Howard Jacobson’s midlife marriage story has emotions in spades
What Will Survive of Us, the British writer’s 17th novel, sees a couple tumble into love, and then make a new way in the world together
What Will Survive of Us, the British writer’s 17th novel, sees a couple tumble into love, and then make a new way in the world together
Terry Eagleton’s delightful new book, The Real Thing, explores what artistic fidelity to the ‘real world’ involves
Rachel Mann on her second poetry collection, finding God on her journey between genders, and the Church’s refusal to validate same-sex love
The Vulnerables, Sigrid Nunez’s layered, thoughtful lockdown novel, reminds us of the pleasures – and costs – of our shared humanity
Who said comics have to be comic? This year’s crop gave us haunted spas, apocalyptic visions – and the beauty of pastoral France
This Christmas, young readers can look forward to tales of His Majesty, three wily monkeys and a sumptuous reimagining of Peter Pan
Looking for a Christmas present for the music-lover in your life? Try Johnny Cash's lyrics, Sly Stone's memoir or Paul McCartney's snapshots
Our top thinkers turned the quest for hard truths into a mind-blowing funride
Year two of the war produced breathless tales of resistance, rebuttals to Russian propaganda, and the death of a promising young writer
This year, marriage went under the microscope in engrossing tales of mutual obsession, catastrophic union and doublethink
The Tory meltdown was a sign of the fractious spirit of the times. But consensus is possible – here are our politics picks of the year
In the 16 best poetry books of the year, readers meet Shakespeare's wife and Chekhov's sisters, a French comte and a wild London hyena
Robert Hardman’s magisterial biography, full of detail about the King, the Queen and the Sussexes alike, will become a historical document
Judgement in Tokyo, Gary J Bass’s study of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial and its effects, is a landmark work – capacious, intelligent and fair
As a new study shows, the great director’s career contained many a lost project, transfigured original, and a Jewish identity he downplayed
Nathan Hill’s second novel, a portrait of a marriage, pokes affectionate fun at the middle-classes and the credulity in which they indulge
Terry Eagleton’s delightful new book, The Real Thing, explores what artistic fidelity to the ‘real world’ involves
Molly McGhee’s coruscating debut novel, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind, follows an indebted man forced to enter and ‘fix’ others’ dreams
She's sold 45 million print copies of hits like The Gruffalo – but does that fuel the industry, or come at the expense of rival authors?
Wild Houses, the first novel by the excellent short-story writer Colin Barrett, is a brooding piece about a local gang and a kidnapped boy
She's sold 45 million print copies of hits like The Gruffalo – but does that fuel the industry, or come at the expense of rival authors?
The Minute Minders, a richly imaginative tale from Mary Murphy, takes the ‘little person’ framework and imbues it with new life
In Pádraig Kenny’s brilliant novel, two creations of Professor Hardacre – Stitch and Henry Oaf – attempt to escape from the lab and survive
A prodigy, she wrote her first novel when she was eight, and had written ‘about 10 more’ before finally being published at the age of 15
Catch Your Death, Ravena Guron’s smart new novel, hurls a young woman into the bosom of a rich, scheming and possibly murderous family
This charming, exquisitely drawn debut story by the Korean author and illustrator Minu Kim blurs the boundary between fiction and self-help
This Christmas, young readers can look forward to tales of His Majesty, three wily monkeys and a sumptuous reimagining of Peter Pan
The director of this adaptation may be – unexpectedly – Nicolas Winding Refn but the result is a mostly traditional, rather dull 90 minutes
Having won both the UK's top poetry prizes for his Self-Portrait as Othello, Allen-Paisant says Shakespeare's Moor is still relevant today
Before the winner of the £25,000 prize is announced on Monday, our critic rounds up the runners and riders
Karen McCarthy Woolf imagines what went on in the plastic heads of a 104-year-old heiress’s toys in Top Doll, a weird and wild verse novel
The theme of this year’s contest is ‘Art’ – here are a few tips on how to get started