Not just love, actually: why romance fiction is booming
From Emily Henry to Rebecca Yarros and Alison Espach’s The Wedding People – romance has dominated the book charts this year. So why is it still dismissed by critics?
From Dr Seuss to All Quiet on the Western Front: 19 books to help you find hope, sense and resistance in difficult times
Writers, activists and politicians on the books they turn to for wisdom and perspective – and to restore their faith in human nature
‘There’s a sense of our freedoms becoming vulnerable’: novelist Alan Hollinghurst
A knighthood, a lifetime achievement award and a hit theatre production of The Line of Beauty… the author on a year of personal success and political change
‘From her pen sprang unforgettable females’: 16th-century Spanish author’s knight’s tale given reboot
Beatriz Bernal’s pioneering novel features brave, chivalrous women who ride dragons and her adapter wants his illustrated version to reach young readers
The Guardian view on the rise of romantic fiction: finally getting the respect it deserves
Jilly Cooper, Joanna Trollope and Sophie Kinsella all changed the genre. A new generation of novelists are doing the same and sales are soaring
The 25 best Australian books of 2025
Just in time for last-minute gifts: Guardian Australia critics and staff pick out the best books of the year, featuring Helen Garner, Dominic Amerena, Evelyn Araluen and more
Children and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
Anointing a new Santa; a child refugee’s tale; a dangerous journey across frozen wastes; a YA roadtrip romance and more
Yael van der Wouden : ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy cured my fear of aliens’
The Safekeep author on her secret childhood reading, falling in love with Elizabeth Strout and why she keeps coming back to Zadie Smith
Want to understand the sickness of Britain today? Look no further – a novel explained it all 20 years ago
The racism, the predatory politics, the banality and cruelty: we struggle to make sense of it, but JG Ballard foretold everything we are living through now, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
Freezing Point by Anders Bodelsen review – a prescient classic of cryogenics
This resurrected Danish novel about a man who is ‘frozen down’, awaking in an Orwellian dystopia two decades later, is inventive, funny and all too timely
Bog Queen by Anna North review – a tale that could dig deeper
This story of a teenage druid whose body is discovered in a peat bog has memorable moments – but its evocation of time and place is unconvincing
Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson review – startlingly original
The Indigenous Canadian author brilliantly captures the interdependence of humans and the natural world, in a darkly satirical critique of colonialism
Tell Me Softly review – high-school romance of bad boys and blurred boundaries
Social-media fame and sexual intrigue collide in this part-Twilight, part-OC romantic drama whose provocative dramatic set-ups feel as glib as porn scenes
Pulse by Cynan Jones review – short stories that show the vitality of the form
The Welsh author vividly captures the solitude, hard labour, dramas and dangers of rural life
‘Suddenly, it was everywhere’: why some books become blockbusters overnight
Whether it’s through TikTok buzz, celebrity endorsements or good old-fashioned word of mouth, some titles enjoy a second, more powerful, life. But what unites them – and is there a formula for this type of success?