Sarah Jessica Parker gets a ‘golden ticket’ to the judging panel of 2025 Booker prize

Sex and the City star says it is ‘the thrill of a life’ to be appointed to 2025 panel alongside Roddy Doyle, Kiley Reid and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ to pick year’s best novel

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead audiobook review – a dark chapter in America’s past

A pair of boys try to survive the horrors of a US reform school during the segregated 60s in this Pulitzer-winning novel

‘Very generous and utterly terrifying’: novelist Edward Carey on Pinter, puppets and his spell living in a theatre

The author, whose latest gothic novel is inspired by his lifelong love of theatre, on his journey from stage to page – and why his house in Austin is home to a 4ft doll of Madame Tussaud

‘It can feel quite mysterious’: Alan Garner on writing, folklore and experiencing time slips in the Pennines

At 90, the author reflects on his friendship with Alan Turing, quantum realities and how his grandfather inspired his latest book

Eurotrash by Christian Kracht review – blackly comic autofiction

A writer takes his elderly mother on a road trip through the Swiss Alps in an attempt to break with his privileged family’s dysfunctional past

The 25 best Australian books of 2024: Helen Garner, Tim Winton, Nam Le and more

Just in time for your Christmas shopping: Guardian Australia’s critics and staff pick out the best of the best

A Dream of White Horses by Paul Scraton review – images of exile

A photographer sets out to make a ‘personal geography’ of his native Germany in this poetic tale of loss and belonging

James Fleming obituary

Novelist and editor who owned the Book Collector, the magazine founded by his uncle and James Bond creator Ian

Yan F Zhang’s ‘fearsome and memorable’ Fleeting Marrow wins 4thWrite prize

The ‘remarkable’ short story is based on real-life deportations of Chinese seafarers in the UK after the second world war

Sarah Jessica Parker joins judging panel of 2025 Booker prize

Sex and the City star says being asked ‘felt very daunting’, as she signs up to pick the year’s best novel with Roddy Doyle, Kiley Reid and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

My Lesbian Novel by Renee Gladman review – an experimental romcom

The American author sets out to write a “feelgood” romance that honours her commitment to language as a charged, living entity

Anthony Cummins’s best fiction of 2024

From Sally Rooney’s funny and observant latest to Joseph O’Neill’s compelling Godwin and Sarah Manguso’s gripping portrayal of a broken marriage, these are the year’s most enjoyable novels

The best books to give as gifts this Christmas

From a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn to Al Pacino’s autobiography, novelists and nonfiction writers reveal the books they will be giving as gifts – and the volumes they would love to find in their own stocking

Aspiring UK author shoots up bestseller lists after viral social media post

Vicky Ball expressed delight on X at selling two novels at an event – then catapulted up Amazon’s book charts

The best books of 2024

A new Sally Rooney, the return of le Carré’s George Smiley, plus real-life revelations from Al Pacino and Salman Rushdie ... Guardian critics pick the year’s best fiction, memoir, children’s books and more