Writer Percival Everett: ‘Deciding to write a book is like knowingly entering a bad marriage’
The American novelist on James, his Booker-shortlisted retelling of Huckleberry Finn, working with Steven Spielberg and the silliness of the Oscars
The Kings Head by Kelly Frost review – jocular story of street-fighting sisters
The journalist’s debut novel about a London girl gang of the 1950s expertly toys with gender and explores young people’s place in the world
Writer David Szalay: ‘We live in an era of short attention spans – we have to work with it the best we can’
The Hungarian-English author on addressing what it’s like to be a male body in the world, learning the tricks of literature from Frederick Forsyth, and the feeling of nearly winning the Booker
‘The essential ingredient is openness’: Curtis Sittenfeld on the deep joy of midlife friendship
Friendships become closer and more fulfilling as you get older argues the novelist, because by the time you reach middle age everyone has faced dramatic challenges, disappointments and sorrows – and being honest about them is a powerful point of bonding
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis review – witty debut about Islamic State brides
A young academic travels to Iraq to help a British Asian who joined IS at 15, in this rollicking account of a UN deradicalisation programme
The Knowing by Madeleine Ryan review – intriguing ‘phone-free’ premise falters in execution
The author’s sophomore novel, in which a young woman is propelled on a journey of self-discovery after accidentally leaving her mobile at home, asks interesting questions but pulls its punches
The Café With No Name by Robert Seethaler review – lost souls in postwar Vienna
A slice-of-life portrait of a community suffering the after-effects of the second world war
Beartooth by Callan Wink review – an expansive drama of survival
Family relationships are explored in this finely executed tale of two brothers drawn into bear poaching in rural Montana
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor review – an SF master moves into the mainstream
This book within a book weaves a writer’s struggles with scenes from their Africanfuturist tale of post-apocalyptic robots
The Violet Hour by James Cahill review – art, secrets and lies
The Tiepolo Blue author’s impressive second novel is an enthrallingly intricate portrait of the art world
Crime and thrillers of the month – review
The scorned woman thriller deftly reimagined, preposterously gripping murders at an ice skating training camp - and a frantic search for a missing daughter
Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell review – a dread-stoking domestic abuse drama
O’Donnell brings the spare intensity of her award-winning short stories to her first novel, a compulsive tale of one woman’s escape intensified by Dublin’s housing crisis
Geoff Nicholson obituary
Author whose work examined the links between emotions, behaviour and location, notably in his novel Bleeding London
The City Changes its Face by Eimear McBride review – romantic friction from the new bohemians
In a nuanced stand-alone sequel, the Irish novelist revisits the lovers from her second book – and finds two lives even more complicated, messy and human than before
The Book of George by Kate Greathead review – an absorbing portrait of millennial malaise
A restless modern male and his long-suffering girlfriend come of age against the historic events of the 21st century in the American writer’s witty second novel