In brief: Annie Stanley, All at Sea; Some Answers Without Questions; Unexplained Deaths
A charming novel about a woman’s midlife crisis, timely reflections on female creativity and the woman who revolutionised murder investigations
Revealed: the secret trauma that inspired German literary giant
WG Sebald’s writing on the Holocaust was driven by the anger and distress he felt over his father’s service in Hitler’s army
SA Cosby: ‘The holy trinity of southern fiction is race, class and sex’
The bestselling Virginia crime writer on getting his big break, what southern fiction means to him, and setting his next murder mystery right after Trump is elected
Other People’s Clothes by Calla Henkel review – a sparkling debut
A whirlwind of screwball comedy, murder and friendship that examines the cannibalisation of experience to feed social media
Ethel Carnie Holdsworth: campaigners push to revive fame of working-class novelist
Thought to be the first blue-collar female novelist, Holdsworth once outsold HG Wells. Now reprints and an alternative blue plaque aim to restore her reputation
Forget AC-12, meet DS-5: Jed Mercurio on his new graphic novel Sleeper
Fresh from the record-breaking Line of Duty, Mercurio has created a conspiracy thriller set in the 24th-century, with co-writer Prasanna Puwanarajah and illustrator Coke Navarro
David Peace: ‘My comfort read? Old Labour party manifestos’
The novelist on the brilliance of Bulgakov, the Japanese short story that changed him, and wanting to live in Pogles’ Wood
Crime novelist Mo Hayder dies aged 59 from motor neurone disease
Clare Dunkel, who was diagnosed only months ago, wrote 10 thrillers under the pen name and has been remembered as a ‘ferociously inventive’ presence
4thWrite short story prize reveals ‘engaging and provocative’ 2021 shortlist
Seeking out the best new Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers, this year’s finalists range across continents to show ‘the best of what stories can do’
English Magic by Uschi Gatward review – exquisitely eerie withholding
A striking debut collection of unsettling short stories invites us to trust our imaginations
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi review – a series of fights
This pugnacious epistolary memoir by an embodied ‘ogbanje’ spirit is as fascinating for its disturbing self-absorption as for the brilliance of its writing
Top 10 stories about bored teenagers
Writers from Alice Munro to JD Salinger capture the restless ennui and dangerous passions of the do-nothing years before adulthood sets in
The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani review – a compelling exploration of the past
The bestselling author of Lullaby works her dangerous magic on her own family history in the first of a planned trilogy
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura review – difficulties of interpretation
Tipped by Barack Obama, this is an addictively mysterious novel about a woman adrift in her own life
Picture books for children – reviews
From a giggly desert island to the humble hero of the Titanic, these illustrated tales will buoy up young minds