‘I didn’t want to fit in a box of what an Aboriginal person should write’: how Alexis Wright found her voice

As her ground-breaking biography of Aboriginal activist Tracker Tilmouth is re-issued, the acclaimed Australian author remembers her late friend and talks about her latest novel, Praiseworthy

The Artist by Lucy Steeds review – mystery and romance in Provence

An aspiring English journalist enters the life of a fabled painter in this seductive debut of art, love and family secrets

Bapsi Sidhwa obituary

Pakistani author whose novels offered an insight into the Parsi community and highlighted the challenges of reconciling different cultures

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup

Aerth by Deborah Tomkins; Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix; Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao; The Garden by Nick Newman

Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell review – a tense portrait of coercive control

Trapped between a controlling partner and a housing system in crisis, a mother in Dublin struggles to protect her children and herself

Oromay by Baalu Girma review – an Ethiopian classic

This political satire of propaganda during the civil war, which is thought to have cost the author his life, gets an English translation at last

The mysterious novelist who foresaw Putin’s Russia – and then came to symbolise its moral decay

Victor Pelevin made his name in 90s Russia with scathing satires of authoritarianism. But while his literary peers have faced censorship and fled the country, he still sells millions. Has he become a Kremlin apologist?

Ask Me Again by Clare Sestanovich review – a rare kind of friendship

Opposites attract in this subtle coming-of-age debut from an American author known for her short stories

Where to start with: Zora Neale Hurston

From befriending the last African enslaved in America to meeting with zombies in Haiti, the folklorist, anthropologist and Harlem Renaissance writer – who has a novel posthumously published today – was a sensitive chronicler of other people’s lives

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

Authors, journalists and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month

Harlan Coben says ‘quite a bit of tragedy’ in his 20s made him a better writer

Bestselling author and Netflix producer said extensive early experience of grief was ‘very cruel but effective teacher’

American Genius, A Comedy by Lynne Tillman review – thoughts for the day

Unfolding over 24 hours, this captivating novel set inside the head of a woman consumed by her obsessions is as engrossing as it is unusual

In brief: Hope; Wild Chocolate; Night Watch – review

The tragicomic collapse of a wealthy family; a genre-busting exploration of the cacao trade; and a tough Pulitzer-winning tale of the US civil war

In life, David Lodge was surprisingly mirthless. Luckily, his wife was a hoot

A delightful but decidedly unfunny encounter with the author led to a train of thought about his comic books

Another Man in the Street by Caryl Phillips review – Windrush struggles

This elegaic novel tracks a West Indian man’s life in London over decades, exploring the emotional cost of leaving home and being met by hatred and rejection