Peter Bradshaw picks his favourite books
The writer and film critic chooses his favourite reads from Zadie Smith to Oscar Wilde

The writer and film critic chooses his favourites. He will discuss his latest short story collection, "The Body in the Mobile Library" (Lightning Books, £9.99), at the Edinburgh Book Festival on 14 August (edbookfest.co.uk)
The Autograph Man
Zadie Smith, 2002
Smith's second novel is the least liked of her work, and some are unconvinced by the ventriloquised Jewishness of her autograph collector, Alex-Li Tandem. But I love the unstoppable garrulity and comedy that pours out of this book and its very prescient, pre-social-media world of celebrity obsession.
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.
De Profundis
Oscar Wilde, 1905
When you're used to the dapper lightness and poised wit that comes so naturally to Wilde, it’s an extraordinary experience to arrive at the explicit seriousness of this, his extended rebuke from Reading Gaol to his duplicitous lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. It is moving and majestic, while sacrificing nothing of elegance or delicacy in the prose.
The Mars Room
Rachel Kushner, 2018
A great prison novel: brilliant, vehement and scary. It is the story of Romy, a former table dancer in a club called The Mars Room, who is now doing time in a women's correctional facility in California for murdering her stalker, and it is made clear to her that she will likely never see her young son again.
Collected Stories
Roald Dahl, 2006
It's still amazing to me how many people don't know of Dahl's genius as the author of adult short stories, although some of these had 1970s TV fame with their adaptation as the "Tales of the Unexpected". One of the nastiest, tastiest and funniest is Royal Jelly.
Father Sergius (1911) from The Complete Short Stories, Volume 2
Leo Tolstoy, 2001
A black-tragicomic masterpiece: a tempestuous, conceited young prince, idolising the tsar and the supposed virginity of his fiancée, is astonished to learn that they have had an affair. He retreats to become a monk, renamed Father Sergius, and his increasing renown as a holy man leads to chaos.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - March 30, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - strawberry fields forever, secret files, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 hilariously sparse cartoons about further DOGE cuts
Cartoons Artists take on free audits, report cards, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Following the Tea Horse Road in China
The Week Recommends This network of roads and trails served as vital trading routes
By The Week UK Published
-
Following the Tea Horse Road in China
The Week Recommends This network of roads and trails served as vital trading routes
By The Week UK Published
-
Roast lamb shoulder with ginger and fresh turmeric recipe
The Week Recommends Succulent and tender and falls off the bone with ease
By The Week UK Published
-
Adolescence and the toxic online world: what's the solution?
Talking Point The hit Netflix show is a window into the manosphere, red pills and incels
By The Week Staff Published
-
6 welcoming recipes for cooking and baking during your spring days
The Week Recommends You want it flavorful, and you want it exciting
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published
-
Snow White: Disney's 'earnest effort to meet an impossible brief'
Talking Point Live-action remake of Disney classic is not the disaster it could have been – but where's the personality?
By The Week UK Published
-
Don McCullin picks his favourite books
The Week Recommends The photojournalist shares works by Daniel Defoe, Lesley Blanch and Roland Philipps
By The Week UK Published
-
6 breathtaking homes in capital cities
Feature Featuring a glass conservatory in Atlanta and a loft library in Boston
By The Week US Published
-
Spring's best new cookbooks, from pizza to pastries
The Week Recommends Pizza, an array of brownies and Cantonese-American mash-ups are on the menu
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published