Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Hours, was in debt to both life and literature. His new novel, By Nightfall, also displays a strong allegiance to both.

Mixing reality and fantasy with little help given to the reader makes an odd book - but it's no lemon.

It would be very easy in these economically grim times to write novels casting bankers in the harshest of lights - simple moustache-twisting pantomime villains.

Charlotte Randall is a Christchurch-based author whose latest novel, Hokitika Town (Penguin, $30), is on the best-seller list.

The best baking recipes by Maud Basham - aka Aunt Daisy- have been collated in a new cookbook.

David Mitchell, whose latest novel features a Dutch clerk from old Zeeland, is looking forward to coming to New Zealand.

This year's comic book superhero assault on the big screen starts with Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh who brings some brains to the brute brawn of the mighty Norse god. Desmond Sampson reports.

Copenhagen in the early 1990s. Bernardo Greene is a patient at a Clinic for Torture Victims. In his native Chile, he'd been tortured for two years by the Pinochet regime.

James Fergusson tells David Larsen that he is less a risk taker than someone who follows stories where they lead.

It's not always easy to travel with children (or grandchildren) because their needs and interests are rather different.

When a serious academic turns her hand to fiction, the result is magic.

Harlan Coben is a United States author of best-selling thrillers whose latest, Live Wire, ($39.99 RRP, Orion) was released last month.

Last year's MasterChef winner Brett McGregor's cookbook takes your tastebuds on a culinary journey.

Back in the 1970s Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City columns captured the off-beat spirit of San Francisco. One of Maupin's leading characters was Mary Ann Singleton, a TV presenter.

Italian mobsters will try anything to convince judges they are suffering from depression or anorexia.

Seeing Hemingway through his first wife's eyes is an intriguing view.

Self-publishing has traditionally been a surefire route to obscurity and dismal sales. Now a British thriller writer who sells his novels as ebooks for as little as 71p ($1.50) is proving the naysayers wrong.

Ross Dobson's latest book makes the most of storecupboard essentials.

Australian illustrator Shaun Tan's life in recent weeks has been as fantastical as his children's books.

Where are they now? It's so often the public catch-cry following reality TV shows.

Nicky Pellegrino explains how her latest 'love story' could well be something else.

Commander of the Continental Army which won the American colonies independence from Britain, first president of the United States: there's no doubt George Washington is one of the key figures who shaped the world we live in.

The latest offering from Simon Kernick sees the characters of his last six novels meeting for the first time. He tells Stephen Jewell how it happened.

Starman captures only some of pop icon David Bowie's intrigue.

Actress Michelle Ang, who stars as Emily in the newly released film My Wedding and Other Secrets, shares what she's learnt from being a bookworm.