Enchanting. Mysterious. Riveting. Book blurbs have been a mainstay in publishing, designed to persuade readers to pick up a book. But now, some authors and publishers are opting to forgo them.

As a reader, though, an interesting blurb can be as effective as a striking book cover, especially when you’re browsing in a bookstore, trying to decide between several tempting choices.

My favourite, which is more recent, was one was for Marilynne Robinson’s novel Jack: “I’m not saying that you’re actually dead if you haven’t read Marilynne Robinson, but I honestly couldn’t say ...

A new book traces the creative and personal relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, highlighting their ...

A collection of autobiographical sketches; a complicated Japanese mystery.

Russian sex traffickers kidnap the wrong girl, unleashing stops-at-nothing vengeance from Jason Statham in a competently made ...

A new age-gap 'romance' has created an uproar: its hero first noticed the heroine when she was three. An expert on literary ...

A book by former Facebook employee Sarah Wynn-Williams about the inner workings at the social media giant has been assailed by company executives — but the book is already a bestseller.

Margarita Montimore is the author of “The Dollhouse Academy” and other books. She spoke with Michael Schaub about the novel, ...

Gabrielle Griffith has created “A ‘Fess up. How could you resist a debut fiction whose blurb describes it as “a ...

Erotic novel ‘Daddy’s Little Toy’ has been accused of ‘featuring paedophilia’, while the author has called the outcry a ‘big ...