The South by Tash Aw review – an intimate epic begins
Two boys on the brink of adulthood in 1990s Malaysia, in the opening volume of a Proustian quartet
John Lithgow set to play Dumbledore in Harry Potter TV series – reports
Actor reportedly in final negotiations to follow up performance in Oscar-nominated hit Conclave with key role in much-anticipated HBO series
Tom Robbins obituary
Novelist whose biggest seller was Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which Thomas Pynchon hoped would change the ‘brainscape of America’
Perspectives by Laurent Binet review – a dazzling Renaissance romp
The HHhH author’s entertaining whodunnit is stuffed with real-life artists behaving badly
Femgore: why romcoms are out in women’s fiction – and cannibalism is in
Forget romance and romantasy. An explosive new genre explores the brutality and body horror women experience
In the 1600s, a Yolŋu girl was kidnapped from an Australian beach. Centuries later her story is a novel
Based on a story from pre-colonial Australia, A Piece of Red Cloth is a pioneering, ‘real collaboration’ between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal storytellers
Empty Wigs by Jonathan Meades review – a black museum of savage stories
Encompassing eugenics, euthanasia and terrorism, this dark, sprawling novel by a man of many talents is not for the easily offended
We Do Not Part by Han Kang review – a harrowing journey into South Korea’s bloody history
The Nobel prize-winner’s strange and unsettling new novel takes its protagonist on a mission that ends up confronting terrible pre-war violence
Money to Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof review – fire and energy in a new septology
This intense tale of lives connected to the Scandinavian Star ferry disaster in 1990 is hardly conventional, but undoubtedly exciting
Don’t Make Me Laugh by Julia Raeside review – did you hear the one about the toxic standup?
Set in the London comedy world, this provocative and funny debut novel explores the grey areas of coercion and intimacy
Hero by Katie Buckley review – fearless study of female desire
The British author’s debut novel pulls no punches in a feminist interrogation of women as archetypes in myths and fairytales
In brief: May Our Joy Endure; The Future of the Novel; Literature for the People – review
A sharp satire set in the world of architecture; a fresh take on present-day fiction; and the rags-to-riches history of the Macmillan publishing brothers
Andrew O’Hagan: ‘A kind of Dickens and Zola energy was pulsing’
The author and journalist on ‘modern London corruption’ and his Orwell prize-shortlisted novel Caledonian Road, how he helped Jonathan Franzen and the last book he gave as a gift
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico review – an object lesson in hollow hipsterism
An expat couple carefully curate their lives through plants and Radiohead LPs in this deliciously pessimistic chronicle of gentrifying Berlin
The Guardian view on romantasy fiction: dragons storm the bookshops
Editorial: Hit novels by Sarah J Maas and Rebecca Yarros offer more than sex and escapism. They have reclaimed the fantasy genre for women