The 25 best Australian books of 2021: Helen Garner, Alice Pung, Tony Birch and more
Experimental elegies, portraits of resilience and political manifestos: 25 of the best reads of the year as picked by Guardian Australia critics and staff
Cosy crime, cookbooks and a surprise hit: what we’ve really read in the pandemic
It was a chance to finally get around to Tolstoy or Proust, but the charts tell a different story. Which books did we actually turn to in the lockdowns?
An Unusual Grief by Yewande Omotoso review – the aftermath of tragedy
A mother sets out to excavate the details of her daughter’s life in this outstanding study of bereavement
Address Book by Neil Bartlett review – reflections on gay London life
From cruising to homophobia, Aids to Covid, seven men from different times tell their stories
Christmas parties that never happened: the best festive revels in literature
With ‘fictional’ Christmas parties in the news, it seemed only right to pick out for Boris Johnson some other festive shindigs that were figments of the imagination
Learwife by JR Thorp review – out of Shakespeare’s shadows
This impressive, opulently written debut novel begins where King Lear ends, as his invisible queen tells her story at last
Nobel winner Abdulrazak Gurnah says ‘writing cannot be just about polemics’
The Zanzibari novelist spoke of migration, colonialism and how he became a writer in his acceptance lecture on Tuesdsay
Feminist retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four approved by Orwell’s estate
American writer Sandra Newman’s novel Julia will tell the dystopian story from the perspective of Winston Smith’s lover
The best children’s and YA books of 2021
From magical picture books and rollicking adventures to the conclusion of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses series, standout reads for all ages
‘A sense of discovery’: Philip Pullman on religion, school plays and The Book of Dust
As an adaptation of La Belle Sauvage arrives at the Bridge theatre, the author explains why His Dark Materials was better as a play than a film – and how he learned to write for children and adults
The best books of 2021, chosen by our guest authors
From piercing studies of colonialism to powerful domestic sagas and all points in between, our panel of writers share their favourite titles of 2021
Torrey Peters: ‘My book’s about dealing with the adult realities of being trans’
The acclaimed author of Detransition, Baby talks about the novel’s breakthrough success and how she was moved by the support of contemporaries
On my radar: Adjoa Andoh’s cultural highlights
The actor on her hopes for Brixton’s new theatre, an offbeat western and the sophistication of African art
Best fiction of 2021
Dazzling debuts, a word-of-mouth hit, plus this year’s bestsellers from Sally Rooney, Jonathan Franzen, Kazuo Ishiguro and more
Five of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2021
A locked-room mystery, interstellar office politics, a masterful space opera and more