The Master and Margarita: fiends reunited
The Master and Margarita, a novel about the devil and his cat wreaking havoc in Moscow, is said to be impossible to adapt. Can Simon McBurney succeed where Fellini and Polanski failed?Simon McBurney has taken on some tough projects in his time. As the ...
The Revelations by Alex Preston – review
Four young converts to Christianity tread a fine line between faith and hypocrisy in this intelligent novelFour ex-Oxbridge friends in their late 20s are about to become leaders in a church initiative called the Course, a fictional version of the real-...
Ed King by David Guterson – review
Viv Groskop enjoys a smart, knowing reworking of the Oedipus mythThis is such a clever idea for a novel that it's a wonder no one has thought of it before. Or if they had, perhaps they would have decided against it, because it's so hard to pull off. Da...
Carrie Fisher: Hollywood confidential | Observer profile
ECT, Michael Jackson, James Blunt, her abiding love-hate for Princess Leia…the new memoir from the actress, novelist and supreme storyteller could be her most engrossing work yetCarrie Fisher is one of cinema's most unusual characters – and perhaps...
The Golden Hour by William Nicholson – review
William Nicholson's screenwriting pedigree shines through in a tale of Britain's modern middle classWilliam Nicholson is trying to do something unique: he's trying to reinvent commercial fiction. It's not an easy task. With his two previous novels, The...
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles – review
Amor Towles's tale of cocktails, silk stockings and retro chic is redolent of all the best New York films and novelsIf you want shopping at Bendel's, gin martinis at a debutante's mansion and jazz bands playing until 3am, Rules of Civility has it ...
Why bedtime will never be the same
Goodnight Keith Moon is the latest in a very strange fad: children's bedtime books for adultsThe nightly climb up the stairs to Bedfordshire is supposed to be a time of parent-child bonding and sleepy tranquillity. The little darlings dress themselves ...
Having children helped my depression
Having experienced depression, Viv Groskop feared that motherhood would make the condition worse. But, for her, family life has had the opposite effectBefore I had children, one question occupied me a lot: what is the connection between mental health a...
We Had It So Good by Linda Grant – review
An amusing portrait of the baby-boomers is at heart a cautionary tale about the complacency of the hippie generationStephen is born in LA to a Cuban-Polish immigrant family, a clever boy with ambition and a sense of adventure. His parents are kind, goo...
What happened next? Feminism
A great year for women? Twelve months ago we predicted that it would be. Were we right?This time 12 months ago we promised it was going to be the biggest year in feminism ever. So was it? Er, sort of. We weren't wrong about it being a celebratory year....
The Life of an Unknown Man by Andreï Makine | book review
Andreï Makine's haunting tale is both melancholic romance and a history of 20th-century RussiaShutov is a Russian writer in his 50s who has spent 20 years in exile in Paris. He is about to be jilted by Lea, an aspiring novelist in her 20s, who after t...
There’s nothing wrong with judging a book by its cover | Viv Groskop