Blank Canvas by Grace Murray review – a superb debut from a 22-year-old author
In this energisingly original novel, an emotionally detached English student at college in New York tells a big lie
Thursday briefing: Thirty years of the Women’s prize for fiction – have male novelists been edged out?
In today’s newsletter: As the literary award marks its 30th anniversary, the debate about whether it is relevant when women dominate bestsellers list has resurfaced
Sara Banerji obituary
Novelist whose stories set in Britain and India combined realistic domestic detail with myth and magic
The Master of Contradictions by Morten Høi Jensen review – how Thomas Mann wrote The Magic Mountain
A vivid account of the creation of one of literary modernism’s greatest achievements
The Dead Don’t Bleed by Neil Rollinson review – a gripping tale of family and forbidden love
Two brothers attempt to escape their father’s gangland past in a tense, tender debut that moves between Thatcher-era Northumberland and southern Spain
A terminally online book nerd, I tried asking IRL what I should read. This is what happened
Rafqa Touma found herself in a binge-slump reading cycle from following recommendations on social media. Could booksellers in actual bookshops help?
‘You don’t really see it in fiction’: how one novelist brought ‘Detty December’ party season back from Ghana
Jessica Carmichael’s coming-of-age YA novel is set during the huge annual diasporic return to west Africa, which ‘changed the trajectory’ of her life
Cape Fever by Nadia Davids review – a power struggle between mistress and maid
Set in a colonial city after the first world war, this story of a battle of wills between an elderly widow and her young servant is deftly told
The Guardian view on the National Year of Reading 2026: time to start a healthy habit for life
Editorial: A Children’s Booker prize, library cards for newborns and a major campaign – initiatives to encourage a love of books in children are a cause for celebration
This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin – set to be a standout novel of 2026
From an acclaimed short-story writer, this epic of power and class across generations in Pakistan is brutal, funny and brilliantly told
The Cat by Georges Simenon review – Maigret author’s tale of a toxic marriage
The Belgian author’s genius comes to the fore in a dark domestic drama
Books to look out for in 2026 – fiction
Maggie O’Farrell, Yann Martel and Julian Barnes are among the authors publishing new novels this year
Michael Slater obituary
Scholar of Charles Dickens who wrote a definitive biography and shone a light on the writer’s more neglected works
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy; Darkrooms by Rebecca Hannigan; The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace by RWR McDonald; Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino; Your Every Move by Sam Blake
‘Like Kafka by way of Pedro Almodóvar’: 10 debut novels to look out for in 2026
A Pulitzer finalist is among the first-time novelists, in tales of love, a surreal prison, teen murder and a tradwife