A drink-fuelled school cruise out of Athens leads to unwanted liaisons and recriminations. From Marni Appleton’s debut story collection I Hope You’re Happy.

Bookanista

07.03.2025

Space unicorns and magic ovens - Bookanista

A clash between science and make-believe takes on existential significance in a cracking story from Liam Hogan’s sci-fi collection A Short History of the Future.

Bookanista

07.03.2025

Moving on from making monsters - Bookanista

Surekha Davies calls for an end to monstrifying narratives about minority populations, and an acceptance of our interdependence with each other and with nature.

Bookanista

04.03.2025

The short story vs. the novel - Bookanista

Paul McVeigh weighs up the differing challenges of long- and short-form fiction, marking publication of I Hear You; a collection of stories written for Radio 4.

Bookanista

01.03.2025

The causes of a life: Mary Shelley in Bath - Bookanista

Fiona Sampson introduces a new collection by the author of Frankenstein, written during and inspired by the time she spent in the historic literary city.

Bookanista

28.02.2025

Truth, love and justice - Bookanista

Author, barrister and screenwriter Imran Mahmood talks us through his creative process and his hybrid thriller, Finding Sophie.

Bookanista

26.02.2025

The heron and the snake - Bookanista

Three young women on an alternative therapy programme sit transfixed as a blue heron makes a quick meal of an unfortunate serpent. From Gloss by Kyra Wilder.

Bookanista

25.02.2025

Climate change: truth and fiction - Bookanista

John Ironmonger sets out why he chose to spread the long unfolding tragedy of climate catastrophe across a human lifespan in his novel The Wager and the Bear.

Bookanista

19.02.2025

That first day in Central Park - Bookanista

Looking back on cherished moments across a fifty-year marriage, an extract from Jessica Soffer’s tender and radiantly romantic novel This Is a Love Story.

Bookanista

19.02.2025

How it goes - Bookanista

An extract from Alice Franklin’s Life Hacks For a Little Alien, a delightful debut novel about growing up neurodivergent, and the wonder of language.

Bookanista

30.01.2025

At the funeral - Bookanista

Extract from the second Torben Helle mystery, Helle’s Hound, in which details of a grisly death are revealed to gathered mourners.

Bookanista

17.01.2025

Friends and traitors - Bookanista

Holly Watt gives us a taste of her standalone thriller The Last Truths We Told, about a group of friends whose twenty-year reunion reveals unwelcome secrets.

Bookanista

16.01.2025

Dark, ingenious and daring: Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn - Bookanista

Wendy Erskine is blown away by Kirsty Gunn’s inventive and wide-ranging story collection Pretty Ugly, published by Rough Trade Books

Bookanista

16.01.2025

A perfect life - Bookanista

An extract from ‘Blood Knowledge’ in Kirsty Gunn’s story collection Pretty Ugly, in which a woman has deep doubts about what might be festering in the garden…

Bookanista

14.01.2025

מה זה עיסוי אירוטי - Bookanista

עיסוק בעיסוי ארוטי מוביל להרפיה מוגברת, לתחושות חושניות ולהנאה מינית. עיסוי הוא הצורה הנפוצה ביותר של גירוי אירוטי של החושים. ניתן לאתר את המילה "עיסוי"

Bookanista

11.01.2025

Hemingway in Havana - Bookanista

Norman Lewis meets his literary hero in Cuba, and is shocked and disheartened by Hemingway’s wretched physical shape and demeanour of bitterness and boredom.

Bookanista

07.01.2025

Black Country noir - Bookanista

Kerry Hadley-Pryce picks her favourite Black Country noir fiction, and has a stab at defining this complicated, localised, ever-evolving genre.

Bookanista

23.11.2024

Beauty out of grief - Bookanista

How Charlotte Beeston drew on the loss of her mother to write about grief and absence, friendship, isolation and creativity in her debut novel The White Flower.

Bookanista

16.11.2024

That first night - Bookanista

An extract from Nicola Dinan’s BELLIES, a tender, sassy and poignant novel about gender and sexual identity, now shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize.

Bookanista

15.11.2024

Beyond language - Bookanista

An extract from Indeterminate Inflorescence, a collection of aphorisms taken from the creative writing lectures of prominent South Korean poet Lee Seong-bok.

Bookanista

08.11.2024

Fight your own war - Bookanista

I am sitting in this small room, two or three months from now or two or three years from now, writing a story about a number of human beings marching in a…

Bookanista

05.11.2024

Dark delights - Bookanista

Jennifer Dupree selects a Top Ten darkly funny novels that combine comfort, relief and psychological insight along with the laughter.

Bookanista

01.11.2024

Disavowal - Bookanista

Slavoj Žižek embraces the bizarrely optimistic mechanisms of denial and double-think in the face of catastrophic destruction. From Against Progress.

Bookanista

19.10.2024

Going it alone - Bookanista

Preethi Nair introduces her new novel Unravelling, and tells us about the books that have changed her life.

