John Self

The piece ranks Beryl Bainbridge’s ten best novels, placing The Dressmaker first and Every Man for Himself tenth. It praises Bainbridge’s distinctive black humour, dark characters, emotional turmoil and ability to merge slapstick with tragedy, while highlighting recurring settings such as postwar Liverpool and historical events including the Crimean War, the Titanic disaster and Scott’s South Pole expedition.

Osamu Dazai’s books, particularly No Longer Human, have experienced a major revival among younger English-speaking readers, with UK sales of the novel exceeding 75,000 copies. His renewed popularity has been driven partly by online communities and the anime series Bungo Stray Dogs, which fictionalises Dazai as a central character. Publishers report a dramatic increase in sales, while translators and editors argue that his combination of despair, humour, intelligence and emotional directness continues to resonate. Penguin Classics is building on the trend with Schoolgirl, a collection of stories translated by Polly Barton and the first UK edition of Dazai’s work in almost 70 years.

The roundup reviews four recently translated novels. Mieko Kawakami’s Sisters in Yellow follows a turbulent friendship and organized crime in late-1990s Tokyo; Ananda Devi’s All Flesh uses grotesque, blackly comic imagery to explore a girl’s gluttony, alienation and self-disgust; Luis López Carrasco’s The White Desert offers five linked, surreal stories about disconnection and precarious modern life; and Elin Anna Labba’s The Home of the Drowned recounts the displacement of Sámi villagers in Swedish Lapland after a hydroelectric dam floods their settlement. All four books are judged distinctive and worthwhile, with Labba’s novel carrying the strongest historical and political charge.

The six shortlisted novels for the 2026 International Booker Prize span Iran, France, Brazil, Albania, Taiwan and wartime Germany, with four coming from independent presses and all naming their translators on the covers. The guide praises Shida Bazyar’s empathetic Iranian family saga and Ana Paula Maia’s violent existential thriller, while finding Marie NDiaye’s, René Karabash’s and Yáng Shuāng-zi’s books engaging but limited by structural or narrative weaknesses. Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director emerges as the strongest and most popular potential winner for its wit, characterization and examination of artistic compromise under Nazism, although the other leading contenders are also judged worthy. The winner is due to be announced on 19 May.

Children of prominent novelists—including Naomi Ishiguro, Jess Atwood Gibson, Patrick Charnley, Nick Harkaway, Lottie Moggach, Leon Craig and Aidan Cottrell-Boyce—describe the pressures and advantages of entering the literary world. Famous parents can provide familiarity with writing, confidence, industry access and publicity, but the association can also create anxiety about nepotism and comparisons. Publishers acknowledge that a celebrated surname may get a manuscript read, while insisting that a lasting career depends on the quality and distinctiveness of the work. The writers largely attribute their paths to growing up around books and storytelling rather than inherited mystical talent.

Bernardine Evaristo’s seven major books are ranked, with Mr Loverman placed first and Soul Tourists last. The assessment praises Evaristo’s experimentation, rhythmic prose, humour and focus on Black British, diasporic and LGBTQ+ experiences. Mr Loverman is highlighted for its portrayal of a 74-year-old British-Caribbean man’s concealed long-term relationship with his male best friend, while Girl, Woman, Other is praised as an expansive Booker-winning exploration of women’s lives and social status in modern Britain. The ranking also covers Evaristo’s verse novel The Emperor’s Babe, the counterfactual slavery narrative Blonde Roots, her autobiographical debut Lara and the memoir Manifesto.

Han Kang’s Light and Thread collects essays, poems and reflections on gardening, writing and the questions underlying her fiction. The essays offer revealing insight into works including The Vegetarian, Human Acts, Greek Lessons and We Do Not Part, particularly Han’s engagement with violence, trauma, humanity and the creative process. The poetry and garden pieces are less consistently compelling: some imagery is beautiful, but several observations feel slight and mundane. The collection provides moments of insight into Han’s important body of work, yet ultimately functions as a stopgap while readers await her next novel.

