The Booker-winning ‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ author paints a weird and funny relationship between an ‘angel’ and an egotistical oil tycoon
The Irish author’s playful satire conjures up a canon of fictional novels by a fictional novelist, all to dizzying effect
The gay author shocked France with stories of working-class poverty and homophobia. He talks to Simon Kuper about the misogyny his mother endured and why escape is his defining theme
Witch trials and Welsh folk horror, a saga of wealth and poverty in Pakistan — plus a band on the run and a beguiling ‘final’ story from Booker-winner Julian Barnes
Novels require a kind of attention that the modern world is steadily eroding
Why Arctic land-grabs could lead to war; the nitty-gritty of everyday lives in ancient Rome; the highs and lows of David Bowie’s later music; the harms caused by our demand for ‘green’ batteries; Julian Barnes’s reflections on life and loss; biting commentary on humanity in novels by Rhett Davis and Madeline Cash; Suzi Feay’s pick of debut fiction; Nilanjana Roy on India’s railways — plus the best books to understand events in Venezuela
A sparky comic debut novel from ‘Alt-Lit’ writer Madeline Cash skewers the corrupting effects of capitalism and online life
In a moving mix of fiction and non-fiction, the Booker winner examines the struggle to find happiness and face life’s losses
Rhett Davis’s novel set in a near-future Australia sends out a strong message about humanity’s need to change
From a 22-year-old’s striking debut to fictional forays by acclaimed poets, first novels that conjure China, Spain, Italy, Wyoming and a royal castle
This recently rediscovered, bleakly comic tale of three no-hopers in interwar Germany was written by a Jewish refugee in the 1930s. It reads like a cautionary tale for our times
Board games, ancient boxes and a walk-on part for A-Ha’s Morten Harket feature in a tale that adds comedy to the author’s dizzying speculations on reality
French train driver turned author Mattia Filice ably steers a free-verse novel about his work that is both original and enjoyable
The world of romantic fiction is a strange one — that of political erotica even more so
The award-winning animator’s first full-length book depicts her gleefully irascible, chain-smoking relative with love and frustration
Juhea Kim offers a resonant, sometimes hopeful, addition to the field of climate fiction in short stories that take place from Seoul to California
Peter Handke draws on Kafka and Camus in his portrayal of a floundering narcissist
A comedic take on the mid-century infidelity novels of Updike and Cheever uses a split timeline to ask potent questions about modern marriage
The Pat Hobby stories about a washed-up writer in Hollywood were written to make money fast — they are also the final flowering of Fitzgerald’s eccentric genius
A family gather for an uneasy Christmas dinner . . . an unwelcome guest appears at the door
The ‘Impossible Creatures’ author explains what these magical beasts reveal about human imagination — and why they were once a feature of the nativity
Prizes, publishers and government programmes have joined the battle to reverse the decline in young peoples’ love of reading
The Belgian’s latest novel, set against a backdrop of recent events in Europe, ponders philosophical questions such as, Do we really want to know what is in store for us?
The author beautifully evokes the everyday pleasures and niggling troubles of four friends in their later years
A great Christmas novel must either cut through the sugariness of an over-commercialised period, or transport you into the heart of winter itself
