When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo review – a deeply satisfying debut
This spirited Trinidadian love story about a gravedigger and a medium has echoes of Dickens
Fantasy fans crowdfund record £17m for author Brandon Sanderson’s new novels
Bestselling writer insists he won’t forsake his publishers after dramatic overnight success on Kickstarter
Karen Joy Fowler: ‘I’m a bossy writer; I’m not going to not tell you’
The 2014 Booker nominee on her new novel about the family of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, the ‘horrible secret’ of her sci-fi writing and her long period of despair
‘I felt different as a child. I was nearly mute’: Elena Ferrante in conversation with Elizabeth Strout
The author of the Neapolitan quartet and the Pulitzer prize-winning novelist discuss identity, ambition, truth – and the ‘convulsive’ urge to write
Viet Thanh Nguyen: ‘I didn’t notice the racism of Tintin’
The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist on the depiction of Vietnamese people, the fun in Voltaire’s Candide and memorable masturbation scenes
When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo review – a love letter to Trinidad
A young couple are confronted by life’s duties in a vivid debut about romance and loss in the Caribbean
Loveland by Robert Lukins review – two women reckon with unvoiced terrors in Nebraska
A boathouse by a poisoned lake is one woman’s prison and her granddaughter’s refuge, in a novel that treats both with dignity – and offers no excuses for the men
The Stasi Poetry Circle by Philip Oltermann review – paper spies
The strange true story of how East Germany’s secret service tried to win the cold war with verse
The Wonders by Elena Medel review – a poetic portrait of Spanish womanhood
The lives of two working-class women are interleaved in a bold debut novel with flashes of beauty
Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood review – wisdom and wonder
The novelist is frank, excellent company in her third volume of essays, covering the Obama years, #MeToo and Covid
Top 10 world-spanning novels
Writers from David Mitchell to Graham Greene and Rachel Kushner tell stories that seek out interconnectedness, testing and pulling at the idea of nationhood
Here Again Now by Okechukwu Nzelu review – looking for love
History repeats in this story of two gay British-Nigerian friends exploring race and masculinity
These Days by Lucy Caldwell review – a haunting novel of the Belfast blitz
The prize-winning short-story writer and playwright brilliantly evokes wartime love and heartbreak
The best Australian books out in March: what we’re reading this month
At the beginning of each month, Guardian Australia editors pick out the new local books they’ve already read and loved – or can’t wait to get their hands on
Portrait of an Unknown Lady by Maria Gainza review – Bolaño-esque art mystery
The Argentinian writer follows up her thrilling debut, Optic Nerve, with a truth-twisting tale of forgery