From 1989: The controversy surrounding 'The Satanic Mysteries' is a paradigm of the difficulties that have existed over the centuries between Islam and the West.

From 1957, a classic essay by Flannery O'Connor, who died 50 years ago on Sunday.

The novelist had a driving conviction that ran roughshod over our weak-kneed answers.

The book grapples with the biggest of issues: the meaning of life, the problem of evil and the value of praying to a God who seems only rarely to intervene in human affairs.

The story spans 60 years, and as Broderick tells the tale of Roza Mojewska and Otto Brack he tells the story of Poland itself, touching on Hitler’s goal of annihilating the Poles to give the Germans space.

Alice McDermott has once again delivered a novel to ponder and cherish, from its moral quandaries down to its wry humor and hypnotic prose.