The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
Havoc by Christopher Bollen; Strange Pictures by Uketsu; Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor; Murder Mindfully by Karsten Dusse; The Day of the Roaring by Nina Bhadreshwar
Hisham Matar: ‘I learned English by listening to Jane Austen audiobooks’
The British-Libyan author on Hemingway’s craft, finding comfort in Joseph Conrad, and spending six months drowning in Austen
Good Girl by Aria Aber review – coming of age in Berlin
This powerful debut plunges the reader into a raging battle between a young Afghan woman’s cultural identity and desire for freedom
Quarterlife by Devika Rege review – an ambitious debut of the new India
This acutely portrayed reckoning with contemporary Indian sociopolitics traces the faultlines of caste, class and religion
Confessions by Catherine Airey review – family secrets unearthed
This episodic, multi-layered debut crosses decades and continents to shine a light on the universality and uniqueness of women’s experience
Noreen Riols obituary
Trainer for the Special Operations Executive who acted as a ‘honey trap’ and later wrote novels based on her wartime experiences
Colin Barrett’s Wild Houses among winners of Nero book awards
The booker longlisted title takes the debut fiction prize while Adam S Leslie, Sophie Elmhirst and Liz Hyder win fiction, nonfiction and children’s categories
Alive in the Merciful Country by AL Kennedy review – peace of mind meets a monster from the past
This provocative novel contains two narratives: the memoir of an activist starting a new life and the violent manifesto of a spy cop who knew her
The Princess of 72nd Street by Elaine Kraf review – charming portrait of an artist in her own world
Kraf’s charming and challenging fourth and final novel, now published in the UK, is narrated by a New Yorker who experiences psychotic episodes
In brief: Sweat; Wild Grace; In Search of Amrit Kaur – review
A clammy revenge thriller set within the fitness industry; the story of modern dance’s pioneering women; and a quest for an enigmatic wartime heroine
Richard Price: ‘I don’t like to write, I just don’t – it’s too much anxiety’
The US novelist and co-writer of The Wire on why his new book isn’t about cops and robbers, his 80s drug addiction and the authors who have inspired him
‘I didn’t want to fit in a box of what an Aboriginal person should write’: how Alexis Wright found her voice
As her ground-breaking biography of Aboriginal activist Tracker Tilmouth is re-issued, the acclaimed Australian author remembers her late friend and talks about her latest novel, Praiseworthy
The Artist by Lucy Steeds review – mystery and romance in Provence
An aspiring English journalist enters the life of a fabled painter in this seductive debut of art, love and family secrets
Bapsi Sidhwa obituary
Pakistani author whose novels offered an insight into the Parsi community and highlighted the challenges of reconciling different cultures
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup
Aerth by Deborah Tomkins; Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix; Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao; The Garden by Nick Newman