Fiction
Under deep cover: The Taper Man, by Nick Harkaway, reviewed
It is 1965, and George Smiley is investigating a communist sleeper agent in America who is poised to expose Britain’s operative in Moscow
College scandals: Lords of Serendipity, by Randy Boyagoda, reviewed
Students cheat their professors, professors cheat their peers, data is fabricated and fictional discoveries are awarded in this dark campus novel
Singsong vapidity: The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse, by Heather Morris, reviewed
An 11-year-old Jewish girl takes refuge with French Resistance members in Nazi-occupied Paris. But this soothing tale of support and rescue is a travesty
Return of the war-weary: Gjak, by Dimosthenis Papamarkos, reviewed
After a bitter conflict with the Turks, Greek soldiers finally arrive home in 1922, traumatised in sometimes unexpected ways
A Nordic Fawlty Towers: Vaim Hotel, by Jon Fosse, reviewed
What could have induced our unnamed protagonist to stay in a rundown hotel with a forbidding manageress in a bleak coastal Norwegian town?
The end is nigh: Switzy, by Emma Cline, reviewed
A retired businessman with dementia prepares to make the final journey to Zurich
Alternative universes: Exit Party, by Emily St John Mandel, reviewed
An unsettling tale of doppelgängers and shadow worlds has all the qualities of a recurring nightmare
Homesick for Tennessee: The Newer World, by Sebastian Barry, reviewed
After many adventures touring with the Fisk Jubilee singers, the former slave Tennyson Bouguereau longs to return to his roots
A matter of life and death: Afternoon Hours of a Hermit, by Patrick Cottrell, reviewed
Five years after his brother’s supposed suicide, Dan Moran receives a puzzling anonymous letter, plunging him back into full investigative mode
Rifts and reconciliations: Adam and Eve, by Jeffrey Archer, reviewed
Fans will delight in Archer’s final doorstopper saga – of ambition, betrayal and sacrifice set against the backdrop of war
A literary romp: Our Noble Selves, by Kate Atkinson, reviewed
All is chaos in the lead-up to the 1951 Festival of Britain in this riot of colour and pageantry with Kafka-esque undertones
Adventures of the Time Traveler’s daughter: Life Out of Order, by Audrey Niffenegger, reviewed
In Niffenegger’s long-awaited sequel, Alba DeTamble slips between the past and a near-future world filled with robots, climate catastrophe, civil war and virtual reality museums
An overpromised land: Farewell to Eden, by Sebastian Faulks, reviewed
Set in Mandate-era Palestine, Faulks’s timely novel presents the region’s problems as a Gordion knot, with anti-Semitism ‘at the root of everything’
The Great Uprising: Doom Painting, by A.K. Blakemore, reviewed
In the torrid summer of 1381, Wat Tyler, the charismatic leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, assumes he is headed for hell
For better, for worse: Death Do Us by Ruthy Mason reviewed
Underwhelmed by the prospect of her future marriage, Bea focuses on the past instead, reconnecting with a former boyfriend and reliving dark events from her undergraduate life. Past and present blur uneasily together and the reader is kept cleverly in suspense
A succession of selves: How Do People Stay the Same by Mark Bowles reviewed
A sad novel with funny moments that tells its story via a series of reverse-ordered journal entries. First, the happy ending, then a progression backwards through more troubling times, getting remarkably close to the messy truth of life along the way
Few writers have covered their tracks as successfully as Anita Brookner
The distinguished art historian and novelist shredded as many private papers as she could, leaving her biographer the daunting task of piecing together clues from published material
Language lessons: Taipei Story, by Rebecca Kuang, reviewed
Lily Chen, a Chinese-American Yale student, hopes to master Mandarin on a summer course in Taiwan. But matters soon begin to unravel in this idiosyncratic coming-of-age story
Sad girl story: Sophie, Standing There, by Meg Mason, reviewed
Thirtysomething Sophie Pattison worships the celebrated author Lilac Dunne from afar. But what will happen when the two actually meet at a literary festival?
An excellent spy: Cold Sunset, by William Boyd, reviewed
Tasked with exfiltrating a secret agent from Moscow, Gabriel Dax shows himself as competent as ever: good at following people, good at laying traps and good at shooting to kill
A world full of artifice: Life of M, by Rachel Cusk, reviewed
Cusk’s beautiful actress protagonist claims to shun the advantages of fame – but fabrication and privilege are essential to her glide through life
From housemaid to monster: The Mare, by Angharad Hampshire, reviewed
Drawing on the real-life story of Hermine Braunsteiner, a former Ravensbrück camp guard, Hampshire convincingly demonstrates how apparently harmless people can become brutal murderers
Always second but actually invincible: Agrippa, by Robert Harris, reviewed
The Roman general’s inner life is a blank, as Harris admits – but filling it with memories of military campaigns and aqueduct-building doesn’t make for the liveliest story
Shots in the dark: Fatal Love, by Louisa Treger, reviewed
The tragic story of Ruth Ellis, hanged in 1955 for murdering her abusive lover, is retold in gripping fictional form
The mind-altering miracle of the novel in Britain, from A to Z
Philip Hensher reminds us of the transformative power of fiction over the centuries – from Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic experiments to Zadie Smith’s bone-deep knowledge of the form
