Cloud Atlas at 20: What makes a novel tattoo-worthy?
Every author wants to write a book like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Two decades after it first hit the shelves, the author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow celebrates its daring, dazzling appeal
March 2024
Gary Lineker, Theresa May and David Nicholls join the Hay festival 2024 lineup
This year’s festival promises to be a ‘civic platform’, with a new series of daily news analysis, a debate about the Israel-Gaza war and an appeal to the younger generation
November 2023
TV tonight
TV tonight: Lorraine Kelly’s highly emotional return to Lockerbie
The presenter revisits the residents she spoke to in 1988 after Pan Am flight 103 was bombed. Plus: Alan Davies launches David Mitchell through the air. Here’s what to watch this evening
June 2022
Future Library opens secret archive of unseen texts in Oslo
David Mitchell, Sjón, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Karl Ove Knausgård join inaugural celebration of project housing works that will remain unseen until 2114
March 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 world-spanning novels
Writers from David Mitchell to Graham Greene and Rachel Kushner tell stories that seek out interconnectedness, testing and pulling at the idea of nationhood
February 2022
The books of my life
David Mitchell: ‘If I need cheering up, Jamie Oliver’s recipes usually help’
The novelist on mind-expanding Ursula K Le Guin, reading Joyce’s Ulysses during lockdown and taking comfort in cookbooks
June 2021
The Reason I Jump review – an empathic study of nonverbal autism
Observer New Review Q&A
David Mitchell: ‘The world still thinks autistic people don’t do emotions’
May 2021
This month's best paperbacks
This month’s best paperbacks: Richard Osman, International Booker nominees and more
Here are some outstanding new paperbacks for May, including Osman’s bestselling crime caper, Adam Buxton’s memoir and a fascinating study of eels
July 2020
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell review – endless prog rock noodling
The acclaimed author of Cloud Atlas hits a bum note with this hackneyed story of a band in the late 1960s
Book of the day
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell review – a musical journey
This portrait of a 60s band on the rise conveys the spirit of the age with gleeful energy
David Mitchell: 'I think most writers have a deep-seated envy of musicians'
The bestselling author’s new novel Utopia Avenue dives into London’s 60s music scene. He talks about writing cameos for Bowie and Zappa, world-building and not repeating his greatest hits
June 2020
Top 10s
Top 10 books about Tokyo
From quiet stories of domestic life to accounts of horrific crime, these books introduce the reader to a vast, almost unknowable city
April 2020
Lockdown culture
Novelists pick books to inspire, uplift, and offer escape
From Hilary Mantel to Kazuo Ishiguro and Marlon James to Sebastian Barry, writers share their favourite literary comforts
March 2020
Book of the week
Our House Is on Fire by Greta Thunberg et al review – a family and planet in crisis
A courageous family account of Greta Thunberg’s Asperger’s diagnosis becomes a must-read ecological message of hope
September 2019
David Mitchell announces Utopia Avenue, his first novel in five years
Due out next summer, the novel will explore the power of music, following the career of the eponymous psychedelic band
‘What’ll happen if I try this?’: David Mitchell on writing Cloud Atlas
Bold and ambitious, this wildly inventive novel blurred genre boundaries in six interlinked stories. The author reveals his inspirations
Best culture of the 21st century
The 100 best books of the 21st century
Dazzling debut novels, searing polemics, the history of humanity and trailblazing memoirs ... Read our pick of the best books since 2000
September 2018
Kate Bush to publish book of lyrics, introduced by David Mitchell
How to Be Invisible, a collection of lyrics from across the singer’s 40-year career, will be published in December by Faber
August 2018
Top 10s
Sjón's top 10 artificial humans in fiction
Golems, clones, cyborgs and dolls ... these are some of the most urgent cautionary tales ever told
