TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker review – satire that sees right through you
This brilliantly over-the-top comedy about an unworldly heckler explores art and authenticity – being tripped up by it is part of the fun
Dame Stella Rimington obituary
First female head of MI5 seen as a Whitehall street fighter whose most controversial role was countering ‘subversion’
‘I’ve seen tough, rugby-playing men cowering’: how we made theatre horror The Woman in Black
‘It’s rare to really frighten a theatre audience. So it surprised us when people said, “I didn’t sleep for three nights after seeing your show”’
Bloody Awful in Different Ways by Andrev Walden review – darkly funny Swedish autofiction
In this bleak, bestselling coming-of-age debut, the author evokes life with the seven dads he had in seven years
Lucy Foley: ‘Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging didn’t talk down to teenage girls’
The crime author on rediscovering Edith Wharton, and the brilliantly twisted author who changed her ideas about writing
Martin Cruz Smith obituary
Novelist best known for Gorky Park and the series of thrillers that followed featuring the Soviet detective Arkady Renko
The Immigrants by Moreno Giovannoni review – family history fuels a novel of understated beauty
Blending fiction and family memoir, the author’s second novel pays tribute to the lives and labour of his parents and their community of postwar Italian immigrants in Australia
What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in July
Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments
Dreaming of Dead People by Rosalind Belben review – rivals anything by Virginia Woolf
More than 40 years on from its first publication, this exploration of one woman’s thoughts and fantasies is a gem worthy of rediscovery
When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén review – a novel anyone will take to heart
A huge hit in Sweden, this portrait of one man and his dog as the end approaches is a simple yet effective meditation on mortality, love and care
This year’s Booker prize longlist looks in new directions
Former winner Kiran Desai leads a varied field, while Alan Hollinghurst misses out
The Fathers by John Niven review – class satire with grit
Two fortysomething Glaswegians from either side of the tracks form an unlikely friendship in this comic melodrama
Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart review – is this the future for America?
Set a decade from now, this coming-of-age caper offers a child’s-eye view of family troubles in a ‘post-democracy’ USA
The stranger in a strange place is an enduring narrative in Australian fiction. But what if the crime scene is a whole continent?
In my new novel The Leap, there is no single mystery to solve, no killer to track down. Just deliberately forgotten truths about racism, massacres and hatred
More sex please, we’re bookish: the rise of the x-rated novel
From the Women’s prize to the bestseller lists, authors are pushing the boundaries of how explicit the novel can be – and readers can’t get enough