Dan Simmons obituary
Multi-award-winning writer best known for his speculative fiction, but whose novels and novellas also spanned genres from crime to historical
‘I’ve learned first-hand how evil is tolerated’: Colm Tóibín on living in the US under Trump
The Brooklyn author on immigration and the inspiration behind his latest collection of stories
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
Whidbey by T Kira Madden; Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan; Killing Me Softly by Christie Watson; The Dangerous Stranger by Simon Mason; Astronaut! by Oana Aristide
The Minstrels by Eva Hornung review – an audacious, confronting epic
The award-winning Australian author is at her most ambitious with this sweeping rural drama, tackling difficult topics with dazzling prose
Mare by Emily Haworth-Booth review – profound story of a woman’s love for a horse
Where does it come from, this passion for an animal that isn’t even hers? An astonishing debut delves into deep truths about love, motherhood and care
Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave review – a will-they-won’t-they queer romance
Two women fall into and out of each other’s lives over decades, in a moving examination of love and choices
Len Deighton, spy novelist and author of The Ipcress File, dies aged 97
British writer brought wit, realism and class consciousness to cold war espionage fiction, reshaping the genre in the 1960s
The Delusions by Jenni Fagan review – an afterlife of queues and bureaucracy
A witty metaphysical satire about what happens when the processes that help souls pass on begin to fail
Better than Wuthering Heights? The Brontës’ novels – ranked!
As Emerald Fennell’s film sparks debate, we celebrate the pioneering brilliance of the siblings’ work
London book fair roundup: Idris Elba’s thriller deal, the rise of romcom, and fights against censorship
The actor led the starry book deals, while publishers assessed whether US-style bans are spreading to the UK
Howl by Howard Jacobson review – a tragicomic portrait of a Jewish man’s despair
A suburban headteacher navigates antisemitism in Gaza-outraged London in Jacobson’s latest novel
Jürgen Habermas obituary
Philosopher and social theorist who advocated a new direction for German thought after the horrors of Nazi rule
Readers reply: which are more like life, novels or films?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions considers what’s ‘realistic’ in what we read v what we watch …
Shahrnush Parsipur: ‘The women of Iran will cause the fall of the Islamic Republic’
As her banned 1989 novella, Women Without Men, is published for the first time in the UK, the Iranian author looks back on a life of resistance and repression
Daisy Johnson: ‘I wasn’t a fan of David Szalay, but Flesh is a masterpiece’
The Booker-shortlisted author on a momentous teenage encounter with The Bone People, getting a buzz from Peter Høeg’s Miss Smilla, and trying to avoid The Lorax