Debut by Catalan multimedia artist is brisk philosophical narrative with sharp set pieces

William Gay’s Dickensian feel for character makes even this rambling story surge with life

This fast-flowing sequel continues the search for hero Vernon, who is in full-blown freefall

Songs sung a thousand times lose none of their mystique at Paul Simon's farewell concert in Dublin

Paul Simon’s last Irish concert the RDS Dublin will be an intense, emotional evening

From the archive: Eileen Battersby’s review of ‘The English Patient’ by Michael Ondaatje, originally published on September 12th, (...)

Special accolade celebrates 50th anniversary of the literary prize

Eileen Battersby weighs up the shortlist for Sunday’s award to mark 50 years of the prize

Her 22nd novel, ‘Clock Dance’, is not just very good. It reminds readers of the Founding Fathers’ core values

Bold and sophisticated, this thrilling, magnificently audacious picaresque is about France and is also about all of us

If Banville succeeds in making readers return to Henry James, this lively enterprise will prove a useful and generous gesture to a(...)

Jenny Uglow gets to grips with the Victorian poet, painter and polished letter writer

Review: The Golden House is a messy soap opera full of cliche and sexism, writes Eileen Battersby

Patrick McGrath’s 10th novel is set in bleak postwar London, and steeped in greasepaint

The selection is playfully perverse, not to mention the failure to elevate Mike McCormack and Sebastian Barry to the shortlist

The Red-Haired Woman represents a poor effort at a shambolic narrative

From Cheever to Ron Rash, Carver to Eudora Welty, O’Connor to Richard Ford, some of the finest American writing is to be found in (...)

On its birthday, a very personal list of the best gifts the US has given the world

Protagonist Rachel tells the story of a life in limbo. Although tender, it is never sentimental

There’s more to Canadian literature than the wonderful Alice Munro

The best of Canada includes the food, the people and, of course, the view

Adam Thorpe is a very good storyteller with an inspired feel for ordinary detail

A General Theory of Oblivion tells the story of a traumatised woman who retreats from the world during Angola’s civil war

Eileen Battersby’s recommendations for well-read Dads

Israeli author takes prize for A Horse walks into a Bar, in which a foul-mouthed Jewish comic is in meltdown

Eileen Battersby surveys the shortlist of six titles ahead of tonight’s awards ceremony

Daniel Kehlmann is a formidable observer with a flair for articulating dysfunctional behaviour

US writer Richard Ford on Trump, the state of America and his memoir about his parents

Naomi Alderman’s novel features women who are able to kill with a single touch

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The Booker winner’s polemical instinct is far more developed than her art, says Eileen Battersby

‘The French Art of War’ review: bold, brave, wayward and magnificent

The most merciless enemy was the foul mud and with it the stink of wet rotting bodies

Between Them review: A new work from one of the finest writers of our times

Laurent Binet follows up ‘HHhH’ with an even funnier tale, but Delphine de Vigan struggles with her suspenseless thriller

Amos Oz returns to rougher roots with this deeply felt novel, writes Eileen Battersby

This daring, ambiguous thriller is an apocalyptic lamentation for a world in free fall

Rick Bass’s generous volume includes new work and selected stories from past 30 years

With its borderland setting, Conor O’Callaghan’s masterful debut calls to mind Ireland’s Disappeared

Vivek Shanbhag family tale is one of the finest literary works you will ever encounter

Stay With Me review: Ayobami Adebayo’s enthralling debut strikes deep from outset

Veteran Amos Oz, along with favourite Mathias Énard and Argentine outsider Samanta Schweblin, in line for prize

Humour and tenderness make for the finest book yet by underrated novelist Tim Parks

‘The Sympathizer’ by Viet Thanh Nguyen is favourite on strong international shortlist

Wolfgang Herrndorf’s brilliant, anarchic, darkly comic thriller is a true original

Three British writers among contenders as some big names omitted from final list

Reading Mathias Énard’s novel is like wandering into an exotic sweet shop, writes Eileen Battersby

On the centenary of the US entry into the First World War, Eileen Battersby revisits William March's stark classic

