Ever Since We Small by Celeste Mohammed review – a big-hearted Caribbean tale
This Trinidadian family saga blurs the line between real and imagined to create a multilayered history of an island and its people
Confessions of a Shopaholic novelist Sophie Kinsella dies aged 55
The ‘queen of romantic comedy’ has died 18 months after announcing her brain cancer diagnosis
Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy review – fear and loathing in New York
This sharp, bleak debut satirises the current cultural moment through the life and loves of a cynical young writer
Dracapella review – power ballads and beatboxing as ghoulish comedy gets down for the count
Gleefully leaning into all the cliches and groansome laughs, Dan Patterson and Jez Bond’s musical vampire romp is supremely silly
On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle review – how to make a timeloop endlessly interesting
The hypnotic third novel in the hit Danish series grapples with the philosophical realities of being stuck on repeat in 18 November
The Effingers by Gabriele Tergit review – a vivid portrait of Berlin before the Nazis
Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life
The best fiction of 2025
The Guardian’s fiction editor picks the best of the year, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count to Thomas Pynchon’s return, David Szalay’s Booker winner and a remarkable collection of short stories
Five of the best science fiction books of 2025
An eco-masterpiece, icy intrigue, cyberpunkish cyborgs, memory-eating aliens and super-fast travel sends the world spinning out of control
All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles review – a deliciously sweary, prize-winning monologue
The actor Paul Hilton brilliantly inhabits the character of a ranting working-class academic in this debut novel
Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray review – a vibrant ode to best friends and queer loves
The author of Green Dot returns with a masterful tale of unconventional friendship and family
The five best romance books of 2025
A tricky age gap, a dose of wedding day drama, literary love affairs, office rivals and the sexy side of Brexit
Marina Lewycka posthumously named ‘winner of winners’ of Wodehouse prize for comic fiction
The British-Ukrainian writer, who died last month, won the prize’s 25th-anniversary Vintage Bollinger award for 2005 novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, while Rosanna Pike took this year’s prize for A Little Trickerie
Ms Holmes and Ms Watson – Apt 2B review: mysterious case of the joke-cracking Sherlock
This riff on Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories has flashes of promise but its comedy and purpose never land
The best crime and thrillers of 2025
Mick Herron’s Slow Horses, Belinda Bauer’s obsessive world of bird egg collectors, Uketsu’s innovative Japanese detective mystery – and more
Five of the best translated fiction of 2025
The return of Nobel laureate Han Kang; film-making under the Nazis; stuck in a time loop; Scandinavian thrills; and essential stories from postwar Iraq