The TLS
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The Times Literary Supplement. Subscribe here: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/buy
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We love a good "Books of the Year" wrap up as we get to see what everyone else is reading and enjoying. Some inspired ideas here from @thetls.bsky.social contributors (and a fabulous artwork “Reading in Bed 6” by Chantal Joffe, 2025)
Books of the Year 2025: Our contributors choose their favourites
Books of the Year 2025
www.the-tls.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:10 PM
We love a good "Books of the Year" wrap up as we get to see what everyone else is reading and enjoying. Some inspired ideas here from @thetls.bsky.social contributors (and a fabulous artwork “Reading in Bed 6” by Chantal Joffe, 2025)
'The growth of a fan base brought pressures as well as rewards, especially for someone as prone as Heaney to critical self-examination.'
Roy Foster: Charting Seamus Heaney’s Wordsworthian journey
Roy Foster: Charting Seamus Heaney’s Wordsworthian journey
Blazing graft
www.the-tls.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:00 AM
'The growth of a fan base brought pressures as well as rewards, especially for someone as prone as Heaney to critical self-examination.'
Roy Foster: Charting Seamus Heaney’s Wordsworthian journey
Roy Foster: Charting Seamus Heaney’s Wordsworthian journey
Matthew Reisz on honest and representative stories about the Shoah
Hearing the truth
www.the-tls.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Matthew Reisz on honest and representative stories about the Shoah
'Ostensibly, these books show how a human being can collaborate with an AI to produce a simulacrum of what readers want and don’t want in novels.'
Gordon Fraser on writing novels by AI – and committee
Gordon Fraser on writing novels by AI – and committee
What the public wants?
www.the-tls.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:02 AM
'Ostensibly, these books show how a human being can collaborate with an AI to produce a simulacrum of what readers want and don’t want in novels.'
Gordon Fraser on writing novels by AI – and committee
Gordon Fraser on writing novels by AI – and committee
Brian Morton on the toponymical clues to avian dwellings
Night calls
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November 25, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Brian Morton on the toponymical clues to avian dwellings
Reposted by The TLS
Get ready to add books to your shelf because we've just revealed the longlist for our Freudenheim Translation Prize, in partnership with @thetls.bsky.social. Congratulations to all the brilliant translators and authors who've made the list!
Explore the full longlist: shorturl.at/vUltg
Explore the full longlist: shorturl.at/vUltg
November 23, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Get ready to add books to your shelf because we've just revealed the longlist for our Freudenheim Translation Prize, in partnership with @thetls.bsky.social. Congratulations to all the brilliant translators and authors who've made the list!
Explore the full longlist: shorturl.at/vUltg
Explore the full longlist: shorturl.at/vUltg
Reposted by The TLS
“May we all be flexible enough to heed its warnings.”
Fascist Yoga by @stewarthome.bsky.social reviewed in @thetls.bsky.social:
www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
Fascist Yoga by @stewarthome.bsky.social reviewed in @thetls.bsky.social:
www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
November 24, 2025 at 9:24 PM
“May we all be flexible enough to heed its warnings.”
Fascist Yoga by @stewarthome.bsky.social reviewed in @thetls.bsky.social:
www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
Fascist Yoga by @stewarthome.bsky.social reviewed in @thetls.bsky.social:
www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...
Books of the Year 2025: Our contributors choose their favourites
Books of the Year 2025
www.the-tls.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Books of the Year 2025: Our contributors choose their favourites
Jonathan Dore on tales of gold-seekers, Scandinavian reindeer and a house full of lemmings
Assorted Arcticiana
www.the-tls.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Jonathan Dore on tales of gold-seekers, Scandinavian reindeer and a house full of lemmings
'It is not quite a satire (though there are some wonderful satirical vignettes), and it is certainly not a celebration of its posh-set milieu.'
Toby Lichtig on Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker-winning novel adapted for the stage
Toby Lichtig on Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker-winning novel adapted for the stage
Seeing right through us
www.the-tls.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:12 AM
'It is not quite a satire (though there are some wonderful satirical vignettes), and it is certainly not a celebration of its posh-set milieu.'
Toby Lichtig on Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker-winning novel adapted for the stage
Toby Lichtig on Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker-winning novel adapted for the stage
'I came upon a small boy jumping rope / in an ecstasy of concentration, mouthing // one trillion two, one trillion three. / I knew him for my five-year-old self ...'
