The Silence in Between by Josie Ferguson review – love in a fractured city
The legacy of sexual violence is explored in a compelling debut about a mother who is separated from her son by the Berlin wall
In brief: Same As It Ever Was; Hello Beautiful; The Golden Rule – review
Claire Lombardo’s outstanding second novel delves into mother-child relationships, Ann Napolitano’s fourth explores self-delusion and Dr Lucy Pollock reflects on ageing in an empowering book
C Pam Zhang: ‘I was aware of the drift towards fascism in Europe’
The Chinese-born, US-based author, whose debut was longlisted for the 2020 Booker, on pursuing pleasure in a volatile world, her taste for chip butties and the joys of being a naive reader
‘People say my book gave them a panic attack’: When We Cease to Understand the World author Benjamín Labatut
His page-turning books about quantum physics and game theory have given the Chilean writer a cult following – and won him famous fans from Stephen Fry to Björk and Barack Obama
No Small Thing by Orlaine McDonald review – a true-to-life tale
This refreshingly honest debut explores a south London family shaped by the pain of emotional neglect
The best recent science fiction and fantasy – reviews roundup
Curandera by Irenosen Okojie; The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman; The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer; Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
Stalk, slice, bludgeon: how ‘femgore’ is reinventing horror fiction
From Boy Parts to Brainwyrms, novels by female writers are carving out a new subgenre – but is it a cathartic feminist statement or an internalised version of the misogyny it seeks to subvert?
Eley Williams: ‘I trusted people far less once I’d finished that novel’
The writer on how a creepy, psychological thriller blew her 13-year old mind, her early outrage at unreliable narrators and taking comfort in Saki
Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner review – trials of the wealthy
The follow-up to Fleishman Is in Trouble explores the fallout from a kidnapping in a rich American family
Big Time by Jordan Prosser review – a lush, drug-fuelled adventure in a future Australia
Blending dystopic soothsaying and raucous imagination, Prosser’s debut novel is a bit Philip K Dick, a bit Jennifer Egan and a bit entirely unique
Mary and the Rabbit Dream by Noémi Kiss-Deáki review – an 18th-century hoax
The remarkable story of how, in 1726, the medical establishment believed that a poor woman had given birth to rabbits
Robert Irwin obituary
Author, scholar and historian who enjoyed success with his 1983 novel The Arabian Nightmare
Napalm in the Heart by Pol Guasch review – the aftermath of apocalypse
Love, death, war and occupation are explored in a gripping and poetic examination of the human condition
The Unwilding by Marina Kemp review – dark family secrets
A young female writer is drawn into the family of a revered novelist and patriarch, in this powerfully compelling dissection of the creative process
Where to start with: Milan Kundera
The Czech writer didn’t only leave us The Unbearable Lightness of Being, he wrote a series of playful, philosophical books examining relationships, sex and mortality