The roundup reviews four translated novels: Anna Nerkagi’s White Moss, a warm account of Nenets life in the Russian Arctic; Elisa Shua Dusapin’s The Old Fire, a sparse and mysterious family drama; Geetanjali Shree’s The Roof Beneath Their Feet, an exuberant but structurally challenging Indian novel; and Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz’s Berlin Shuffle, a lively, cynical portrait of impoverished 1920s Berlin. The reviews are broadly positive, emphasizing the books’ distinctive settings, fractured relationships, social hardship and inventive literary styles.

As Julian Barnes prepares to publish what he says will be his final novel at age 80, the piece ranks his ten best works, from Duffy to Flaubert’s Parrot. It praises his range across crime fiction, historical novels, political satire, experimental storytelling and meditations on ageing, sex, memory, art and death. Flaubert’s Parrot takes the top spot, followed by A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters and The Noise of Time, while The Sense of an Ending, Arthur & George and Talking It Over are also singled out for their emotional and formal strengths.

A selection of five notable translated fiction works from 2025 includes Han Kang’s We Do Not Part, Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume, Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director, Asta Olivia Nordenhof’s Money to Burn and The Devil Book, and Hassan Blasim’s Sololand. The books explore political violence, historical trauma, fascism, capitalism, mental illness, exile and artistic freedom, while employing forms ranging from philosophical time loops to fragmented stories and dark comedy. The review particularly praises Han Kang’s haunting treatment of Korean massacres, Kehlmann’s portrayal of filmmaker GW Pabst under Nazism, Nordenhof’s furious and loosely connected narratives about a deadly ferry fire, and Blasim’s use of humour to depict postwar Iraq and the threat posed by Islamic State fundamentalism.

The roundup reviews four translated novels and story collections. Frode Grytten’s The Ferryman and His Wife follows a Norwegian ferryman on his final journey and explores memory, love and grief. Brigitte Reimann’s Woman in the Pillory examines an affair between a German farmer’s wife and a Soviet prisoner of war during the Second World War, alongside xenophobia, sexism and social hypocrisy. Iran + 100 presents speculative visions of Iran in 2053, combining political satire with ideas about revolution, repression and the legacy of the 1953 coup. Eva Meijer’s Sea Now imagines the Netherlands being inundated after the Gulf Stream collapses, satirising political denial, commercial opportunism and climate displacement.

Salman Rushdie’s ten best books are ranked from the flawed but revealing debut Grimus to the landmark Midnight’s Children. The selection praises his inventive storytelling, comic energy and engagement with migration, identity, political violence and censorship. Midnight’s Children takes the top position, followed by The Satanic Verses, Joseph Anton and Shalimar the Clown, while Knife is recognized for its account of Rushdie’s recovery after the 2022 attack and its emphasis on love overcoming hatred.

John Irving’s Queen Esther begins with a promising return to the St Cloud’s orphanage from The Cider House Rules, following the adoption of a Jewish girl by the Winslows. However, the novel quickly moves away from Esther, Palestine and Israel, and the orphanage, making her son Jimmy the central character. The review criticizes the resulting plot for recycling Irving’s familiar themes—including Vienna, wrestling, prostitution and bodily injury—while giving major characters little depth and resolving Esther’s story abruptly. Although the novel contains some effective set pieces, it lacks the cumulative structure and emotional force of Irving’s best work. The reviewer recommends rereading The Cider House Rules instead, praising it as substantially stronger despite being much longer.

Unexpected sales of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s White Nights and Sabahattin Ali’s Madonna in a Fur Coat are helping reveal a growing appetite for literary angst, particularly among young readers discovering classics through TikTok. Their themes of loneliness, yearning, economic uncertainty and emotional dislocation resonate with readers living through contemporary instability, while accessible love stories make difficult subjects approachable. Influential creator Jack Edwards has amplified both books, presenting their bleakness as a source of recognition and comfort rather than alienation. Similar interest is emerging around works by Osamu Dazai, Tove Ditlevsen and Ágota Kristóf, while Penguin’s translated-classics relaunch and reissues of older works suggest that existential darkness remains commercially potent when readers see their own anxieties reflected in it.

