From true accounts of harrowing ascents, to more fantastic ventures in Shangri-La and Shambhala, here are some of the best tales about the Himalayas

From Colm Tóibín’s story of renewal in Brooklyn to Mourid Barghouti’s desolate experience in Palestine, these stories show some of the many meanings of home and its loss

From CLR James to Emma Goldman, the often obscured stories of resistance to oppression can light the way for tomorrow’s revolutionaries. Here are some of the finest

From Bruce Chatwin to Cormac McCarthy, these are some of the best stories about what happens when boundaries – physical, political and psychological – are crossed

From Machiavelli to Karen Joy Fowler, the author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? considers some of the best writing on brainy beasts

From King Lear to Père Goriot, Monet’s biographer chooses some of the best portrayals of men who hold our attention at an age when most writers are no longer interested

From Michel Houellebecq to Simone de Beauvoir, novelist Tommy Wieringa chooses stories of men who have tried to reach beyond what is possible

From Macbeth to Robert Maxwell and Mussolini’s son-in-law, the investigative reporter and crime novelist picks his favourite books featuring ‘plot No 2 in literature’

From Alice Munro to Rachel Cusk, Anne Tyler to Margaret Atwood, great writers reveal a more complicated story than we’re inclined to tell ourselves

Some legal eagles are less Atticus Finch and more Dr Gonzo – and many of literature’s most memorable lawyers are as morally compromised as the rest of humanity. Here are 10 of the best

From sprucing up the estate in Jane Austen to a backdrop for adultery in Graham Greene to a destination for an Iain Sinclair pilgrimage, authors have long paraded their characters through these most public of places

From Graham Greene to John Banville, many writers have been drawn to the dangerous transformations of stories told on the shore. Not exactly beach reading, these are some of the best

Not many novelists have managed to write well about these unglamorous but subtle dramas. From George Eliot to John Updike, here are some who have

From unforgiving French sociology to Machiavelli’s manual for realpolitik, the Booker prize-winning author DBC Pierre recommends books that helped him write

From Marx to Mann and Adorno, some thinkers have made brilliant use of the imaginative techniques of novels and stories to frame their reflections. Here are some of the most interesting and unexpected

From Miles Franklin to Bruce Chatwin, these writers show how tightly this spectacular but dangerous territory is bound up with the country’s identity

From theatres of social snobbery to fiery manifestos for rewilding, these volumes show that gardening can be sexy, scary and sometimes scandalous

Ranging from forensic intelligence reports to biting reportage and searing fiction and memoir, these books lay bare the mistakes that drove the war, and reveal their human cost

From Norman Bates to Hannibal Lecter, murderous bogeymen exercise an enduring grip on readers’ imaginations. These are some of the best, and most frightening

From Edith Wharton to Jennifer Egan, the city has inspired countless stories, all of them sharing one major character – the metropolis itself

Paul McCartney’s biographer picks out the best work in a field that has often been marked by ‘leaden paragraphs overstuffed with show-offy facts’

Finding work that confronts this difficult stage of life with honesty and wisdom is not easy – but these writers show it can be done

From Dante’s Inferno to We Need to Talk About Kevin, guilt comes in many varieties, and drives innumerable plots. Here are some of the best

Don’t be put off! Works by WG Sebald, Roberto Bolaño and Wallace Shawn and others can help us to see ourselves more clearly and understand life better