From boxing to racing and from fact to fiction, a personal selection of the greatest stories about sport

The maverick French writer reimagines Christianity’s beginnings in a madly magical novel

The Nobel laureate was funny, explosively opinionated, playful and occasionally outrageous

Four potential Nobel literature laureates are in the running for the €57,000 prize

The daughter of Sabahattin Ali, author of surprise bestseller Madonna in a Fur Coat, recalls the day he died

Ross Raisin’s slow-moving third novel struggles to portray a terrified young soccer player

Irish author’s ‘The Lesser Bohemians’ faces competition from Atwood, Proulx and others

A brief, polemical fable that puts the reality of the refugee crisis into sharp relief

Does one have to be without sin, stain or misdemeanour to earn an Oscar?

Yoko Tawada’s whimsical ursine family saga expresses a powerful sense of justice

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s debut collection is a timely look at lives of outsiders in America

From Persuasion to Wuthering Heights, The Dead to Le Grand Meaulnes, make a date with one of these classics

László Krasznahorkai is the undisputed laureate of our deranged, vulnerable epoch

Poet Lutz Seiler’s debut novel is an exciting, expansive work of German literature, writes Eileen Battersby

Despite the obvious thematic comparisons, Woodson’s prose lacks the daunting power of Toni Morrison’s sophisticated lyricism

Scottish poet’s foray into post-second World War US history is disappointingly contrived

There has been a surge in sales of George Orwell’s 1984 following Donald Trump’s election as US president

Édouard Louis’s intensely autobiographical novel spares no one, including the reader, writes Eileen Battersby

Beauty is confronted by terrorism in Nadeem Aslam’s certain Man Booker contender

Eileen Battersby reviews The Long-Winded Lady, Maeve Brennan’s New Yorker sketches, as part of our extensive coverage marking toda(...)

Complete and formidable literary man whose intelligence never overpowered his art

Romanian author Ioana Parvulescu has crafted a rare delight full of old world charm

Pilgrims to the Co Meath monument are tough and seemingly impervious to theories

The year’s best novels, collections, memoirs and translations range around the world

César Aira’s fantastical nightmare is an elegy for the Disappeared, writes Eileen Battersby

The Slovenian writer Evald Flisar plays with light and dark, the fantastical and the believable

Nobel Prize-winning author’s posthumous collection of mediations is witty and touching

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Trevor was a world class writer who chronicled the lives of the forgotten, the despairing losers, the innocent and the devious, th(...)

The 147 titles on the International Dublin Literary Award longlist are a treasure trove of great reading

John Banville, Kevin Barry, Sara Baume, Anne Enright, Louise O’Neill, Nuala O’Connor and Edna O’Brien on 147-strong longlist

Jon Bilbao’s original, caustic revenge tragedy shows that everyone has their limits

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Owners of historic Sligo house recall the dream concerts the singer played in 2010

It should be acknowledged as one of the finest studies of youthful malaise ever written

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Programme dedicated to memory of those killed on the Somme and in Easter Rising

How to win the US presidency in 10 easy steps – Step one: Aim for confusion...

Where to now after one of the most corrosive US presidential elections in history

Brad Watson’s novel of a young woman who never gives up shimmers with quiet humanity

Betrayal and revenge drive powerful novels by Ida Simons and Wytske Versteeg

David Grossman’s novel about a stand-up comedian is shocking, raw and eloquent

Author wins for satire on race in the US and becomes first American to win prize

Joy Williams’s latest infrequent collection is so good we hardly know where to start raving first

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Booker nominee is a bloody thrilling true-life crime story

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If the academy wanted to honour a music icon, Paul Simon would be a better choice

Allan Blunden’s brilliant translation conveys the turmoil of a strange, extraordinary novel about a post-war Germany faced with th(...)

Eileen Battersby says Colson Whitehead’s gripping slavery epic should be read by everyone

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Annelies Verbeke’s fearless, intelligent novel follows the fortunes of a kindly decorator

Classical legend’s first concert kicks off all 141 of Bach’s solo works for keyboard