Vaim by Jon Fosse review – the Nobel laureate performs a strange miracle
In the Norwegian master’s latest example of ‘mystical realism’, one man makes a dreamlike, hypnotic voyage through life
David Szalay wins 2025 Booker prize for ‘dark’ Flesh
The judges ‘had never read anything quite like it’, says panel chair Roddy Doyle, announcing the Hungarian-British author’s novel as the winner of the £50,000 award
The risky strategy of Booker winner Flesh pays off
The protagonist’s inner life is hidden from the reader in this highly original novel
Andrew Miller is bookies’ favourite to win 2025 Booker prize
The Land in Winter has shortest odds of victory, ahead of Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Love The Traitors and Only Murders in the Building? Visit The Mousetrap, says bold new director of West End perennial
Ola Ince, who has refreshed Agatha Christie’s record-breaking mystery, suggests ‘we all fancy ourselves as detectives’
Readers reply: Who is the most evil villain in fiction?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
In Love With Love by Ella Risbridger review – a sexy celebration of romantic fiction
From Pride and Prejudice to Fifty Shades, a writer’s paean to the literature of desire
The Transformations by Andrew Pippos review – a tender study of an ordinary man doing his best
Pippos brings a quieter drama to his second novel, about a subeditor who has a midlife shakeup in the dying world of print journalism
Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen review – a hypnotic tale of the sea cow’s extinction
This hit debut from Finland is intensely readable, but could have delved more deeply into the links between human progress and environmental destruction
CD Rose awarded the 2025 Goldsmiths prize
The author has won the experimental literary fiction prize for his ‘dizzying, encyclopaedic’ fifth book, We Live Here Now
Other People’s Fun by Harriet Lane review – darkly comic tale of envy and revenge in the Insta age
The worlds of the haves and the have-nots clash, in a toxic friendship between two women brought together by a school reunion
Alan Hollinghurst wins David Cohen lifetime award for ‘pioneering’ novels
Author says he is ‘overcome with emotion’ after winning £40,000 honour for books including The Line of Beauty and The Swimming-Pool Library
Sara Pascoe’s novel wins inaugural Jilly Cooper award
Weirdo, the comedian’s ‘daring look at young womanhood’, is the first winner of new honour named after the Riders novelist, adding to the Comedy women in print prizes
Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z Danielewski – House of Leaves author returns with a 1200-page western
A quarter century after that landmark cult novel, this new epic has aspects of brilliance but seems designed for academic study rather than readerly enjoyment
Horror show: North American box office records lowest monthly total since 1997
Halloween weekend failed to make numbers jump, adding up to the weakest monthly performance – other than during the pandemic – for three decades