Salinger: a burger-lover in the rye
Kathryn Hughes: As JD Salinger would have recognised, his letters show that Great Writers are not great all the time
In praise of … The Magic Mountain
Editorial: This week's sessions in Davos will never be as intellectually stimulating as Thomas Mann's novel of ideas
Japanese woman is bestselling poet – aged 99
Toyo Shibata's self-published anthology, Don't Lose Heart, sells 1.5m copies in a market where 10,000 is seen as a success
The Book of Genesis, part 7: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
Jane Williams: Genesis raises some thorny questions about God's morality, but to view them entirely through our own lens is disrespectful
Bolesław Taborski obituary
Other lives: Broadcaster and poet who took part in the 1944 Warsaw uprising, was held in a German PoW camp and then settled in Britain
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee – review
This magnificent study of cancer suggests that, for all medicine's advances, we cannot beat a disease that is a distorted version of ourselves, says Alexander Linklater
Ernest Cole: Photographer – review
Ernest Cole captured some of the defining images of apartheid in his native South Africa. This book is a fitting testament to a pioneer photographer, writes Sean O'Hagan
Sacha Baron Cohen to star in film of Saddam Hussein novel
Borat and Brüno star takes on film of Zabibah and the King, a romantic novel reputedly written by Iraqi dictator
Can you judge a book by its cover?
Alison Flood: For every Wolf Hall or Life of Pi there's a shelf full of books given generic artwork that's simply shorthand for shoppers
O, A Presidential Novel sparks search for anonymous author
Speculation rife that mystery writer behind fictional book depicting Barack Obama may be a political insider
In praise of … a well-placed signature
Editorial: Collecting declaration autographs is a form of millionaire bingo, and obscure names win the highest price
The Book of Genesis, part 6: Patriarchs and others
Jane Williams: What is to be made, theologically, of the unabashedly male-dominated, hierarchical world of Genesis?
Eric Hobsbawm: a conversation about Marx, student riots, the new Left, and the Milibands
As he publishes his latest book, 93-year-old historian Eric Hobsbawm talks communism and coalition with one of Britain's newer breed, Tristram Hunt, now a Labour MP
Alone under a dictatorship
Letters: The point made in Alone in Berlin is the importance of every act of resistance to tyranny, whether by groups or individuals
The new vocal, visible religiosity
Richard Phelps: Olivier Roy's book presents globalisation and secularisation as contributing to the divorce of religion from culture