The Woman from Uruguay by Pedro Mairal review – nuanced tale of a midlife crisis

This astute novella follows an Argentinian writer and his frail fantasies on a day trip to Montevideo

Social media helped me face cancer, says Chocolat author Joanne Harris

Writer tells Lauren Laverne on Desert Island Discs how she felt ‘connected to the world’ when discussing her breast cancer

The Fell by Sarah Moss review – the hills are alive with pandemic anxieties

The story of four characters craving nature in the Peak District is a deft mixture of mounting dread, metaphysical angst and doomy drollness

Mary Gaitskill: ‘I have a nuanced mind, for better and worse’

The novelist and essayist on the disturbing power of Lolita, her regard for John Cheever, and her aversion to simplistic arguments

‘The Every is about an all-powerful monopoly that seeks to eliminate competition’: why Dave Eggers won’t sell his new hardback on US Amazon

The author on returning to the dystopian world of big tech in his sequel to The Circle, and how he’s taking a stand against Bezos’s empire

The name’s not Bond: where next for 007?

Hard on the heels of No Time to Die’s release, a new series of Bondless Bond novels from Kim Sherwood has been announced. Will it shake or stir the franchise?

Elif Shafak: ‘Reading Orlando was like plunging into a cold but beautifully blue sea’

The novelist on her love of Virginia Woolf, being inspired by HG Wells and how Jack Kerouac’s ego puts her off his books

Murder Isn’t Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine review – science and skullduggery

Mortuary technician Valentine reveals how advances in crime-fighting made their way into Christie’s novels

The Falling Thread by Adam O’Riordan review – deeply satisfying

The poet’s debut novel follows the drama-filled lives of three siblings in Manchester, in the lead up to the first world war

The Selfless Act of Breathing by JJ Bola review – an existential roadtrip

This powerful if overwrought novel considers one man’s search for release from systemic racism

Licensed to thrill: Kim Sherwood set to ‘expand the James Bond universe’

Known for her debut novel Testament, the Ian Fleming fanatic has been approved to write new novels set in 007’s world but without the agent himself

The Retreat by Alison Moore review – a tale of two islands

A would-be artist and an aspiring writer seek seclusion, in haunting but underdeveloped reflections on creativity and escape

Damon Galgut’s layered feat of fiction is a clear Booker winner

The Promise, about a toxic family in a toxic society, feels like the book this author was born to write

Damon Galgut wins Booker prize with ‘spectacular’ novel The Promise

The novelist takes the £50,000 prize with a ‘strong, unambiguous commentary on the history of South Africa and of humanity itself’

Senegal’s Mohamed Mbougar Sarr wins top French literary prize

Prix Goncourt goes to 31-year-old’s novel The Most Secret Memory of Men, praised for its ‘stunning energy’