Eden’s Shore by Oisín Fagan review – hilarious, beautiful and very violent
A hapless young idealist sets sail for utopia, in this wild epic of colonial chaos in the late 18th-century Americas
Thomas Pynchon announces Shadow Ticket, his first novel in more than a decade
The elusive 87-year-old author’s new book is a noir caper set during the big band era following a detective in search of a cheese heiress
The Best of Everything by Kit de Waal review – the power of kindness
Love and loss combine in this tender tale of how a mourning Caribbean mother cares for others
‘Mind-expanding books’: International Booker prize shortlist announced
From Muslim Indian women’s lives to a Danish time looper, all six contenders for the £50,000 prize are from independent presses, as translator Sophie Hughes earns an unprecedented third nomination
‘Flying is an act of surrender’: a new novel about a woman who wants to be ravished by an Airbus
Kate Folk on Sky Daddy, a book about sex, death and plane crashes that’s taking off in these turbulent times
Alex Wheatle obituary
Author of the Crongton novels whose stories of inner-city life give a realistic portrait of growing up in contemporary Britain
The Best of Everything by Kit de Waal review – a warm story of second starts
A bereaved woman forms new relationships in the author’s first novel in seven years, a tender and funny tale of forgiveness
In brief: Bad Nature; Bad Friend; The Flitting – review
An impelling US road-trip for our times; an enlightening cultural history of female friendships; and a bond forged over butterflies for a son and his dying father
Novelist Oisín Fagan: ‘I was at the altar of literature and had its fire in me’
The Irish author on his new ‘violent seafaring epic’, his appetite for body horror and living his entire life book-first
‘The law is another form of storytelling’: Philippe Sands in conversation with Juan Gabriel Vásquez
When Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998, lawyer Philippe Sands was part of the prosecution. As his book about the case comes out, he talks to the Colombian novelist about literature and justice
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown review – you’ll read nothing else like it this year
This exhilarating debut about working-class girls growing up in the hope-starved atmosphere of a small northern English city feels essential
‘Blood-pumping’, ‘outstanding’, ‘urgent and essential’: the best Australian books out in April
Each month Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have already devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on
Anthony Horowitz: ‘I’m too nervous to reread The Lord of the Rings – it might reveal how jaded I’ve become’
The Alex Rider author on being put off Dickens for a decade, why he reads poetry in the mornings, and how reading Sherlock Holmes made him want to be a crime writer
Orpheus Nine by Chris Flynn review – this unsettling novel is utterly compelling
In his fourth novel, the author leans into dark and surreal territory, focusing on a small Australian town during a mysterious global catastrophe
NaNoWriMo showed me I could knuckle down and write a book – and though it’s closing, I hope the idea behind it lives on
I won’t be showing off the results of the novel I wrote in a month, but the nonprofit’s community-backed challenge is worthwhile and should continue