The genre is often presumed to be one ‘for boys’. Novelists including Virginia Woolf and Georgette Heyer prove that women are just as capable of bold escapes and derring-do as men
April 2019
In brief: Washington Black; The Men on Magic Carpets; This Paradise – reviews
A flying machine takes a slave around the world in Esi Edugyan’s Booker-shortlisted tale and Ed Hawkins goes in search of superhuman hippies
March 2019
Colin Grant: ‘We’re still living with slavery’
From prize-winners Esi Edugyan and Marlon James to debut novelists such as Sara Collins, a new generation of novelists is exploring a painful past
December 2018
A new start
A new start: Esi Edugyan on meeting her grandmother on her only trip to Ghana
The Canadian author visited her parents’ homeland thinking she would find her home. She left feeling less Ghanaian than ever
October 2018
How I write: Man Booker shortlist authors reveal their inspirations
A former slave’s travels, a violent Swat-team arrest, a war between humans and trees... Esi Edugyan, Rachel Kushner, Daisy Johnson, Robin Robertson, Richard Powers and Anna Burns on the real stories behind their novels
August 2018
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan review – beautiful and beguiling
Mixing horror with high adventure, this powerful novel looks at the burden of freedom in a time of slavery
Book of the day
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan review – out of slavery in a hot-air balloon
A slave becomes a brilliant scientific illustrator in a novel whose plot twists generate a rich, if uneven, mythic world
Attica Locke and Esi Edugyan, in conversation: ‘There is so much of our existence that has not been heard’
American author Locke and Canadian novelist Edugyan discuss writing about marginal lives, slavery and Locke’s upcoming Netflix show with Ava DuVernay
December 2017
She’s Gotta Have It: how Spike Lee’s film revolutionised black sexuality onscreen
With its frank exploration of black sexuality, Lee’s romantic comedy was as inspiring as it was unsettling, writes Esi Edugyan. Thirty years on, the new TV series shows how times have changed – and where Lee went wrong
October 2017
Book of the day
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke review – racial tensions in small-town Texas
A black investigator’s quest for justice drives this nuanced meditation on race, roots and belonging
February 2014
The Crooked Maid by Dan Vyleta – review
There are echoes of Dostoevsky in Vyleta's eerie tale of a family's troubled homecoming to postwar Vienna, writes Esi Edugyan
February 2013
Intermission by Owen Martell – review
Polyphony sounds out a family perspective on Bill Evans's inconsolable grief, says Esi Edugyan
April 2012
Orange prize 2012: Cynthia Ozick installed as favourite to win
Patrick deWitt and Esi Edugyan compete for historical fiction prize
February 2012
Paperback Q&A
Paperback Q&A: Esi Edugyan on Half Blood Blues
The Booker-shortlisted novelist on discovering her hero's failings, and resigning herself to her novel's
October 2011
Robert McCrum on books
Julian Barnes for the Booker? It could just happen
Robert McCrum
Sue Arnold's audiobook choice
Sue Arnold's audiobook choice – reviews
September 2011
Booker prize shortlist breaks sales records
This year's avowedly populist shortlist appears to be going down very well with readers
My hero
My hero: Lucian Freud
My hero: Esi Edugyan on Lucian Freud
Man Booker prize shortlist includes first western and novel by care worker
Patrick deWitt and Stephen Kelman among contenders, with 2004 winner Alan Hollinghurst a surprise omission
