Magpie by Elizabeth Day review – a clever thriller about baby hunger
Marisa moves into a seemingly perfect house with a seemingly perfect man – but a surprise is in store
Palmares by Gayl Jones review – a long-awaited vision of freedom
Set in 17th-century Brazil, this wild and winding epic about a community of Africans who have escaped slavery is a revelation
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen review – a fine start to a family trilogy
This simmering 70s-set domestic drama is warm, expansive and funny – a pure pleasure to read
Author Emily Bitto: ‘England is not the cultural centre for Australians any more’
Stella Prize winner’s new novel with its Tiger King-style setting in rural Ohio is an exploration of hedonism in the face of capitalist decline
How to Be an Antiracist author Ibram X Kendi awarded MacArthur ‘genius grant’
Writers Daniel Alarcón and Reginald Dwayne Betts have also been named on the list of 25 new fellows to receive $625,000 from the foundation
Laura Jean McKay wins the Arthur C Clarke award
The Australian writer has won the prestigious science fiction prize for her debut novel The Animals in That Country
Matrix by Lauren Groff review – thrilling trip into the mystic
The Fates and Furies author reconstructs the life of a 12th-century nun, drawing out conflict, drama and queer undercurrents
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka review – a vast danse macabre
The Nigerian writer’s first novel in nearly 50 years is a vivid, shocking story of political corruption in a country much like his homeland
In brief: Lemon; The Nutmeg’s Curse; Dirt – reviews
Kwon Yeo-Sun brings eerie beauty to crime fiction, Amitav Ghosh traces the climate crisis to colonialism and Bill Buford goes to the heart of French cuisine
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr review – all human life is here
Classical philosophy meets the climate crisis in the Pulitzer prize-winner’s propulsive novel stretching over 700 years
Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé – a village united by a vagabond
The death of a newcomer to a Guadeloupean community sparks a meandering, fascinating novel about the locals’ interconnected lives
The Magician by Colm Tóibín review – a difficult Mann to know
This dramatisation of Thomas Mann’s private and public life never quite convinces as biography or fiction
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen review – spiritual successor to The Corrections
The pastor’s family at the heart of Franzen’s sixth novel – a bravura examination of the mores of liberal America in 1971 – are his most sympathetic creation to date
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins audiobook review – Rosamund Pike turns up the heat
A body on a houseboat and twists galore in this gripping thriller narrated by the Hollywood actor – plus this week’s other picks
Jonathan Franzen: ‘I just write it like I see it and that gets me in trouble’
Twenty years on from The Corrections, America’s most lauded author is back. But will he put his foot in it again?