Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner make the 2024 Booker prize shortlist
The six finalists include five books by women – the highest number of female writers shortlisted in the prize’s 55-year history
Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd review – a spy story to rival Restless
A celebrated travel writer is drawn into a labyrinth of secrets and betrayals by MI6, while battling his childhood trauma, in a masterly tale set in the early 60s
The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao review – illuminating tale of love and morals
Longlisted for a fiction prize in the US, this superbly crafted debut novel explores family ties and forbidden friendships in post-independence India
In brief: Small Bomb at Dimperley; The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2020; The Story of Art Without Men – review
A well-structured postwar romance; a fascinating Irish history; and saluting female artists painted into the margins
Virginie Despentes: ‘I wasn’t writing Baise-Moi from a very good place’
The French author of the rape-revenge story on drug addiction, her debt to Charles Bukowski and her new #MeToo book set in publishing
From a new Murakami to a memoir by Cher: the best books of the autumn
Cosy crime, eco-thrillers, political memoirs, YA fantasy: there’s something for everyone in our pick of the books to look out for in the months ahead
‘I wanted to write a suburban Reacher’: Richard Osman talks to Lee Child about class, success and the secret to great crime writing
The two hugely successful authors who both started in TV discuss writing as a second career, natural justice – and what they really think of literary fiction
Sally Rooney: ‘Falling in love when I was very young transformed my life’
Sally Rooney on romance, writing about sex, the Normal People phenomenon and her new novel, Intermezzo
My Friends by Hisham Matar audiobook review – life in exile
Three Libyan friends navigate life in London, separated from their families, in a meditative book steeped in the author’s own experience
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera; Withered Hill by David Barnett; Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud; The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei; The Specimens by Hana Gammon
Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq review – the failure of politics
The chaos element of the populist right disrupts France’s weary liberal regime, in a novel of sadness and eerie serenity that marks a new direction
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty review – interesting premise, disappointing result
The Big Little Lies author imagines what would happen if a mysterious woman on a flight began predicting the deaths of her fellow passengers
‘These books captured our hearts’: Jacqueline Wilson’s Girls series is back – and millennials are rejoicing
The beloved children’s author reunites readers with Ellie, Magda and Nadine, now 40 and grappling with parenthood, sex and divorce
Prime Minister’s Literary awards 2024: Andre Dao wins $80,000 for debut novel Anam
Judges praise book as ‘profoundly relevant’, with Daniel Browning, Amy Crutchfield and Will Kostakis also winning in their categories
What a Way to Go by Bella Mackie review – Succession-style satire
A vile multimillionaire dies in mysterious circumstances in this entertaining follow-up to How to Kill Your Family