The standing man of Taksim Square: a latterday Bartleby
Herman Melville's reticent scrivener is the ideal symbol for this new wave of passive protests as well as for the original occupy Gezi events, writes Kaya Genç
Decline and fall: how American society unravelled
Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed. Was it an inevitable process – or was it engineered by self-interested elites?
Shubbak festival: a refuge for Arab culture at a troubled time
How can a festival celebrate a region gripped with conflict? Omar al-Qattan explains Shubbak, London's Middle Eastern extravaganza
James Davies’s top 10 psychiatry critiques
The author of Cracked selects a battery of books that challenge received wisdom about mental illness and how to treat it
The best books on Egypt: start your reading here
Pushpinder Khaneka's literary journey through Egypt starts with the 1919 revolution against the British and ends with the Arab spring
Palestinian writers refused visas for travel to UK
Ali Abukhattab and Samah al-Sheikh were due to talk about their work at the Shubbak festival of contemporary Arab art
Debut author: NoViolet Bulawayo
NoViolet Bulawayo's debut novel is a visceral, bittersweet portrayal of life in a Zimbabwe shanty, writes Anita Sethi
Red Nile: A Biography of the World’s Greatest River by Robert Twigger – review
Robert Twigger offers an entertaining, if Egypt-centric, history of the Nile, writes Anthony Sattin
Population 10 Billion by Danny Dorling – review
A myth-busting analysis of population growth is refreshingly free of doomsday rhetoric, writes John Kampfner
Thomas Browne: religion as passion and pastime, part 5: Hydrotaphia or Urne-Buriall
Roz Kaveney: How to believe: In Browne's hands, even a seemingly trivial report turns into a sonorous piece of fine English prose
Bolívar by Marie Arana – review
A life of Latin American hero Simón Bolívar, while admiring, reveals uncomfortable truths, writes Giles Tremlett
Tom Hanks to star in adaptation of A Hologram for the King
Cloud Atlas co-director Tom Tykwer will reunite with star for film of Dave Eggers's novel about struggling US businessman
George Orwell back in fashion as Prism stokes paranoia about Big Brother
Stephen Moss: Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a society in which liberty was impossible – so how should we respond to this new threat?
Money: The Unauthorised Biography by Felix Martin – review
A timely and entertaining history of money challenges not only capitalism but our entire notion of what currency is, writes Ian Birrell
Debut author: Majok Tulba
The South Sudanese writer explores what might have happened if he had been a child soldier – a fate he avoided by a whisker, writes Gemma Kappala-Ramsamy