Teenager Leila Mottley on writing her debut novel: ‘I’ve always done things at a warp speed’

The 19-year-old’s uncommonly assured book Nightcrawling, about marginalised lives in her home town of Oakland, has won fans including Dave Eggers and Ruth Ozeki

What Time Is Love? by Holly Williams review – soulmates after all these years

An invigorating debut places the same couple in different decades, examining how changing social conditions alter their story, to fascinating effect

Bernardine Evaristo fears publishers may lose interest in black authors

Diversity in book industry must be sustained, and start at the top, Booker prize-winning author tells Hay festival

John Waters: ‘Trump ruined bad taste – he was the nail in the coffin’

The film-maker and ‘filth elder’ has made a career out of generating shocks. Now a debut novelist, can his book’s talking gay penis save camp?

Maggie Shipstead: ‘Elena Ferrante made me reconsider how I write’

The novelist on polar exploration, Middlemarch and reading Donna Tartt in the pool

Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets review – war stories from Ukraine

Infused with magic and black humour, these fables of women affected by Russian aggression have accrued an unsettling timeliness

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor review – outback noir that lives up to the hype

Set in a remote town where a schoolgirl disappears, this debut arrives with high praise from other crime novelists – and it’s truly excellent

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley review – a dazzling debut

This chilling tale of power and corruption, based on a true crime involving brutality in the Oakland police department, announces a bold new voice

Villager by Tom Cox review – a glorious ramble

A paean to people and nature in a fictional moorland village, from prehistory to 2099

The Men by Sandra Newman review – vision of a world without men

Half of humanity disappears in this disturbing study of loss, grief and moral sacrifice

‘Propulsive’, ‘evocative’, ‘brilliant’: the best Australian books out in June

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

Children’s and teens roundup – the best new chapter books

Marcus Rashford channels Scooby-Doo, more girls solve mysteries, while two historical young Black Britons join forces in theatreland

The War for Gloria by Atticus Lish review – Mother’s little helper and Father’s foe

A teenager has to care for his terminally ill parent in Lish’s formidable follow-up to his lauded debut, Preparation for the Next Life

Joanne Harris says she saw her cancer as a fictional ‘monster’ she could ‘destroy’

The Chocolat author was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020 and has shared her experiences on social media

In brief: Storyland; Crickonomics; Bitter Orange Tree – review

A visual and verbal map of Britain’s stories; a critique of cricket’s state of play; and a moving Arabic tale of where memory and identity meet