My hero: Carlos Fuentes by Alberto Manguel and Liz Calder

'His death is very hard to believe. He loved living so much'

Itch: The Explosive Adventures of an Element Hunter by Simon Mayo – review

A mad scientist, a radioactive element … Simon Mayo's romp includes scientific knowhow and an amiable hero. By Tim Radford

The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan – review

Lucy Ellmann on a gritty debut novel

Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May – review

Shena Mackay on an examination of a messy family drama

The Server by Tim Parks – review

Tim Parks mingles secrets and lies with meditation. By Leo Robson

Debut crime fiction roundup – reviews

The Summer of Dead Toys by Antonio Hill, What Dies in Summer by Tom Wright, The Playdate by Louise Millar and Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

The battle of the book reviews

Lionel Shriver: Professional critics are no more reliable than Amazon ratings, a study shows. So do we really need them?

Cannes film festival set to honour the bookworm

Coveted Palme d'Or likely to go to a screen adaptation, with many of this year's entrants borrowing from literature

Jane Lovering wins romantic novel of the year with first book

Alison Flood: Please Don't Stop The Music, offering an 'unexpected hero from a fresh new voice', pips The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas

Amazon consumer book reviews as reliable as media experts

Study shows Amazon reviewers more likely to look favourably on debut authors, while professionals prefer prizewinners

Flash of inspiration: the pick of your micro-fiction

On Monday, flash-fiction specialist David Gaffney revealed the secrets of writing in the form. Scores of readers had a go. To mark National Flash Fiction Day, he looks at four of the best

True Blood author can suck no more out of vampire series

Charlaine Harris has announced that the final novel in her Southern Vampire Mysteries series will be published next year

Carlos Fuentes obituary

Mexico's most celebrated novelist

Have we fallen out of love with John Updike?

Three years after John Updike's death, his reputation appears to be on the wane. But who else can match his deftness and grace?

Aharon Appelfeld scoops Independent foreign fiction prize

Israeli author's dark tale of a Jewish boy taken in by a prostitute during the second world war 'glows on the page', said judges

Paperback Q&A: Jill Dawson on Lucky Bunny

The novelist reveals the inspiration behind her new novel about the women of crime, and discusses the joys of research

Happy Birthday, A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess's diabolical tale of juvenile ultraviolence is 50. Five decades on, the novel holds a lofty position as one of pop culture's most influential and enduring pieces of literature

Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction

David Gaffney: 16 May is the first ever day celebrating the art of micro-fiction. But what are the pros and cons of ultra short stories – and what's the secret of writing them? Follow David Gaffney's tips and post your own flash fiction below the line - we'll run our favourites on Wednesday

Digested read: Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé by Joanne Harris

Have I pushed mon luck by retourner a Lansquenet un troisieme time? I'd better ask the femme in the niqab

Crime writer Petros Markaris channels Greek rage into fiction

Murders at heart of new book resonate strongly with a mass readership furious at Greece's tax-dodging elite

Want a bestseller? Write about Henry or Hitler…

From Tudor England to the Third Reich, history's megalomaniacs continue to make great literary fodder, writes Robert McCrum

I Am an Executioner by Rajesh Parameswaran – review

This lively and off-kilter debut collection draws a little too heavily on the examples of Parameshwaran's US peers, writes Ben East

Why we’re watching: Karen Thompson Walker

The former book editor has created a frenzy in the publishing world with her debut novel about a natural disaster with far-reaching consequences, writes Shahesta Shaitly