Jonathan Franzen

This stunning and fearless debut novel is about adoption and the desire to belong

Schwab CEO was spot on in one thing at least – inviting job candidates to a restaurant

Impressive show for German language writers with 11 titles among 160 nominated

Ruth O’Farrell on the shame she felt as a gay person growing up in Ireland and her joy at watching the Yes result from New York

Doughnuts and cigarettes or blindfold, earmuffs and earplugs? Writers can have odd ways of getting ready for their working day – or night. Gavin Corbett, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Henrietta McKervey, Thomas Morris and Paul Murray take us into their creative worlds

New novels from Milan Kundera, Paul Murray and Nuala Ní Chonchúir are among the season's highlights

Review: A bland Scandinavian debut novel about a failing marriage – and a hamster – demonstrates just how difficult it can be for writers to make the ordinary compelling

Joël Dicker’s bestseller is thriller escapism writ large, irrepressibly exuberant storytelling that tramples realism underfoot as it rattles along at a thunderous pace

In broader European and American literature, it is easier to find genuine marriages of philosophy and fiction

With the Ballymaloe Literary Festival taking place this weekend, here are 20 literary quotations to whet the appetite

If WB Yeats really could be “all over” YouTube and Twitter, he’d suffer many writers’ greatest problem

The path of the novelist can be a treacherous one, as novelist Ben Marcus has learned – and taught

The Cúirt festival brings a heavyweight literary line-up to Galway this week – here are 10 highlights