Bookseller of Malakal brings words of comfort to war-torn South Sudan
Amid civil conflict, a bookshop in a camp for displaced people offers a source of education and a welcome distraction from the harsh realities of daily life
A life in quotes: John Berger
The late prize-winning author and art critic was perceptive on, among other things, the male gaze and the subjectivity of art
‘It’s a miracle’: from begging in Paris to bestselling author
Jean-Marie Roughol reveals how a chance encounter with a former government minister led him to write about living rough – and to turn his life around
Passport to eternity: photographing the forgotten elderly of Ukraine
Alexander Chekmenev was tasked with making new passport photos eastern Ukraine – and ended up with a powerfully humane portrait series. As the images are published 20 years later, he explains why old people deserve better care
Angela Merkel and the history book that helped inform her worldview
Jürgen Osterhammel’s The Transformation of the World left its mark on the German chancellor, judging by her recent decisions
A portrait of Europe as an old friend, by James Joyce
In the year of Brexit, issues of national identity in Ireland are back in vogue a century after Joyce explored them in A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man
The Guardian view on democracy: an uncertain year
Editorial: For the ancient Greeks, politics was way of life. We could learn from them
‘Only skeletons, not people’: diaries shed new light on siege of Leningrad
Academic says contemporary accounts of suffering are very different to stories survivors now tell of triumphant resistance
Look closer at nativity paintings – and see visions of apocalypse
Christmas cards are full of cutesy depictions of nativity scenes, but Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and Caravaggio remind us of the death in Jesus’s story
Claudio Pavone obituary
Historian who authored the controversial work A Civil War: A History of the Italian Resistance
Libraries are dying – but it’s not about the books
The internet stole the monopoly on knowledge but it can’t recreate a sense of place. Revival is possible
From Wonder Woman to mapping world politics: what was the best book you read in 2016?
We want to know which books on development and foreign affairs you enjoyed reading this year
Word of the year 2016: for Merriam-Webster, ‘surreal’ trumps ‘fascism’
Dictionary publisher had appealed for readers to stop rise of ‘fascism’, as editor says: ‘Surreal is one of the words most searched after tragedy’
The Guardian view on Moomintroll: a hero for our time
Editorial: Tove Jansson’s Moomin Valley is enchanting because it contains real dangers, not just cosiness
Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger to be subject of biopic
Film based on Ellen Feldman’s novel about birth control pioneer to be masterminded by Jennifer Lawrence’s production partner