Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth review – a riotous roadtrip

Two sisters reckon with their past selves and the muddles of midlife in a comic tale of secrets, desire and ferocious loyalty

Nevermoor’s Jessica Townsend on frantic fans, her fantasy smash hit – and feeling ‘gutted’ by JK Rowling

The latest book in Townsend’s bestselling children’s series is out amid a surge in anti-trans rhetoric. But she remains committed to making sure her millions of readers all ‘know they have a place in Nevermoor’

Given up on reading? Elif Shafak on why we still need novels

Recent studies suggest we’ve fallen out of love with reading – but the more chaotic our times, the deeper is our need to slow down and read fiction

‘Buddhism and Björk help me handle fame’: novelist Ocean Vuong

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous made him a literary superstar. Now the Vietnamese American author is exploring his working-class roots in an ambitious follow‑up

Willkommen, bienvenue! New festival celebrates translated fiction from Cameroon to Slovakia as sales boom

Co-organised by translator Polly Barton, Translated By, Bristol will feature conversations between writers and their translators, plus a ‘translation duel’

Emma Jane Unsworth: ‘I blush when I think of Miranda July’s All Fours. I became a changed woman’

The author of Slags on Patricia Highsmith, Judy Blume and her lifelong reaction to Yeats

The best science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie; The Incandescent by Emily Tesh; Land of Hope by Cate Baum; A Line You Have Traced by Roisin Dunnett

Gunk by Saba Sams review – boozy nights and baby love

The Send Nudes author’s follow-up conveys a profound message about the insufficiency of the nuclear family

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff audiobook review – a fugitive’s fight for survival

Actor January LaVoy narrates the visceral story of a girl on the run in a winter wilderness, in early 17th-century Virginia

Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson review – a genre-defying graphic novel about class, religion and globalisation

Can you tell the American story via ginseng? Thompson’s funny, moving and exquisitely drawn work has a go

The Names by Florence Knapp – the verdict on spring’s hottest debut

In this strikingly assured sliding doors tale, three alternate narratives unfold, showing how the choice of a name influences a life

Sunstruck by William Rayfet Hunter review – a Saltburn-style story of identity

A mixed-race musician is drawn into the unfamiliar milieu of an upper-class family in this plotty debut

Dream State by Eric Puchner review – an epic tale of paradise lost

A love triangle plays out across generations in this brilliantly panoramic tale of family ties

Love Groundhog Day and Russian Doll? These are the novels for you

High-concept novels are having a moment. Funny, inventive and crackling with big ideas, these ambitious stories will have you instantly hooked

Love endures all, including slavery and the pandemic. I wanted to show how

In early 2020, separated from my family and friends during the pandemic, I made up my mind to write a love story