The Candy House by Jennifer Egan review – new tech, old wounds
This companion novel to A Visit from the Goon Squad, in which memories are uploaded and shared, explores the loneliness of hyper-connectivity
‘They are totally smashing it!’ Bernardine Evaristo on the artistic triumph of older Black women
Artists, novelists, actors, poets: from the Venice Biennale to Bridgerton, Black women in their 50s and 60s are finally getting the recognition they deserve, says the pioneering Booker winner
Four times more male characters in literature than female, research suggests
A study by University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering used AI to measure pronoun use, uncovering a huge disparity in gender frequency
Top 10 books about performance – the lives of actors and musicians
The challenge of capturing the triumphs and crushing failures of the stage and concert hall in words has been taken on by writers from Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf and Eimear McBride
Where to start with: Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys’s prequel to Jane Eyre, is a set text in schools but are you familiar with the rest of the Dominica-born writer’s work? This handy guide from her biographer will help you find a way in
All Along the Echo by Danny Denton review – a cyclone made of words
A radio DJ’s road trip across a near-future Ireland is interwoven with disembodied voices and listener contributions
Six ‘wonderfully diverse’ novels make the Women’s prize shortlist
Louise Erdrich, Elif Shafak and debut novelist Lisa Allen-Agostini are among the contenders offering an ‘escape’ from global crises
People Person by Candice Carty-Williams review – Daddy issues
The breezily enjoyable follow-up to Queenie explores the legacy of a gallivanting Jamaican patriarch, when his five adult children are unexpectedly thrown together
Brave New World by Fred Fordham review – brilliant Huxley reboot
This rip-roaring graphic retelling of the Aldous Huxley classic brings to mind Fritz Lang, Spielberg and vintage comics
Bolla by Pajtim Statovci review – love during wartime
An Albanian and a Serbian in Kosovo are wrenched apart by homophobia and conflict in this dark, powerful novel
Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso review – a masterclass in unease
The American writer’s first novel applies her spare, elliptical style to a creepy coming-of-age tale set in Massachusetts
Patrick McCabe: ‘Even today you can walk into some Irish bars and be in a different dimension’
In his hometown bar in Clones, the Butcher Boy novelist talks about the nature of memory and surreal 1960s ‘happenings’
One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe review – a droll take on female friendship
The Love, Nina author’s new novel has all its predecessors’ gossipy bookishness and quirky charm
People Person by Candice Carty-Williams review – sharp witted but contrived family drama
The Queenie author’s follow-up loses the plot in this tale of five estranged siblings, a neglectful father and a dead body
In brief: Idol; The Paper Palace; Dinner With Joseph Johnson – review
A public challenge for a lifestyle guru, Miranda Cowley Heller’s outstanding debut and the vibrant world of 18th-century publishing