The Best Memoirs and Autobiographies

A successful sense of place is the most satisfying part of any book, argues American journalist and humorist Calvin Trillin. He picks out five of his favourite memoirs — and says that part of what he likes about them is that they're short.

The author and recovering addict Matt Rowland Hill dissects the 'addiction memoir'—its literary potential, its formal conventions and its offer of hope and catharsis—as he recommends five books that exemplify the form, from Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater to Mary Karr's bestselling Lit.

Accounts of journeys on foot capture the imagination; partly this is a function of the satisfaction of following a linear journey from start to finish, and partly it is a quality inherent to walking itself—a freeing of the mind. Gail Simmons, who follows an old English pilgrimage route in her book Between the Chalk and the Sea, selects five hiking memoirs that celebrate the liberation that comes from putting one foot after another.

Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn selects the best recent autobiographical writing in this round-up of notable memoirs of 2023—taking in new work from such literary giants as Janet Malcolm and Annie Ernaux, the writer other writers are raving about, and a humorous debut depicting life in a haunted antiquarian bookshop.

In 1915, amid the upheaval of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire carried out the mass deportation and killing of its Armenian population. Thomas de Waal, author of Great Catastrophe, chooses five memoirs that bring to life the experiences of those caught up in it — and the very different paths they followed afterwards.

Yiyun Li, author of Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, on the sheer messiness of life, the irrelevance of ‘I’, and why brutal honesty is often the truest way to capture the people we love the most

More books are ghostwritten than you might imagine—and if it’s done well, you’d never know. Ghostwriter Joshua Lisec explains how it works and selects five standout examples, from Alexandre Dumas to Donald Trump.

The traumas of the 20th century hit Eastern Europe hard – a region of changing borders, uncertain identity, and shattering of moral norms. The journalist and communism expert selects books that capture the spirit of the age.

Via five engrossing memoirs, the Zimbabwe-born journalist Georgina Godwin talks wistfully about her country; amongst the older generation, she says, there is a feeling that Rhodesia was sold down the river by Britain and things needn't have turned out the way they did.

To tell your own story is to confront and construct your deepest sense of self. The author of Lost in Translation tells us about five striking memoirs of identity, dislocation, and belonging.