Bookanista

17.10.2024

The Hill-Country Music Contest - Bookanista

It’s 1927, and New York R&D man John Coughlin heads for the South and a momentous encounter with a perky local agent. Extract from Xan Brooks’ The Catchers.

Bookanista

04.10.2024

The legend of Mawther Meg - Bookanista

The alarming tale of the culinary delivery of Norwich from a plague of beetles – and how the city’s children then began to disappear. Extract from Edith Holler.

Bookanista

12.09.2024

Trevor Wood: A race against time and memory - Bookanista

The acclaimed crime writer discusses The Silent Killer, the first in a new series of novels centred around DCI Jack Parker, who’s battling early-onset dementia.

Bookanista

07.09.2024

BFI London Film Festival 2024 unveils star-studded line-up - Bookanista

Previewing the stand-out screenings in the 68th edition of the LFF, delivering the best of world cinema across London and around the UK.

Bookanista

16.08.2024

Harriet Constable: The Instrumentalist - Bookanista

The author of The Instrumentalist tells Farhana Gani about reimagining the life of Antonio Vivaldi’s star student and her intense relationship with her mentor.

Bookanista

14.08.2024

Pulling it all together - Bookanista

Ava Glass, author of the Emma Makepeace espionage novels, proposes ten things she’s learned about the creative process whilst writing in a variety of genres.

Bookanista

13.08.2024

Thoughts from/on the frontier - Bookanista

Bruce Omar Yates draws on Wild West tropes of lawlessness, risk and encounter in his debut novel The Muslim Cowboy, as his protagonist navigates post-war Iraq.

Bookanista

13.08.2024

Filtering the keepers - Bookanista

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, author of The Centre, tells Sonia Weir how she constantly endeavours to winnow down her book collection to fit her limited shelf space.

Bookanista

09.08.2024

The Komagata Maru incident - Bookanista

How the Canadian Government turned back a boatload of 400 starving Indian refugees on the eve of WWI. Extract from Airplane Mode.

Bookanista

06.08.2024

Jessica Anthony: Orbiting the brink - Bookanista

Jessica Anthony’s latest fictional foray transports readers to 1950s suburban Delaware and a decisive moment in the story of a marriage. Q&A with Mark Reynolds.

Bookanista

02.08.2024

Without a trace - Bookanista

A young Israeli wakes to discover that his friend and neighbour – and every Palestinian – has mysteriously vanished. Extract from The Book of Disappearance.

Bookanista

01.08.2024

Keep moving – and breathe… - Bookanista

Rachel McRady shares the hints and methods that rounded out her creative writing processes as she completed her debut novel Sun Seekers.

Bookanista

31.07.2024

A precarious house of stories - Bookanista

How thousands of years of proverbs, art, myths and other cultural artefacts magnify the differences between men and women. Extract from The Shrinking Goddess.

Bookanista

26.07.2024

Bookish backdrops - Bookanista

The author of How Can I Help You picks some of her favourite novels set in libraries and bookstores, from Agatha Christie to Michiko Aoyama and Alice Slater.

Bookanista

16.07.2024

Write what you don’t know - Bookanista

How the author of Cadenza came to balance personal experiences, emotions and knowledge with flights of imagination and clear-sighted research.

Bookanista

16.07.2024

Time to say goodbye - Bookanista

Through enduring physical and emotional scars, concert pianist Jennifer Coleman invites her semi-estranged parents for a visit. From Cadenza by Justin Courter.

home›Bookanista›Books & Literature

Bookanista - Books & Literature

Under the circumstances - Bookanista

Space unicorns and magic ovens - Bookanista

Moving on from making monsters - Bookanista

The short story vs. the novel - Bookanista

The causes of a life: Mary Shelley in Bath - Bookanista

Truth, love and justice - Bookanista

The heron and the snake - Bookanista

Climate change: truth and fiction - Bookanista

That first day in Central Park - Bookanista

How it goes - Bookanista

At the funeral - Bookanista

Friends and traitors - Bookanista

Dark, ingenious and daring: Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn - Bookanista

A perfect life - Bookanista

מה זה עיסוי אירוטי - Bookanista

Hemingway in Havana - Bookanista

Black Country noir - Bookanista

Beauty out of grief - Bookanista

That first night - Bookanista

Beyond language - Bookanista

Fight your own war - Bookanista

Dark delights - Bookanista

Disavowal - Bookanista

Going it alone - Bookanista

The Hill-Country Music Contest - Bookanista

The legend of Mawther Meg - Bookanista

Trevor Wood: A race against time and memory - Bookanista

BFI London Film Festival 2024 unveils star-studded line-up - Bookanista

Harriet Constable: The Instrumentalist - Bookanista

Pulling it all together - Bookanista

Thoughts from/on the frontier - Bookanista

Filtering the keepers - Bookanista

The Komagata Maru incident - Bookanista

Jessica Anthony: Orbiting the brink - Bookanista

Without a trace - Bookanista

Keep moving – and breathe… - Bookanista

A precarious house of stories - Bookanista

Bookish backdrops - Bookanista

Write what you don’t know - Bookanista

Time to say goodbye - Bookanista

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