Australian books to look forward to in 2026: from a 278-page sentence to a memoir about a ‘cursed vagina’

It promises to be a marvellous year ahead for OzLit, with new books from the likes of Kate Grenville, Siang Lu, Antoinette Lattouf, Shaun Micallef, Judith Lucy and more

The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers review – the midlife adultery story our generation deserves

This is a witty takedown of insufferable millennial New Yorkers who have managed to ruin even sex

When a heart attack left me in a coma, my hallucinations inspired a novel – and a new life

After his heart stopped beating for 40 minutes, the former lawyer experienced weeks of hallucinations. The visions he experienced during his recovery set him on the path to a new career

‘It has become difficult to live’: Hungarian writers bemoan country’s hostile environment

Nobel prize for László Krasznahorkai provides a rare glimpse of unity in a nation divided on party lines

The hill I will die on: Fan fiction is real literature, whatever the snobs say

Yes, it’s messy, derivative and occasionally incomprehensible – but so is life, says comedian Urooj Ashfaq

Andrew Miller: ‘DH Lawrence forced me to my feet – I was madly excited’

The novelist on how Lawrence’s The Rainbow made him want to write, the strange genius of Penelope Fitzgerald and finding comfort in Tintin

Blank Canvas by Grace Murray review – a superb debut from a 22-year-old author

In this energisingly original novel, an emotionally detached English student at college in New York tells a big lie

Thursday briefing: Thirty years of the Women’s prize for fiction – have male novelists been edged out?

In today’s newsletter: As the literary award marks its 30th anniversary, the debate about whether it is relevant when women dominate bestsellers list has resurfaced

Sara Banerji obituary

Novelist whose stories set in Britain and India combined realistic domestic detail with myth and magic

The Master of Contradictions by Morten Høi Jensen review – how Thomas Mann wrote The Magic Mountain

A vivid account of the creation of one of literary modernism’s greatest achievements

The Dead Don’t Bleed by Neil Rollinson review – a gripping tale of family and forbidden love

Two brothers attempt to escape their father’s gangland past in a tense, tender debut that moves between Thatcher-era Northumberland and southern Spain

A terminally online book nerd, I tried asking IRL what I should read. This is what happened

Rafqa Touma found herself in a binge-slump reading cycle from following recommendations on social media. Could booksellers in actual bookshops help?

‘You don’t really see it in fiction’: how one novelist brought ‘Detty December’ party season back from Ghana

Jessica Carmichael’s coming-of-age YA novel is set during the huge annual diasporic return to west Africa, which ‘changed the trajectory’ of her life

Cape Fever by Nadia Davids review – a power struggle between mistress and maid

Set in a colonial city after the first world war, this story of a battle of wills between an elderly widow and her young servant is deftly told

The Guardian view on the National Year of Reading 2026: time to start a healthy habit for life

Editorial: A Children’s Booker prize, library cards for newborns and a major campaign – initiatives to encourage a love of books in children are a cause for celebration