The Guardian view on the Gruffalo: a well-timed comeback, wart and all

Editorial: The next challenge for Julia Donaldson’s monster is to get its claws into parents and persuade more of them to read aloud

Little World by Josephine Rowe review – a beautiful novella that lacks heft

Australian literature is littered with dead girls in the bush – and this finely wrought tale is narrated by a corpse who feels like just a gauzy metaphor

The Pretender by Jo Harkin review – a bold and brilliant comedy of royal intrigue

This fantasia on the life of Lambert Simnel, who finds himself a claimant to the English throne, is a romp through late-medieval identity and historical uncertainty

What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in April

Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata review – a future without sex

The Convenience Store Woman author imagines the creep of a new worldview, in a novel that highlights the weirdness of normal life

Jane Gardam obituary

Prolific novelist and short-story writer with a taste for the absurd

Jane Gardam, author of Old Filth and The Hollow Land, dies aged 96

Described by Ian McEwan as ‘a treasure of English contemporary writing’, the Yorkshire-born novelist’s career spanned 50 years

Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley review – a delightfully grounded romance

This irresistible love story braids the personal and the political – from Brexit to who gets to use the spare room as an office

Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn review – troubled minds and family mysteries

The Patrick Melrose author brings his trademark dark wit and flinty compassion to this wide-ranging sequel

Writer Saba Sams: ‘I wanted it to be sexy and really messy’

The Send Nudes author, one of Granta’s pick of the best young British novelists, on young motherhood, feminism and why we need to break the rules around love

Sister Europe by Nell Zink review – all the ideas Trump deems most dangerous

This comedy of manners set among Berlin’s cultural elite is a prescient interrogation of language, identity and power

The Sun Was Electric Light by Rachel Morton review – a clever novel about searching for belonging

A woman who feels disconnected from her life in New York moves to Guatemala to chase a distant memory of happiness in this languid and profound debut

All Fours by Miranda July audiobook review – the frank, sexy novel everyone’s been talking about

The author’s hypnotic reading evokes the desires and existential crisis of a 45-year-old woman on a wild road trip

Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp review – wild, absurd and wickedly funny

This outrageous skewering of the modern dating landscape confronts toxic masculinity and the contradictions of female desire

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt review – an exquisite tale of first love

The poet’s debut novel is a transcendent portrait of gay desire that pays homage to the English literary tradition