Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes review – a welcome return for the troubled heroine
A quarter of a century after the bestselling Rachel’s Holiday, the author catches up with her creation in a witty and warm-hearted sequel
Esi Edugyan: ‘At school in Canada, slavery was never mentioned’
The award-winning writer on feeling compelled to write about race, the benefits of staying put and swapping first drafts with her husband, poet Steven Price
Author Joanne Harris turns down US book deal over censoring of ‘f-bomb’
Author of Chocolat says she does not use words ‘accidentally’
Winchelsea by Alex Preston review – a salt-tinged 18th-century romp
Smugglers terrorise Kent in this intelligent and satisfying historical thriller, based on the real-life Hawkhurst Gang
‘It felt horrific to be in Britain as a Muslim after 9/11’: Pankaj Mishra and Kamila Shamsie in conversation
The writers discuss problems of representation, class, the culture wars and how fiction is a great way to ask difficult questions
Double Blind by Edward St Aubyn audiobook review – Cumberbatch revels in caustic wit
The Sherlock actor breathes life into the intertwined narratives of a group of thirtysomething professionals, spiked with flashes of caustic wit
Where to start with: James Joyce
Always wanted to tackle the great Irish writer but not sure Ulysses is for you? This handy primer may just help you find a way in
Iron Curtain by Vesna Goldsworthy review – belonging and betrayal
A child of the elite crosses the divide from east to west, in this atmospheric and gloriously vivid novel
Defenestrate by Renée Branum review – a riddling and original debut about twins
This beguiling novel gets inside the experience of twinship as a brother and sister face the prospect of separation
Top 10 buildings in fiction
It may only rarely get built, but imaginary architecture is a crucial support for many stories, from Jane Austen’s Pemberley to Kafka’s Castle and Ballard’s High-Rise
Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman review – myth in Georgian London
A young woman living above an antiquarian shop comes across an ancient vase in this vivid debut
Pure Colour by Sheila Heti review – love, philosophy and foliage
This mystical, wildly original study of grief and love considers God, art and what it’s like to be a leaf
Sarah Vaughan: ‘Other writers ask if I’ve got a crystal ball. Actually, I just read the news’
As she publishes a thriller about a trolled MP, and Netflix adapts her bestseller Anatomy of a Scandal, the former journalist talks about power, privilege and her unnervingly prescient novels
Toto Among the Murderers by Sally J Morgan review – darkness and danger in the 1970s
A real-life brush with serial killers Fred and Rose West is the inspiration for a prizewinning debut novel that is both driven and stymied by its own earnestness
In brief: Cleopatra and Frankenstein; Unattached; Dálvi: Six Years in the Arctic Tundra – review
A stylish novel about an impulsive marriage, female reflections on the single life and an entrancing escape to the far north