Manhattan memories: janet malcom's book is reminiscent of woody allen's movies rex features the best essay you read in 2013 might be one which first appeared two decades ago. That doesn't mean this has been a weak year but it does suggest that janet malcolm's 1994 profile of the painter david salle, which provides the title for forty one false starts: essays on artists and writers granta, £20 , is a timeless masterpiece. Reading malcolm is like subletting a manhattan apartment from the protagonist of a woody allen movie modernists mix with magazine editors, jd salinger meets diane arbus, and a world of bohemian sophistication is illuminated by an exacting intelligence which never lets you get too comfortable. She calls edith wharton the woman who hated women but the novelist would have admired malcolm's perceptiveness. Featuring reviews of authors from thomas hardy to cormac mccarthy, the fun stuff jonathan cape, £18.99 displays the steely verve that makes james wood's criticism thrilling for literature specialists and general readers alike.

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Wood believes wg sebald's novel austerlitz is about saving the dead and the late german's essays on the awful tenacity , which sustained five writers and one painter whose work he cherished are well served by jo catling's translations in a place in the country hamish hamilton, £20. Sebald emigrated to england but berlin is where romanian nobel laureate herta müller has lived and worked since 1987. Geoffrey mulligan portobello, £18.99 , she explores language, betrayal and the dark side of the throat that flourished under the ceaușescu regime. Deborah levy recalls childhood under south african apartheid in things i don't want to know notting hill editions, £12. This beguiling meditation, which confronts the legacies of both george orwell and virginia woolf, appears in an elegant volume, as does how literature saved my life notting hill editions, £12 , david shields's gnarly fusion of memoir and avant garde polemic. Shields is a controversial heir to the tradition of freewheeling self inquiry, which was invented by michel de montaigne in the 16th century, and a stunning limited edition of the french philosopher's essays trans.

With contributions from hilary mantel, alan bennett and many more, meeting the devil: a book of memoir from the london review of books william heinemann, £25 , is another ideal christmas gift. Forgiveness is key, writes anne patchett, so excuse her cosy tips on becoming a novelist and enjoy the accounts of love and nashville life which make this is the story of a happy marriage bloomsbury, £16.99 a wise, funny collection. The subject of distance – emotional and geographical – brings out the best in patchett. Aleksandar hemon travels far in the book of my lives picador, £20. He claims he has to be coerced in to writing non fiction but his journey from growing up in sarajevo to achieving literary success in america, via civil war, football and family tragedy, is described in essays which read like they needed to be written.

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This superb collection encompasses the personal, with robert dessaix’s distant summer of love and touch typing and helen garner’s reaction to the death of jill meagher and the political, with chloe hooper and pamela williams reflecting on the last days in office of gillard and rudd, while christos tsiolkas tells us why we hate asylum seekers and julian assange warns of the internet’s threat to civilisation. In the spaces between, richard flanagan and murray bail peer into the world of art, david free savours the legacy of monty python, julian meyrick remembers margaret thatcher, and tim flannery reveals the terrors of jellyfish. praise for the best australian essays 2013: a rich collection of essays that are by turns informative, entertaining, funny, poignant and disturbing. The weekend australian we asked some of our contributors for their favorite books they read this year. Heres the first installment. three amazing books i read this year were farah jasmine griffins harlem nocturne , robert antonis as flies to whatless boys , and nikki giovannis chasing utopia: a hybrid. Harlem nocturne paints vivid and detailed portraits of three african american women artists: pearl primus, ann petry, and mary lou williams.

The book brilliantly highlights their lives, work, and activism during the second world war and beyond. All three sections were fabulous, but i especially enjoyed the section about ann petry, who wrote one of my favorite novels, the street. I have been hooked on robert antoni since his first novel, divina trace.

His new one, as flies to whatless boys, is a marvel of narrative and documents, which collide to create a book that is at times breathtaking and tragic and at other times laugh out loud hilarious. Nikki giovanni is a goddess to me, so every book of hers that comes out is an event. I found myself reading many of the pieces over and over so they could last a long time.

Essay collections are often dismissed for being gratuitous, diffuse, and beset by authorial tics. But a well assembled essay book can be as charismatic as a new rock album, especially if it introduces you to a youngish author whose work youd previously missed. This was the case, for me, with michelle oranges first collection: an assembly of ten stylish, rangy, slightly weird essays that cover topics from the city of beirut to digital photography. Oranges style is at once narrowly personal and intellectually ambitious, and offered more surprises than id expected.

The former poet laureate robert hass is rarely recognized for his prose, but this book from 2012another essay collection i very much admiredsits astride his poetry, taking up many of its major themes the natural world, the creative process, late modern spirituality, czeslaw milosz and exploring them through a fantastically agile and engaging critical imagination. Not all poets are gifted essayists, but has ear and style translate effortlessly. Waldmans d 233 but novel, about a youngish magazine critic in brooklyn who, despite his best intentions, manages to behave fairly odiously toward the women in his life, has stirred up a good deal of conversation especially among youngish magazine critics in brooklyn. But its such an elegant and humane book that it transcends much of the would be debate. This is a modern novel of manners, conveying its sharp social thinking through the quandaries of a small, parochial social setting.

And although the characters concerns are narrow and explicitly gendered, waldmans broad subjectthe tricky boundary between self sufficiency and self interestprobably concerns men and women alike. Not that im the kind of person to keep track of this or anything, but its been a great year for fiction written by women. I was impressed by kate atkinsons time bending life after life , which was clever without being precious, and i was exhilarated by rachel kushners vivid evocation of nineteen seventies new york in the flamethrowers , which was full of sentences that made me want to set the book down and applaud. Elizabeth gilberts the signature of all things , which joyfully fulfilled its nineteenth century ambitions in scale and subject, was a delight and i admired adelle waldmans cool, observant precision in the love affairs of nathaniel p. the novel ive been pressing upon friends is susan chois my education. I didnt know i needed to read another story in which an inexperienced young student type seeks self knowledge in the arms of an older, seemingly wiser professorial type, but in my education the theme felt entirely original and masterfully handled. Choi is as good at depicting the pressing obsessions of youth as she is at drawing the resignation of middle age.

Russell bankss a permanent member of the family contains wonderfully narrated short stories of loss, sorrow, accommodation, and compromise. A perennial favorite, required reading for writers and poets of all ages, the pushcart prize: best of the small presses is heroically edited by bill henderson with a backup team of advisory editors. How bill brings out this massive anthologythe 2014 edition is six hundred and fifty pagesis an ongoing mystery for which all who love small press writing are grateful.