Want to understand the sickness of Britain today? Look no further – a novel explained it all 20 years ago

The racism, the predatory politics, the banality and cruelty: we struggle to make sense of it, but JG Ballard foretold everything we are living through now, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

Freezing Point by Anders Bodelsen review – a prescient classic of cryogenics

This resurrected Danish novel about a man who is ‘frozen down’, awaking in an Orwellian dystopia two decades later, is inventive, funny and all too timely

Bog Queen by Anna North review – a tale that could dig deeper

This story of a teenage druid whose body is discovered in a peat bog has memorable moments – but its evocation of time and place is unconvincing

Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson review – startlingly original

The Indigenous Canadian author brilliantly captures the interdependence of humans and the natural world, in a darkly satirical critique of colonialism

Tell Me Softly review – high-school romance of bad boys and blurred boundaries

Social-media fame and sexual intrigue collide in this part-Twilight, part-OC romantic drama whose provocative dramatic set-ups feel as glib as porn scenes

Pulse by Cynan Jones review – short stories that show the vitality of the form

The Welsh author vividly captures the solitude, hard labour, dramas and dangers of rural life

‘Suddenly, it was everywhere’: why some books become blockbusters overnight

Whether it’s through TikTok buzz, celebrity endorsements or good old-fashioned word of mouth, some titles enjoy a second, more powerful, life. But what unites them – and is there a formula for this type of success?

‘This extraordinary story never goes out of fashion’: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone

Colm Tóibín, Robert Macfarlane, Elif Shafak, Michael Rosen and more share the novels, poetry and memoirs that make the perfect gift

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup

Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds; Paris Fantastique by Nicholas Royle; All Tomorrows by CM Kosemen; The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson; The Witching Hour by various authors

Jonathan Coe: ‘I was a Tory until I read Tony Benn’

The author on getting hooked on Flann O’Brien, reassessing Kingsley Amis, and why his grandfather was outraged by Watership Down

Horror hit Paranormal Activity spawns a West End play – and even its director yelped with fear

Inspired by the scary film franchise, playwright Levi Holloway and Punchdrunk maestro Felix Barrett are bringing the ‘bizarrely joyous’ world of terror to the stage

Sophie Kinsella obituary

Author whose Shopaholic series of romcom novels were global bestsellers and adapted into a Hollywood film

Jarvis Cocker and Mary Beard announced as Booker prize judges

The historian is set to lead a ‘stellar’ 2026 panel featuring the Pulp frontman and other acclaimed writers, as the search begins for next year’s standout work of fiction

Daniel Woodrell obituary

Author of ‘country noir’ novels, such as Winter’s Bone, set in the rural communities of the Ozark mountains

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