High and Low by Amanda Craig review – will Britain boil over?

A north London cafe is under siege in a state-of-the-nation satire that brings together the haves and have-nots

John of John by Douglas Stuart review – will a father and son come out to each other?

The Booker winner’s epic tale of gay love and loneliness in the Hebrides charts an uneasy homecoming against a backdrop of repression

‘I don’t know what could top that’: debut author Jem Calder on being discovered by Sally Rooney

His first story collection, Reward System, was a cult hit. Now comes a novel that’s a bleakly funny appraisal of millennial relationships, technology and ennui. He talks about love, precarity and being called the ‘voice of a generation’

The rise of the literary nepo baby? The children of famous novelists on following in their parents’ footsteps

From Naomi Ishiguro to Jess Atwood Gibson, more children of high profile writers are becoming authors themselves. Parents and their literary offspring discuss the pressures of measuring up

The Guardian view on writers’ retirements: the sense of an ending

Editorial: Michael Frayn and Julian Barnes have announced that they won’t be writing any more books. It is a hard habit to kick

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

The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed; The Rainshadow Orphans by Naomi Ishiguro; No Ghosts by Max Lury; Palaces of the Crow by Ray Nayler; Moon Over Brendle by Jeff Noon

Goodbye, My Love by Yumna Kassab review – biting reflections on the dissolution of a marriage

This novel told in vignettes and poetic fragments follows a woman who discovers that choice does not always equate to agency

The Pretender by Jo Harkin audiobook review – sprightly historical political skulduggery

This 15th-century royal romp of intrigue and courtly conspiracy is given extra charismatic verve by John Hollingworth’s rambunctious narration

Solace House by Will Maclean review – immensely fun gothic horror with a psychedelic twist

A dead poet’s cluttered mansion is the setting for a heady brew of magic, mystery and mushrooms

Best Australian books out in May: Robert Forster’s crime caper, a ‘superb’ new novel and Periodic Bitch

Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on

What Am I, a Deer? by Polly Barton review – shyness, obsession and the joy of karaoke

The feverish interiority of a young woman abroad is captured with offbeat wit and disarming candour in the first novel from the translator of Butter

The Given World by Melissa Harrison review – a stunning tale of rural life for an era of ecological crisis

Eerie omens haunt this absorbing group portrait set over six months in an English village

One Leg on Earth by ’Pemi Aguda review – a powerfully eerie portrait of Lagos

A young pregnant woman is assailed by dark visions of sisterhood in a novel splicing eco-horror, cosmic distress and ideas of the monstrous feminine

‘I wanted it to feel both Shakespearean and like Jay-Z’: debut author Sufiyaan Salam on masculinity, rap and meeting Stormzy

Bringing Manchester’s Curry Mile to vibrant life, the #Merky prize-winning author’s cross-genre work focuses on the lives and language of young British men. He discusses identity and inspiration

Homebound by Portia Elan review – a Cloud Atlas-like puzzle-box novel

From 1980s Cincinnati into the interstellar darkness, the stories of four women interconnect across the centuries in a gentle hymn to found families