Sebastian Barry: ‘When you get past 60, you do feel a licence to write fearlessly’
This month's best paperbacks
This month’s best paperbacks: Salman Rushdie, Greta Thunberg and more
August 2023
Irish writers, debuts – and groundbreaking sci-fi: the Booker longlist in depth
Justine Jordan
Booker prize reveals ‘original and thrilling’ 2023 longlist
February 2023
Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry review – a cop you can’t trust
Book of the day
Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry review – a survivor’s song
October 2022
The books of my life
Kit de Waal: ‘Life is too short to finish books I don’t like’
The writer on finding teenage inspiration in Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Donald Sutherland’s reading of Hemingway and Sebastian Barry’s poetic prose
July 2022
The Steward of Christendom review – shattering portrait of a scarred man
Owen Roe is riveting in Sebastian Barry’s deconstruction of a family set against the tensions of Irish independence
April 2022
The books of my life
Sebastian Barry: ‘I’m still not over Oliver Twist’
The writer on growing up with Puffin books, his changing attitude to Conrad, and the punk sensibility of Elizabeth Bowen
April 2021
Further reading
From sisterly love to frenemies: the best female friendships in books
Whether it is Vera Brittain or Elena Ferrante, women’s relationships have provided succour in troubled times, writes Lucy Jago
September 2020
Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan review – a compassionate tale of homecoming
Five years after she went missing, a woman returns to rural Tipperary in a novel that explores all forms of love
June 2020
Overcoming fears, discovering nature ... what I have learned from lockdown
As lockdown eases, authors including Anne Enright, Mark Haddon and Sebastian Barry reflect on what they have learned – and what comes next
May 2020
The best books and audiobooks of 2020 so far
Hilary Mantel’s trilogy was finished at last, Blake Gopnik exposed Warhol’s private life and Richard E Grant brought new life to Iris Murdoch. Here are our highlights of the year to date
April 2020
Lockdown culture
Novelists pick books to inspire, uplift, and offer escape
Lockdown culture
Tiger King and a bloody mary: Hilary Mantel, Simon Armitage and other writers on lockdown life
March 2020
A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry review – a compelling tale of identity and revenge
The week in theatre: On Blueberry Hill; Shoe Lady; Crongton Knights – review
Book of the week
A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry review – an ambitious sequel to Days Without End
Sebastian Barry: ‘Family stories mean a whole different thing in your 60s’
September 2019
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
