The Con Artists by Luke Healy review – a beautifully observed masterpiece

It’s the little things that strike a chord in this funny, melancholy book about the curdling of a friendship between two single gay men

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas review – slippery sexual politics

This intelligent and knowing debut about a female academic’s dangerous obsession with a younger professor is less risk-taking than it thinks it is

Controversies, epiphanies and the case against Canva: highlights from Sydney writers’ festival

Coinciding with the federal election, this year’s festival buzzed with big ideas about politics, hope and writing. Here are 10 things we learned

In brief: Every Good Boy Does Fine; Islanders; Sentient – review

Pianist Jeremy Denk’s insightful memoir, tales of Guernsey life by Cathy Thomas and Jackie Higgins’s vivid exploration of the senses

Brouhaha by Ardal O’Hanlon review – what’s the story?

The comedian fails to strike the right tone in this comedy-mystery set in an Irish border town

An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie review – trials of a Bristol rover

A young black Bristolian is caught between two worlds in McKenzie’s brutal, tender debut novel

The king and queen of popular fiction: Marian Keyes and Richard Osman on their successes and struggles

The bestselling novelists are friends and fans of each other’s work. They talk frankly about the highs of writing and the lows of addiction – and why neither would do Strictly

Nonfiction by Julie Myerson review – fact into incandescent fiction

The experience of her own son’s drug addiction inspires the novelist’s overwhelming dive into grief, regret and love

Sandra Newman: ‘Do I want men to go away? No’

The American author on feminist utopias, surviving the apocalypse and who is really responsible for the scourge of electric bikes on the pavement

On my radar: Eva Rothschild’s cultural highlights

The Irish artist on a thrilling Mexican novel, a lovable comedy about two Cork misfits, and some devastating Mississippi blues

Books to bring us together: Jennifer Egan, Howard Jacobson, Monica Ali and more share their picks

Can books unite us in divided times? Writers appearing at this year’s Hay Festival recommend the best reading to reconnect us

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin; Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister; Oxblood by Tom Benn; The Island by Adrian McKinty; Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson

‘When Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston were cast I was in shock’: Sarah Perry on The Essex Serpent

As an adaptation of her bestselling novel comes to screens, Sarah Perry describes the joys of being on set – and how the production restored her faith in storytelling

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov review – the dangers of dwelling in the past

From communism to the Brexit referendum and conflict in Europe, this funny yet frightening Bulgarian novel explores the weaponisation of nostalgia

Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor review – a magical debut

A 12-year-old girl in rural Kenya has the power to see into her country’s painful past in this compelling, beautifully written novel