A Biography Without ‘The Boring Bits’

One example I highly recommend focuses on the work, not the life, of its subject.

Sex, death and parrots: Julian Barnes’s best fiction

As the Booker prize-winning author prepares to publish his final novel at 80, we assess his finest work

The best recent crime and thrillers

The Cut Up by Louise Welsh; The Persian by David McCloskey; The 10:12 by Anna Maloney; Very Slowly All at Once by Lauren Schott; Vivian Dies Again by CE Hulse

Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray review

From classmates to co-parents, the changing dynamics of a female friendship are astutely observed in a novel that explores the boundaries between love, lust and companionship

Sarah Moss: ‘I never liked Wuthering Heights as much as Jane Eyre’

The author on the trouble with the Brönte novels, what she gained from reading John Updike and Martin Amis – and the brilliance of Barbara Pym

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror

Godfall by Van Jensen; The Salt Bind by Rebecca Ferrier; The Poet Empress by Shen Tao; A Hole in the Sky by Peter F Hamilton; Hello Earth, Are You There? by Brian Aldiss