Ars Poetica by D. Nurkse
Ars Poetica by D. Nurkse
Ars Poetica
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November 24, 2025 at 1:36 AM
'I came upon a small boy jumping rope / in an ecstasy of concentration, mouthing // one trillion two, one trillion three. / I knew him for my five-year-old self ...'
Ars Poetica by D. Nurkse
Ars Poetica by D. Nurkse
Austin Spendlowe on the long shadow of Paradise Lost
Led into temptation
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November 23, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Austin Spendlowe on the long shadow of Paradise Lost
'This book seems determined, by a kind of fatal perversity, to nullify his gifts.'
Daniel Karlin on a history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
Daniel Karlin on a history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
A history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
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November 23, 2025 at 6:35 AM
'This book seems determined, by a kind of fatal perversity, to nullify his gifts.'
Daniel Karlin on a history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
Daniel Karlin on a history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
Helen Anne Curry: Reckoning with the fact of extinction
Once obscured the sun
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November 23, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Helen Anne Curry: Reckoning with the fact of extinction
'Winterson’s verbal exuberance is both playful and deadly serious; she has the intensity of someone who is demolishing you at chess while maintaining that it’s only a game.'
Suzi Feay: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights
Suzi Feay: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights
Twenty-first-century genie
www.the-tls.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:22 AM
'Winterson’s verbal exuberance is both playful and deadly serious; she has the intensity of someone who is demolishing you at chess while maintaining that it’s only a game.'
Suzi Feay: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights
Suzi Feay: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights
Francesca Tiana on the wanderings and meanderings of an eclectic ensemble
One night in Berlin
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November 22, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Francesca Tiana on the wanderings and meanderings of an eclectic ensemble
Sophie Oliver on an investigation of the canon
Making modernism new
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November 22, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Sophie Oliver on an investigation of the canon
'Her trilogy has the easy, charmed implausibility of a picture book or a Saturday-morning cartoon.'
Becca Rothfeld: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan
Becca Rothfeld: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan
Adventures in a foreign tongue
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November 21, 2025 at 6:10 PM
'Her trilogy has the easy, charmed implausibility of a picture book or a Saturday-morning cartoon.'
Becca Rothfeld: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan
Becca Rothfeld: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan
Anna Aslanyan: Revisiting a novel that marched towards modernity
A love-hate relationship
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November 21, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Anna Aslanyan: Revisiting a novel that marched towards modernity
Grace Moore on Anthony Trollope's compulsions to write and to earn money
Dashing off short stories
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November 21, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Grace Moore on Anthony Trollope's compulsions to write and to earn money
'The cultural software that used to run on instinct is just no longer working – it’s no longer supported.'
Ian Sansom on failing to keep up
Ian Sansom on failing to keep up
On failing to keep up
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November 20, 2025 at 2:07 PM
'The cultural software that used to run on instinct is just no longer working – it’s no longer supported.'
Ian Sansom on failing to keep up
Ian Sansom on failing to keep up
'The Book Against Death is inevitably also a book against the twentieth century.'
Read Daniel Johnson on The Book Against Death, longlisted for the Freudenheim Translation Prize @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk
Read Daniel Johnson on The Book Against Death, longlisted for the Freudenheim Translation Prize @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk
Elias Canetti’s one-man war on mortality
www.the-tls.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:48 PM
'The Book Against Death is inevitably also a book against the twentieth century.'
Read Daniel Johnson on The Book Against Death, longlisted for the Freudenheim Translation Prize @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk
Read Daniel Johnson on The Book Against Death, longlisted for the Freudenheim Translation Prize @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk
Which foods or meals trigger your memory? ‘Homemade jiaozi — dumplings — and the fun of making them as a family will always summon up my childhood.’
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
www.the-tls.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Which foods or meals trigger your memory? ‘Homemade jiaozi — dumplings — and the fun of making them as a family will always summon up my childhood.’
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
Letters to the Editor: Deliverology, MPs of Indian heritage, Lore Segal revisited, etc
Deliverology
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November 20, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Letters to the Editor: Deliverology, MPs of Indian heritage, Lore Segal revisited, etc
More British Library blues, Proliferating prizes, Cover art
Demolition jobs
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November 20, 2025 at 12:08 AM
More British Library blues, Proliferating prizes, Cover art