Carol Birch’s latest novel has all the hallmarks of a grand sea-faring adventure, but it is the sheer physicality of the text that leaves the reader breathless.

Emile Chabal finds out whether Téa Obreht’s imaginative cross of folktale, animal magic and political parable in The Tiger’s Wife really works.

Bengali author Tahmima Anam’s literary attempt to deconstruct what it means to be a “good Muslim” holds up a mirror to the subcontinent.

As 2010 comes to a close, we look back at Granta 112. The issue showcases a wide variety of Pakistani literary and artistic talent, and says a lot about the hurt pervasive in Pakistan today.

The provocative title of Leïla Marouane’s latest novel is a worthy advertisement for a book that makes an original contribution to literature about the Muslim experience in Europe.

Black Water Rising is not just a finely crafted detective thriller; it is a sketch of black politics since the sixties.

A sweeping panorama of the violent 20th century, from Angola to Cuba, Franco-Russian author Andreï Makine’s novel Human Love offers a silver lining: that love can grow and flourish in times of despair.

Is revolution the result of navel-gazing, nostalgia or radicalism? Emile Chabal examines whether Hari Kunzru’s latest novel has something prescient to say about the politics of radicalism in the West.

A talented young Bengali author, Tahmima Anam, re-examines one of the darkest chapters of Pakistan’s history.

“Writing this novel was a way of trying to belong,” says writer Tahmima Anam.