There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak review – story of a raindrop
This ambitious, multi-perspective novel about the politics and preciousness of water ranges from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary London
The Voyage Home by Pat Barker review – a brilliant finale to the Trojan war trilogy
This third volume brings a characteristic blend of brusque wisdom and piercing compassion to the stories of Cassandra and Clytemnestra
Crime and thrillers of the month – review
In a month full of big hitters, Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie makes a welcome return, Mick Herron’s reissued debut doesn’t disappoint – and Janice Hallett is as ingenious as ever
My weeks of reading hornily: steamy book sales have doubled – and I soon found out why
From fairy porn to romantasy via the Omegaverse, publishing is sexier than ever. The reason? A big shift in gen Z and millennial attitudes to respectability and shame ...
Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott review – Bridget Jones in the jazz age
Reissued after a century, this lively, funny and harrowing debut follows a divorcee torn between sexual liberation and the compromised ‘safety’ of marriage in the 1920s
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak review – water, water everywhere
The links between a 19th-century Londoner who escapes poverty and a Yazidi girl born 200 years later are gradually revealed in an absorbing novel that reflects on global inequality
Rosa Regàs obituary
Spanish publisher opposed to the Franco regime who went on to write acclaimed novels
Rosarita by Anita Desai – a luminous search for a mother
This short, exquisite novel about a young Indian woman’s encounter with a flamboyant stranger shows that Desai has lost none of her powers
Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan review – old grudges die hard in rural Ireland
The Irish author’s follow-up to his 2012 novel The Spinning Heart revisits its characters 10 years on in a story notable for its rough-edged poetry
‘She did not suffer a fool or hypocrite and loved a good laugh’: novelist Edna O’Brien
An email correspondence about Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadžić led to Ed Vulliamy’s unexpected bond with the Irish author, who died last week aged 93
The Garden by Clare Beams review – Mother Nature’s mystical powers
A mysterious country garden responds to women desperate for a child in a sometimes slow-going chiller
In brief: The Newsmongers; The Night in Venice; Vital Organs – review
An informed history of tabloid journalism; an atmospheric Edwardian-era mystery set in Italy; and a riotous study of famous people’s body parts
Elif Shafak: ‘As a writer in Turkey, you can be attacked, put on trial, imprisoned’
As she confronts the ecological crisis and the persecution of the Yazidi people in her latest novel, the author talks about the difficulty of being a writer – and a woman – in Turkey
‘A rumpled paperback showed me I was not alone’: Charlotte Mendelson, Michael Rosen and others on the books that marked their coming of age
From a children’s classic to a novel of forbidden love, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Kaliane Bradley, Donal Ryan and more recall their formative reading experiences
Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers review – northern soul and second chances
Once again, the author of Cuddy develops a deep sense of place, for a story that takes joy in its characters and their passions