Paul Bailey, the novelist, memoirist and poet who died aged 87, left a body of work marked by melancholy wit, empathy, sharp dialogue and an interest in memory, aging and mortality. Recommended starting points include the comic novels Trespasses and Peter Smart’s Confessions, the old-age novels At the Jerusalem and Chapman’s Odyssey, the memoirs An Immaculate Mistake and A Dog’s Life, and the late poetry collections Inheritance and Joie de Vivre. Gabriel’s Lament, shortlisted for the 1986 Booker Prize and set against 20th-century London, is presented as his most ambitious novel, with Sugar Cane serving as its sequel.

The roundup recommends four recently translated works: Beatriz Serrano’s Discontent, a witty and painful satire of corporate life; Shuang Xuetao’s Hunter, a collection of gritty and surreal stories set largely in Beijing and Shenyang; Iris Wolff’s Blurred, a fairytale-like history of 20th-century Romania; and Teresa Präauer’s Cooking in the Wrong Century, a satirical account of a dinner party consumed by cultural references, social media and excess. The reviews are broadly enthusiastic, emphasizing the books’ originality, dark humor and sharp observations of contemporary life.

Japanese novelist Rie Qudan discusses how ChatGPT contributed to her Akutagawa Prize-winning novel Sympathy Tower Tokyo, explaining that AI provided inspiration and supplied roughly 5% of the text, mainly in passages depicting exchanges with a chatbot. She argues that AI cannot currently write a better novel than a human and sees the technology as a way to examine language and human thought. The novel explores compassion toward convicted criminals, the social consequences of language, and Japan's growing use of katakana as a potentially euphemistic way to conceal prejudice. Qudan connects these themes to Japan's political climate, including Sanseito's nationalist rise and persistent discomfort with diversity and foreigners.

Colm Tóibín’s fiction is ranked from tenth to first as he turns 70. The selection praises his restrained, deadpan prose and recurring concerns with family, grief, sexuality, Irish social change and concealed emotional lives. The Master is named his finest work, followed by The Magician and The Blackwater Lightship; Brooklyn and its sequel Long Island also rank highly, reflecting Tóibín’s broader popular success.

The roundup reviews four translated novels: Cécile Desprairies’s The Propagandist, about a French family’s fervent support for Nazi ideology; Burhan Sönmez’s Lovers of Franz K, which explores Kafka’s literary ownership through a 1968 murder investigation; Oliver Lovrenski’s Back in the Day, a vivid portrayal of teenage friendship and vulnerability in Norway; and Linea Maja Ernst’s Waist Deep, an emotionally charged account of five friends whose summer retreat is destabilized by sex and shifting relationships. The books are broadly praised for their distinctive voices, energy and engagement with memory, identity and social relationships.

Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi discuss Heart Lamp, which won the International Booker Prize as the first short-story collection and first Kannada-language winner. Drawing on Mushtaq’s legal and activist work, the stories portray domestic violence, patriarchy and the lives of Muslim women in Karnataka while using humor and satire to challenge religious and social power structures. Mushtaq explains that storytelling can help people understand their rights and resist silent suffering. The interview also discusses the Bandaya Sahitya protest-literature tradition, Mushtaq’s 2000 fatwa, and continuing progress alongside persistent gender and minority-rights issues in India.

A critic assesses the six books shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize, highlighting their brevity, experimental forms and engagement with issues including artificial intelligence, migration, social conformity and women’s lives. Solvej Balle’s time-loop novel and Hiromi Kawakami’s futuristic work are identified as strong contenders; Banu Mushtaq’s feminist short-story collection is praised as a worthy winner despite the prize’s history of overlooking story collections. Vincent Latronico’s portrait of millennial consumer culture is described as a particularly popular choice, while Vincent Delecroix’s migration-tragedy novel is considered timely but less substantial. The winner is due to be announced on 20 May.

A review roundup praises four translated works: Hassan Blasim’s darkly comic novellas about postwar Iraq; Claire Baglin’s autofictional portrayal of fast-food work and class immobility; Torborg Nedreaas’s intense Norwegian novel about desire, female suffering and despair; and Cristina Rivera Garza’s formally experimental murder mystery blending fiction, criticism and satire. All four books receive strongly favorable assessments.