A map of the heart
Jan Morris is moved by Orhan Pamuk's passionate portrait of Istanbul.
A Prospero for our time
Michael Kustow's biography charts Peter Brook's transformation from precocious master to itinerant sage. Simon Callow pays homage.
Down and out with Dregs and Giro
Matthew Collin finds bitter comedy in Stuart, the life of a homeless man told by charity worker Alexander Masters.
Poor lore
Christopher Priest on Nick Flynn's down-and-out memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.
Pain is the recipe for a god of food
Simon Wright pays tribute to our culinary kings with Tough Cookies.
The man who taught Hitler to eat artichokes
Peter Conradi's life of Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hitler's Piano Player, is hilarious and chilling by turns, says Peter Preston.
Patently brilliant
It is 100 years since Albert Einstein burst from obscurity with his world-changing theories. Robin McKie enjoys the best accounts of a godless failed husband, bohemian pacifist and universal genius.
Gospel truths
Canongate claimed the Good Book for literature with a divided edition of the Bible. Introductions to the books of the Old and New Testaments from Nick Cave, Bono, the Dalai Lama and others are collected in Revelations.
Bound in tropes of silk
Alfred Hickling is maddened and charmed by Tash Aw's Malayan adventure, The Harmony Silk Factory.
The strange case of RL Stevenson
From Edinburgh to the South Seas ... James Buchan follows Claire Harman on the trail of literary lion Robert Louis Stevenson.
Gaily garrulous
Boy George can still talk the talk, but Hywel Williams would prefer fewer Buddhist mantras in Straight.
Fantastic voyage
Elizabeth Harlan draws a portrait of a damaged family in her biography of George Sand, but leaves many questions unanswered, says Lucasta Miller.
Above the law
Martin Jacques salutes Lawless World, a clear and readable account of how America turned its back on international law from Philippe Sands.
Guns ‘n’ rosés
Fergal Keane's memoir, All of These People, is haunted by the ghost of his father, says Kim Bunce.
Here’s another one you read earlier
Lauren Bacall reheats her memoirs in By Myself And Then Some. Rachel Cooke wishes she hadn't bothered.