Brighton Rock by Graham Greene audiobook review – Sam West captures the menace of this modern classic
The seaside town’s seedy underbelly is vividly evoked in this timeless tale of murder, romance and revenge
Where to start with: Edmund White
After the news of White’s death, here is a guide to a foundational writer of gay lives and elder statesman of American queer literary fiction
Twelve Post-War Tales by Graham Swift review – haunting visions from a Booker winner
The author’s conceptual agility is on display in these short stories surveying the trauma of conflict and the challenges of survival
Bernardine Evaristo scoops Women’s prize outstanding contribution award
One-off £100,000 prize awarded to Girl, Women, Other writer for entire body of work and ‘dedication to uplifting under-represented voices’
‘Five years from now, these readers will be soldiers’: The Russian literature encouraging teens to enlist
Master-race stories of heroic characters battling against zombie Nazis and western spies to recover imperial grandeur are a bleak new spin on an old propaganda tradition
‘Deliciously addictive’, ‘dripping with suspense’: the best Australian books out in June
Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on
The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey review – beyond the bounds of fiction
You can read it from either end, and go round again, as memoir collides with invention in a brilliant interrogation of art, faith and relationships
‘Men need liberation too’: do we need more male novelists?
As a small press launches dedicated to new male fiction, authors including Anne Enright and Nikesh Shukla ask if men are really being pushed out of publishing
The best recent translated fiction – review roundup
The Propagandist by Cécile Desprairies; Lovers of Franz K by Burhan Sönmez; Back in the Day by Oliver Lovrenski; Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst
Ghost Wedding by David Park review – a thought-provoking novel about the power of the past
The romance is beautifully drawn in this tale of two couples whose lives overlap at a Northern Irish manor house, a century apart
Aidan Chambers obituary
Teacher and writer of ‘youth novels’, which he defended as a literature worth studying and preserving
Kataraina by Becky Manawatu review – a generous and masterful novel
Both a sequel and prequel to the Māori and Pākehā author’s acclaimed debut, Auē, Kataraina is filled with heart-achingly beautiful vignettes
Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle review – what exactly is ‘clairgustance’?
A chef can taste the favourite foods of the departed, in this debut mash-up of satire, ghost story and slushy romance
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, giant of African literature, dies aged 87
Kenyan writer’s death announced by his daughter, who wrote: ‘He lived a full life, fought a good fight’
‘Infused with the fire born of resistance’: the magic of the Calabash literary festival
Marlon James, Ian McEwan and Sheryl Lee Ralph lit up the Jamaican book event, celebrating the small island’s gargantuan cultural footprint with readings, discussions and DJs