploring her challenging times

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You may have missed

Comfort reads
‘It will renew your faith in humanity’: books to bring comfort in dark times
Francesca Segal

Feature
‘Sex writing feels less cringe now’: are we entering a new era of erotic literature?

Essay
‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Trump

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Books | The Guardian (original) (raw)

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