The best science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup

Old Soul by Susan Barker; Model Home by Rivers Solomon; Mother of Serpents by John R Gordon; Symbiote by Michael Nayak; Waterblack by Alex Pheby

The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr review – a tale of hope in rural Ireland

A baby washes up in a barrel in this warm-hearted and surprising debut

The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O’Donnell review – Victorian gothic

The pursuers become the pursued in this tale of vulnerable children, society murders and an irascible detective

We Do Not Part by Han Kang review – a masterpiece from the Nobel laureate

One woman’s quest, told through haunting, harrowing, dreamlike imagery, bears witness to Korea’s traumatic past

Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett review – secrets and solitude

An estranged mother and son confront their past, in the new novel from the author of Union Atlantic

What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in January

Authors and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler review – a wise and wonderful account of infidelity

The US author’s masterly portrait of a divorced couple brought together by their daughter’s wedding is beautifully observed

Romantasy and BookTok driving a huge rise in science fiction and fantasy sales

The subgenre helped increase the market share by 41.3% last year aided by bestseller Fourth Wing from Rebecca Yarros while food and drink topped nonfiction sales

‘Pioneering’, ‘engrossing’, ‘a hymn to connection’: the best Australian books out in February

Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have already devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji review – highly entertaining matrilineal saga

Three generations of women from a well-connected, wealthy family navigate the different faces of exile in a dynamic and complex debut novel

The Lamb by Lucy Rose review – a hard tale to shake

The film-maker’s evocative debut novel, a feminist gothic horror, explores loneliness, cannibalism and queer desire

In brief: Between Britain; It Comes from the River; Golden State – review

The relationship between England and Scotland explored on foot; an unsettling novel of northern sisterhood and resilience; and a revelatory history of California

Colin Barrett: ‘My wife is astonished that I’m able to write’

The award-winning author on his move from short stories to novels, writing marginal characters in small-town Mayo and the Irish fiction he rates most

Tash Aw: ‘There’s something hyper-masculine about writing an epic’

As he embarks on a quartet of novels following one family, the Malaysian author talks about storytelling, family silences – and the legacy of colonialism

‘I want to be hopeful’: Nobel prize-winning novelist Han Kang on the crisis in South Korea

With protests on the streets of Seoul, the celebrated writer talks about the painful process of uncovering her country’s brutal past - and how it felt to win the Nobel prize