A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris review – the man and the myth
A dreamer’s storytelling son reworks his father’s life in Ferris’s daring and very funny latest
On my radar: Roy Williams’s cultural highlights
The renowned playwright on David Morrissey’s acting podcast, the joy of Marvel movies and the musician he listens to every day
Lauren Groff on Fates and Furies: ‘I thought it would be interesting to write a book questioning marriage’
The author on the years of scribbling ideas on her walls that eventually became this novel
New hustle: Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead on his heist novel
The author talks about his book set among small time crooks in 1960s Harlem, the joy of switching it up - and why he looks up to Stanley Kubrick
Tenderness by Alison MacLeod review – the triumph of Lady Chatterley
The story of DH Lawrence’s novel, from its inspirations to the landmark obscenity trial, is traced with love and skill
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin; Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty; Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden; The Whistleblower by Robert Peston; and The Wrong Goodbye by Toshihiko Yahagi
The Magician by Colm Tóibín review – inside the mind of Thomas Mann
This compelling fictionalised biography explores the life and times of the exiled German Nobel winner, exquisitely balancing the intimate and momentous
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty review – overgarnished but pyrotechnic family drama
A missing grandmother is at the heart of this perfectly readable but indulgent new mystery from the mordant queen of Sydney suburbia
And then there were two: novel thought to have inspired Agatha Christie gets UK publication
The Invisible Host, a 1930 murder mystery by two US journalists, has remarkable parallels with Christie’s most successful work
The Sisters Mao review – dazzlingly ambitious yet modestly human
Gavin McCrea’s second novel juxtaposes revolutionaries in London and China as it explores the roles of art and motherhood in communism
Newly discovered Tennessee Williams story published for the first time
The 1952 work by the Streetcar Named Desire playwright was found in Harvard University’s archives
A Calling for Charlie Barnes review – tragicomedy of the American Dream
Joshua Ferris’s story of a fraud, fool and faithless husband narrated by his novelist son is funny, moving – and surprising
Nadifa Mohamed is sole British writer to make Booker prize shortlist
The author of The Fortune Men will now compete with five other novelists from South Africa, Sri Lanka and the US for the 2021 award
Freight Dogs by Giles Foden review – into the dark heart of the Congo wars
The Last King of Scotland author wrenches readers into a period of horrifying violence for a sharp study of the moral complexity of war
Bewilderment by Richard Powers review – stars in their eyes
An astrobiologist soothes his troubled son with inner voyages to fantastical worlds in a tender sci-fi novel-cum-family romance