At this time of social isolation, books offer not just consolation but a portal to the most profound human connection

Paris Letter: The French are finding relevance in books about epidemics and confinement

James was sharp in his literary criticism and largely invented modern television criticism

My love affair with France has been at times irrational, mysterious and unpredictable

Unthinkable: Literature allows us capture ‘weirdness’ of life, says Matthew McKeever

The process was Kafkaesque, but I now cannot wait to vote as Citoyenne Marlowe

Merseyside club in the ascendancy as great rivals renew acquaintances at Anfield

Rite&Reason: Parishes are shifting as communal force and should be bedrock of lay-led identity

Joshua: ‘Boxing is not just about knocking people out. It’s healthy living, discipline’

The Russian pianist begins her Music Network tour

Smith fronted The Fall since 1976, going through over 60 bandmates in the process but they were always at the cutting edge

Camus’s correspondence with actor Maria Casarès is the literary sensation of the season

Forget espresso with hot milk – there is a whole world of extreme lattes out there. So are you the Albert Camus or the Jackson Pollock of cafe culture?

Unthinkable: Gaming can teach us ‘how to prepare for death’, a new book argues

Businessman was one of France’s leading art patrons as well as chief of fashion house

Obituary: Judith Jones, editor, born March 10th, 1924; died August 2nd, 2017

Unthinkable: Each sporting code has its own moral customs but that doesn't necessarily mean all ethics is relative

Emmanuel-the-good slugs it out with sulphurous rivals in final week of campaigning

In his then 20 years of priesthood, he said he ‘never had a direct experience of God’

Photographer Dragana Jurisic picked up a camera after her father's entire archive was destroyed. And that's not the only mystery in her family history

This intense book eloquently makes the case for suicide not as an act to be pitilessly condemned, but a possibility for which any of us might be thankful, says Rob Doyle

This oddball Spanish novel about Albert Camus jumbles facts and fiction, to tediously unconvincing effect

A Hungarian correspondent blends reportage and fiction in a brutally compelling collection on conflict

Belarussian journalist and prose writer’s work a blend of literature and journalism

‘A Frenchman kills an Arab . . .’ This angry novel by an Algerian journalist is a bold riposte to Albert Camus’s existential classic

Father tells hundreds of mourners Eimear was fun-loving but also independent minded

As DS range rolls out brand’s new boss Yves Bonnefont hopes world will say ‘oui’

Are you mad about your mother? Or does your mother drive you mad? In this extract from The Daughterhood, we meet 'Anna’ whose relationship with her mother has been fraught since birth

After recent live Twitter Q&A, Blurred Lines singer's fall from commercial and critical grace looks complete

‘I’m grateful to the authors of shorter books, because my concentration is shot from the internet and all the coffee’

In the first of a series, we recommend some destination-specific titles for summer trips abroad, with help from our correspondents

In broader European and American literature, it is easier to find genuine marriages of philosophy and fiction

Shortlisted this week for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, Audrey Magee’s ‘The Undertaking’ has the second World War as its backdrop. Here’s a selection of our favourite literary quotations on war

After a huge response to our feature on great opening lines, we’ve assembled our favourite openers posted by readers

Colin Wilson: June 26th, 1931-December 5th, 2013

Opinion: Writer and philosopher wished to liberate the press from the power of money

The writer, always his own man, refused to take sides on Algeria and was an anti-Soviet leftist even though it led to a rupture with fellow intellectual Sartre

The French president’s comment on the need to honour women heroes has created a dilemma

A new novel about the former Liverpool manager as the sweep and heft of an epic