Writer Orlaine McDonald: ‘I felt a strong need to transcend that little working-class girl who had got herself up the duff’
The No Small Thing author on losing her Irish mum, diversity in fiction and teenage motherhood
How to End a Story: Collected Diaries by Helen Garner review – ‘small, random stabs of extreme interestingness’ captured on the page
Published entries written as a series of fragments, chosen for ‘muscle’ and lightly edited
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood: ‘Bone-bare’ prose offers the space to dwell in questions
The simplicity of the sentences in the Booker shortlisted novel brings to mind an unpolished stone
Playground by Richard Powers: Fails to plumb the depths
As AI expands exponentially and ocean temperatures rise, the themes of this novel are timely
Pat Barker: ‘I don’t think revenge is entirely pointless. But it’s certainly cyclical’
The author on her latest Iliad-inspired work, The Voyage Home; how not knowing her father’s identity has driven her work; and the strange business of film adaptations
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