Novels with multiple narrators play to the medium’s strengths, while Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s latest is an immersive pleasure
A hunt for the next Lionel Messi, love on the run in Montana — plus Richard Flanagan’s moving meditation on life, family and chance
Alex Clark selects her best mid-year listens
Caledonian Road charts a grand unravelling in London while Julia Gillard and Gillian Anderson add gravitas to Annabelle Hirsch’s history in 101 objects
Two exciting debuts join Hisham Matar’s magnificent story of a Libyan expatriate and Michael Cunningham’s multi-year look at life in lockdown
Alex Clark selects her must-listen titles
From Chetna Maroo and Rose Tremain’s stories of growing pains to a trio of spy tales
An elegiac Ann Patchett novel; taut mysteries from Colson Whitehead and Colin Walsh; and thrillingly macabre stories from Joyce Carol Oates
From a Tan Twan Eng tale of colonial intrigue to the epoch-defining voice of Martin Amis
From a Margaret Atwood short-story collection to Max Porter’s ‘Shy’ and Cecile Pin’s debut novel ‘Wandering Souls’
Plus Jonathan Escoffery’s impressive collection of stories, a thriller from Louise Candlish and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series
Dickens, Marple and Mitford seen anew, Brexit revisited — plus the poetry and power of John Donne
He’s Britain’s most sought-after reader, the voice of some of literature’s most standout characters. So why have you never heard of Seán Barrett?
A bravura performance for the latest Lucy Barton novel, plus Kate Atkinson, Zoe Gilbert and a return to a Hilary Mantel classic
Booker Prize contenders, a crime thriller and a childhood memoir are among this week’s treats for the ears
The actor narrates snapshots from childhood to Hollywood in a memoir that sidesteps autobiographical convention
From comic, compelling reflections on ADHD and autism to pure escapism in Paris — plus an epic celebration of Terry Pratchett
Different takes on the Joyce epic and a new version of ‘The Wasteland’ feature along with a moving rendition of ‘Love Marriage’
Crisis in the Peak District; a sculptor’s response to loss; nature reclaims its own; and an Irish reminiscence to enrapture the listener
Memoirs from Stevie Van Zandt, Miriam Margolyes and Bob Mortimer, plus reimagined lives from Colm Tóibín and Lauren Groff
