Levy’s restless intelligence probes the dark corners of the mind and draws attention to lesser-known 20th-century female voices

With their mix of light and shade, these stories explore the breaking point, the point of no return

Williams favours lyrical language, lines that run on with an abundance of detail, lush and opining

Alan Hollinghurst captures the essence of a life and the mother-son relationship with graceful era-shifting and time always as a motif

The American author on why she keeps returning to certain characters, how waitressing informed her writing, and how people fear ‘naked distress’ in others

The US author, whose new novel Creation Lake is longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, on US politics, the war in Gaza and her love of Ireland

Jane is a successful writer while her husband, John, is a failed artist turned embittered entrepreneur who upends their relationship

The desire to be worthy, or the fear of not being worthy enough, is explored in this moving memoir

Ryan’s prose is a masterclass in balance, which lets him get away with lines that could seem overwrought in less capable hands

Obsessive cleaning and cynicism about designer brands are elements of this debut about a Palestinian woman

Bodies moves away from its realist literary opening into something approaching horror but ends up being a lot of fun

This infuriatingly brilliant novel gets swallowed up in its scaffolding

Stories, observations and conversations overlap in this mind-bending book

New York-based Corkman explores world of intersecting crises with humour and humanity

As his new book Ghost Mountain is about to hit the shelves, the senior civil servant, acclaimed musician and author isn’t dreaming of quitting his day job