literature
These are our favourite books of 2023, works that challenged and delighted us with tales of life, love and very often rock n roll
Our literature correspondent Chris Bateman goes down the rabbit hole to report back on his ten favourite books of the year
Rachel Cusk’s Second Place rewards patience, as reading it is to fully commit to the author’s way of thinking, writes Chris Bateman
Hanif Abdurraqib interrogates history through the lens of lived experience in his essay collection celebrating Black performance
Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s genre defying book explores our attachments to place in beautiful, poetic detail according to Chris Bateman
David Keenan tells Stewart Gardiner about losing himself to writing fiction, keeping the voices at bay and letting Xstabeth loose
Stewart Gardiner discusses New World Island, Alex Niven’s convincing cultural manual, alongside Faber’s updated edition of Lou Reed’s Collected Lyrics
Stewart Gardiner emerges from the Concrete Islands library to discuss books by Rachel Cusk and Gordon Burn, alongside Urbanomic’s Unsound: Undead
Yoko Ogawa’s latest novel translated into English explores control of collective and individual memory under a totalitarian regime, reports Chris Bateman
Kristen Roupenian’s debut collection assesses the psyche of modern America and conjures modern day folk stories, writes Chris Bateman
David Evans’ 33⅓ book on the Manics’ masterpiece is a reminder of the album’s strength as a recurring galvanising force, argues Claire Biddles
Writer and musician Mark Brend has compiled an End Times mixtape to pull listeners into the unsettling world of his debut novel Undercliff
The Shining Levels have dug deep into the hills to create an earthy and visionary musical accompaniment to Benjamin Myers’ novel The Gallows Pole
Kristen Alvanson’s intoxicating work of theory-fiction for the K-Pulp series delivers a fiction virus into reality via an experimental teleportation system