Ruth Padel’s new novel, Daughters of the Labyrinth (Corsair £18.99) – a contemporary story set partly in her beloved Crete – is out now.
1. The Last of the Wine
One of my favourite evocations of classical Greece. It is beautifully written, vivid and natural, with no hint of the research that must have gone into it. But it’s also a deeply emotional, delicately drawn love story between two men. It brings to life the horrors of ancient warfare, the original Olympic Games, and philosophers Socrates and Plato, as classical Athens falls from prosperity into war and social division, and democracy crumbles under pressure.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Virago £8.99; The Week Bookshop £6.99
2. Home Fire
Kamila Shamsie (2017)
A gripping example of Greek myth illuminating our own age. A British Muslim, whose boyfriend is the son of a Muslim home secretary, tries to help her radicalised brother escape Isis and comes up against the power of the state. A brilliant re-working of Sophocles’s tragedy, Antigone.
Bloomsbury £8.99; The Week Bookshop £6.99
3. The Complete Poems
John Keats (1973)
It is exactly 200 years since Keats died, aged 25, of TB. A stableman’s son, born at an inn in Moorgate, he wrote some of the most memorable and sensual poems of all time.
Penguin £12.99; The Week Bookshop £9.99
4. Sylvia Plath Poems Chosen by Carol Ann Duffy
Sylvia Plath (2012)
A handy, slip-in-your-pocket selection by one of the most important 20th century poets. Plath’s poems are personal, imaginative, brave and surprising: their imagery, voice and new ways of looking at relationships and life experience changed the world of poetry for everyone. I could never be without her.
Faber £9.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99
5. David Copperfield
Charles Dickens (1849)
It was Dickens’s favourite of his own novels, and is mine too. My dad read it to me, I read it to my daughter, and I re-read it every ten years. It is an autobiographical story told in the narrator’s voice. Dickens’s laughter, tenderness and anger at injustice are on show on every page.
-
August 23 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Ford Ranger Plug-in Hybrid: 'more than just a novelty'The Week Recommends Europe's first plug-in hybrid pickup is 'surprisingly agile'
-
6 lush homes in the treesFeature Featuring a glass house in Texas and a home built for a Broncos quarterback in Colorado
-
Brooklyn vs. the Beckhams: trouble in paradiseIn the Spotlight Scion of the Beckham clan and billionaire heiress wife Nicola Peltz staged an elaborate vow renewal – and none of his family were on the guest list
-
Alien: Earth – a 'bold' prequel to the space horror classicThe Week Recommends Set two years before Alien, new Disney show pays 'homage' to the original
-
Music reviews: Ethel Cain, Amaarae, and The Black KeysFeature "Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You," "Black Star," and "No Rain, No Flowers"
-
Film reviews: Highest 2 Lowest and WeaponsFeature A kidnapping threatens a mogul's legacy and a town spins into madness after 17 children disappear
-
Book reviews: 'King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution' and 'Gwyneth: The Biography'Feature How the Iranian Revolution began and Gwyneth Paltrow's life in the spotlight
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War IIFeature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
