Elizabeth Strout: ‘I would never ask someone to read my books!’
The Pulitzer winner on rereading Virginia Woolf, falling out of love with John Cheever, and the Pushkin story that made her cry
Small Rain by Garth Greenwell review – the lessons of pain
The author of Cleanness considers the physicality of suffering through the experiences of a poet hospitalised during Covid
The Degenerates by Raeden Richardson review – ambitious debut pulses with life and language
A young woman grapples with the limits of storytelling and language to do justice to the lives of those on society’s fringes
A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enríquez review – gothic horror with a twist
This Argentinian short story collection is at its best when it breaks from convention
Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans review – a deeply pleasurable postwar tale
This family saga set in a country house at the end of the second world war is a warm, funny exploration of domestic life and social change
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst review – his finest novel yet
Gay life in England across the decades, from the 1960s to the pandemic, is captured with glowing intensity through an actor’s memories
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus may have been co-written by forgotten dramatist
Exclusive: Scholar names Henry Porter as likely co-author of 1604 play after linguistic clues in his surviving work
Novelist Rebecca Watson: ‘What are siblings: twisted reflections of ourselves? Allies? Enemies?’
The author of I Will Crash, about an estranged brother and sister, looks at other books on difficult sibling relationships, from authors including Sally Rooney and Julia Armfield
The Women Behind the Door by Roddy Doyle review – his best yet
In the third outing for Paula Spencer – mother, alcoholic, domestic abuse survivor – Doyle captures her strength and vulnerability in prose that radiates energy and life
A Kid from Marlboro Road by Edward Burns review – the most Irish-American novel of the year
A 12-year-old New Yorker records his childhood memories and family anecdotes in the film-maker’s vivid and tender first book
All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles review – poignant meditation on masculinity and alienation
A working-class writer rails against the corporate world and small-mindedness in a striking debut novel written as a monologue
In brief: My Roman Year; Madwoman; Mapping the Darkness – review
A sensuous memoir by the author of Call Me by Your Name; a suspenseful tale about a mother’s trauma-haunted double life; and the science of sleep illuminatingly explored
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney review – is there a better writer at work right now?
With her fourth novel, the Normal People author leans fully into her talent, creating a funny, tender tale of two grieving brothers and their messy love lives that’s utterly perfect
Isabella Hammad: ‘I heard Edward Said speak when I was seven’
One of Granta’s best young novelists on rage, identity politics and the need for precision as well as poetry
On my radar: Yotam Ottolenghi’s cultural highlights
The chef on a novel that triumphantly captures messy London life, a Turkish Netflix drama that shows Istanbul’s split worlds and the app that gets him going in the morning