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Brian Bethune

Brian Bethune writes about ideas, books and the book trade, and religion, but what really interests him is why people believe what they believe.

Catherine Leroux on when a novel begins and ends, the shock of translation and the meaning of a blank look

Both sides in the Great War strove to create tensions within their enemies. And Islamic loyalties were a prime target.

A closer look at the Gillers, the Writer’s Trust and the Governor General awards

She may not have taken the Man Booker, but Madeleine Thien’s ’Do Not Say We Have Nothing’ is a worthy winner of the Governor General’s Award

The writer’s life is one of transport, governed by the speed of others, says Madeleine Thien

From 2016: Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire’s raw and emotionally devastating memoir lays bare his own inner torment

Hochschild, a co-founder of Mother Jones, on mounting extremism in the West and the authors who confront it for a living

Gary Barwin on how a Yiddish-speaking bird led him through the unfolding plot of his latest novel

An evolutionary biology book from Richard G. Bribiescas explains why men are doomed

Zoe Whittall on the dream of spending days alone in a room, writing