Eight years after she published On Beauty – an astute, accomplished comedy of manners that was set in New York but paid abundant homage to EM Forster – Zadie Smith returns to the patch of land that she had exuberantly and inimitably made her own in her precocious 2000 debut, White Teeth. Read more

Simon Kuper is one of England’s most astute football writers, and one of the leading commentators on the global game. Read more

After the disappointment of his last book, The Possibility of an Island, Michel Houellebecq – called, among other things, “France’s greatest literary export” – returns to his audacious, sardonic self in his new novel, The Map and the Territory. Read more

In an essay for the Los Angeles Times, Pico Iyer sounds a rallying cry for the long, winding, clause-filled sentence that majestically unfurls itself. Read more

Last month, the Guardian published a sort of primer to writing. The paper asked distinguished writers to offer the rules of writing fiction. Here are the results. Read more

On the Guardian’s books blog,  I came across this enjoyable literary parlour game. With the marketing side of publishing being what it is, the game asks you to come up with your own titles/subtitles that might tease, tempt, and force many many readers into buying the book and turning it into a bestseller. Read more

This is my year of feeling bereft. Some months ago, John Updike, one of my great heroes, passed away. And last month, as I went from panel discussion to reading at the London Book Fair, I heard of the (expected and yet crushing) news of the death of JG Ballard. Read more

(A longer version of this piece appeared in Mint Lounge on February 28. Read it here. )

Revolutionary Road, the acclaimed Sam Mendes film with a terrific, performance from Kate Winslet, will release in India on Friday.

I’m not sure how many people will go to watch the film, but I hope a lot of people do. That’s not because I am a great fan of the movie. Read more