Rebecca Watson: ‘There’s a simpler way to tell the story. But it would feel less honest to me’
The author’s new book continues to play with layout to convey consciousness but spans a longer stretch of time than her debut
Long Island by Colm Tóibín: Brooklyn sequel brings Eilis back to Enniscorthy
Novel picks up the story 20 years later, with a stranger delivering some surprising news
Choice by Neel Mukherjee: Novel of important themes hampered by didactic tone
Three socially conscious and moral storylines are interwoven with mixed results in Choice by Neel Mukherjee
James by Percival Everett: Reimagining Huck Finn
There is humour and humanity in this recasting of Mark Twain’s flawed classic
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson: one long sermon
This dense read feels a bit like sitting on a hard wood pew in itchy Sunday best
Armistead Maupin: ‘I was woke before it had a name, and I resent the use of that term to denigrate anybody with a conscience’
The author on his latest Mona book - the final instalment he promises, once again - remembering the Aids crisis and why he no longer talks to his brother
Melting Point by Rachel Cockerell: A sobering history of Jewish refugees routed through Texas
Cockerell’s unique approach raises questions about the role of the biographer or historian
Nina Stibbe: ‘I’m a pack animal. I’m like a dog: when I’m on my own, I feel anxious’
Retreating from a failed marriage and striking out for pastures new are the themes at the heart of the acclaimed novelist’s new memoir
The Maverick by Thomas Harding: A Jewish exile who published Nazis and Nabokov
Biography of George Weidenfeld’s mission to publish ‘the mavericks, the scandalous, the subversive’ is written like a school report
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright: it may be her best book yet. Not only a triumph but a joy
Latest novel from the Booker winner explores family dynamics with wit and empathy
The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard: Compelling blend of essay and fiction
Writer brings to bear a poet’s precision, a novelist’s empathy and an essayist’s concentrated thought
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder
Eileen O’Shaughnessy ran the home and farm, typed and edited his manuscripts, backed him financially and tended to his TB despite her ill-health
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan: Compelling portrait of a troubled Irish family in London
Nolan’s follow-up to Acts of Desperation works better as literary fiction than as a whodunnit
Close to Home by Michael Magee: deft depiction of a generation facing an uncertain future
The author avoids many pitfalls that plague debut novels, offering fully fleshed-out characters and careful plot progression
Victory City review: This isn’t Salman Rushdie’s best book. But it is chilling in the light of his stabbing
Salman Rushdie’s 15th novel, about an eternally youthful femme fatale fighting religious fundamentalism, sticks to the author’s fiction formula