Madeline Miller: ‘Reading Ayn Rand was like being dipped in slime’
The author of The Song of Achilles on discovering TS Eliot, her childhood love of James Herriot and the subversive genius of Chinua Achebe
Auē by Becky Manawatu review – an enthralling New Zealand bestseller
This acclaimed debut has stirred debate over its depiction of violence in Māori communities – but this risks ignoring the hope and tenderness present too
Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein review – a hipster literary romp
A stolen idea has consequences for an aspiring author in this self-conscious satirical caper about the indignities of ambition
International Booker prize announces longlist ‘tracing ring around the world’
The 13 books in contention for the £50,000 prize include Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, the first book translated from Hindi to be nominated
Homesickness by Colin Barrett review – superb stories of changing Ireland
One of the leading proponents of the short story explores how to be a man in a country on the turn
Top 10 books about suffering artists
From Max Porter’s vision of Francis Bacon’s last days to Heather Clark’s fresh look at Sylvia Plath, these works complicate our understanding of the links between pain and art
Beat it Batman – this foppish baronet was the world’s first superhero
Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Superman, Black Widow ... they can all trace their origins back to an exiled Hungarian baroness who dreamed up The Scarlet Pimpernel while riding the London Tube
Mother’s Boy by Howard Jacobson review – a captivatingly melodramatic memoir
The writer’s account of his tortured journey to adulthood is wildly lacking in proportion, and all the better for it
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield – deep emotions
A woman returns to her wife transformed after a deep-sea voyage in this powerful debut novel
Three things with Jane Caro: ‘It’s not the 80s and it never will be again’
In our weekly interview about objects, the writer and commentator tells us about her bag of essentials, and the earrings she amassed in the 80s
Five debut novels make Women’s prize for fiction longlist
Judges praise the ‘fantastically diverse list’ which includes debut novelists Violet Kupersmith and Dawnie Walton
Stop moaning about sensitivity readers – if there was diversity in publishing we wouldn’t need them
Since 2011, all my book editors have been white. Why wouldn’t I want another perspective on the characters I invent, asks author and screenwriter Juno Dawson
French Braid by Anne Tyler review – rifts and reunions in Robin’s nest
The author continues to deftly mine the tensions and resentments of family life with a tender and sprawling saga set across six tumultuous decades
In brief: Cold Enough for Snow; The Magician; God Is Dead – reviews
A wistful, Tokyo-set novella, a dramatisation of the life of Thomas Mann and a compelling biography of a doomed Belgian cyclist
The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews review – a potent brew of civil war and witch trials
Mystery and fantasy weave a tangled web in this richly atmospheric debut novel set in turbulent 17th-century Norfolk