Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout review – the return of Lucy Barton

In the third book in the series, the emotional panorama of a long relationship is beautifully observed as Lucy reconnects with her ex-husband

Lucy Caldwell wins BBC national short story award for ‘masterful’ tale

Having been shortlisted twice before, this year the Northern Irish writer takes the £15,000 prize for All the People Were Mean and Bad

My favourite overlooked Black writer – by Bernardine Evaristo, Margaret Atwood and more

From the memoirs of a slave to the story of Britain’s first Black headteacher, leading writers including Malorie Blackman and David Olusoga choose the Black authors who fired their imaginations

Dune: science fiction’s answer to Lord of the Rings

Frank Herbert’s novel, now adapted for cinema with Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, is finally getting the recognition it deserves, agree authors including Neil Gaiman and Jeff VanderMeer

In brief: The Importance of Being Interested; Small Things Like These; Empireland – review

Robin Ince in conversation with scientists, a brave Irish novella from Claire Keegan, and Sathnam Sanghera’s extraordinary exploration of empire

Palmares by Gayl Jones review – an enslaved child’s search for utopia

Set in 17th-century Brazil, Jones’s first novel in 20 years is an intricate, imaginative story of love and brutality

Life Without Children by Roddy Doyle review – frustrated lives in lockdown

In these emotionally charged short stories, Doyle explores love, resentment and connection through the eye of the pandemic

Elizabeth Strout: ‘I’ve thought about death every day since I was 10’

As her latest book, Oh William!, is published, the novelist discusses childhood, loneliness – and perseverance

Penelope Lively: ‘I was a traumatised teenager’

The Booker-winning author on starting late as a writer, her clear recall of growing up in Cairo, and the TV programme that kept her going during lockdown

Charlotte Wood: ‘The artists I most respect have a real acceptance of the animal self’

Appearing at Guardian Australia’s Zoom book club, the author reflected on creativity, the beauty of boredom, and her new essay collection, The Luminous Solution

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Riccardino by Andrea Camilleri; April in Spain by John Banville; We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza; Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun; and The Whistling by Rebecca Netley

Gabriel Byrne: ‘I’ve never played Hamlet, but in many ways I am him’

The actor on preferring girls’ comics, being politicised by fiction and finally understanding The Great Gatsby

Oldladyvoice by Elisa Victoria review – a wise, warped jewel of a novel

This effervescent story about a strange little girl in 1990s Spain paints a vivid, unsettling picture of the millennium’s end

Gary Paulsen, author of young adult adventure Hatchet, dies at age 82

Final novel to be published in 2022 by author known for tales of wilderness survival that became staples of US school reading lists

Michelle de Kretser turns the novel upside down: ‘My aim was to play with form’

The two-time Miles Franklin-winner’s new book, Scary Monsters, is in fact two books, with two front covers – and no clues as to where to start