Darkenbloom by Eva Menasse review – Holocaust secrets unearthed
Based on a massacre in an Austrian town at the end of the second world war, this thoughtful novel confronts the long shadow of Nazism
Alive in the Merciful Country by AL Kennedy – activism and betrayal
A primary school teacher navigates lockdown in an ambitious novel that asks potent questions about abuses of state and personal power
And He Shall Appear by Kate van der Borgh review – enjoyable dark academia
Whispers of the the occult, class rivalry and Elizabethan alchemy fuel a glamorous debut set in a Cambridge college
Tuesday Morning, Kentish Town: a short story by the award-winning author Kevin Barry
In this exclusive tale four generations of an expat Irish family share a London house, where they gossip and drink and dream as Christmas draws near
‘One of the most beloved writers of all time’: the genius of Joan Aiken at 100
From Willoughby Chase to Black Hearts in Battersea, Joan Aiken’s tales of plucky orphans surviving in industrial Britain are a keystone of children’s literature
‘Perfect for winter nights’: the best crime novels to read at Christmas according to Ian Rankin, Bella Mackie and more
From Maigret to Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, authors choose the whodunnits they love to hunker down with at this time of year
Morning and Evening by Jon Fosse review – what happens when we die
The Nobel prize winner pushes at the veil between this world and the next in the immersive tale of a solitary fisherman
Martin Corrick obituary
Other lives: Teacher and writer who set up Gosport Men’s Shed
Cory Doctorow’s prescient novella about health insurance and murder: ‘They’re going to be afraid’
The parallels between the science fiction writer’s five-year-old story and present-day events are startling
Booksellers predict Orbital by Samantha Harvey will be UK No 1 bestselling book
The Booksellers Association spoke to staff who also highlighted James by Percival Everett, and everything from Chris Hoy’s autobiography to a book about fishing by a dog
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup
Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo; How to Build a Universe that Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later by Philip K Dick; The Woman Who Fell to Earth by RB Russell; Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia
One Hundred Years of Solitude: Colombians celebrate Netflix TV series of the country’s ’national poem’
Considered impossible to film – by even Gabriel García Márquez himself – the series brings the mythical Macondo to life
Samantha Harvey: ‘I wrote love letters to Ross Poldark. Is this an admission too far?’
The Booker-winning novelist on her teenage crush on Winston Graham’s character, the beauty of CS Lewis and how Hermann Hesse changed her life
The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink review – love and loss in Berlin
A widower sets out to understand his wife’s death in this tale of memory, trauma and German reunification, from the author of The Reader
Time of the Child by Niall Williams – new life, new meaning
A baby is abandoned outside a church in this compelling tale of love and moral crisis in 1960s rural Ireland