‘I felt Holden was talking to me alone’: The Catcher in the Rye at 75

JD Salinger’s wry, subversive classic inspired novelist Joseph O’Connor to be a writer. He reflects on why this story of a disaffected teenager remains as fresh and transgressive as ever

Thursday briefing: Why magical kingdoms feel more relatable than real‑world romance​ for today’s young women

In today’s newsletter: The boom in romantasy fiction reveals a thirst for escape from the political misalignment plaguing many modern relationships

The First House by Avni Doshi review – an intense portrait of marriage and freedom

In the follow-up to the Booker-shortlisted Burnt Sugar, a woman seeks liberation from her controlling relationships

Nine out of 10 bestselling novels in UK have one thing in common: a woman is murdered

Author Wendy Jones highlighted the trend in an Instagram post: ‘What is going on here?’

Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan review – a chef’s elegy to London

Skipping between London, Shanghai and Hong Kong, this tale of family migration, politics and food has plenty of flavour and fire

The Anniversary by Andrea Bajani review – meet the terrible parents

Therapy brings childhood trauma to light in this ambitious tale of family rupture – a smash hit in Italy that fails to live up to its hype

‘Stop telling people it’s weird’: Andrew Upton on his strange new novel, and having Cate Blanchett read it first

An allegory in the spirit of Animal Farm, the Australian playwright’s debut novel about a disfigured chicken is a fantastical fable that’s both funny and ‘a bit bleak’

‘People treat each other as disposable’: dating columnist turned novelist Annie Lord on love and sex in the age of apps

Her breakup memoir and Vogue column made her the voice of modern dating. As her debut is published, she talks about single life, oversharing and why she still believes she’ll find love

Pressed for time? 20 brilliant books you can read in a day

From novels by James Baldwin and Han Kang to a guide to quantum physics – a former Booker prize judge recommends immersive one-sitting wonders

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

Sublimation by Isabel J Kim; Last Day of a Prior Life by Andrés Barba; Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay; The Carrier by Ruth Newton; Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd

A Short History of Longans by Mirandi Riwoe review – a moving family portrait devoured in one sitting

Riwoe’s commanding new book traces a Chinese Australian family across four generations – all connected by one old longan tree

Trouble Was by Charlotte Edwardes review – a sharp child’s-eye view of adult neglect

A young boy and his two siblings stay with their aunt in the West Country, in this haunting debut set over the long, hot summer of 1976

Service by Lauren Mooney review – a very modern ghost story

The chills are genuinely spooky in this haunted-house tale about contemporary precarity – a debut that speaks to our times

Shahrnush Parsipur, Iranian author of Women Without Men, dies at 80

The revered writer and political exile’s publisher says her ‘legacy in literary history can’t be compared to anyone else’s’

‘It still haunts me’: the puppet show Dracula that’s definitely not for small children

The dreaded bloodsucker will be getting his fangs into the Edinburgh fringe this year – in a deeply creepy, liberty-taking show with a sisterly twist. We meet its director