Vladislav Zubok’s reassessment of the cold war; the neuroscience of extremist dogma; Sayaka Murata’s vision of a sex-averse dystopia; Megan Hunter’s decades-spanning novel of family trauma; Judith Hermann’s fascinating mix of essay and memoir; a fresh look at Ancient Rome’s most famous woman; Pilita Clark’s pick of environment books — plus a selection of FT journalism on the late Mario Vargas Llosa
Megan Hunter spans the decades in a sensual novel that traces the emotional fallout from an unexpected death
The late Peruvian Nobel laureate, who died this week, was a virtuoso storyteller and a visionary interpreter of his continent’s dreams. This pick of FT reviews, interviews and features looks back at his life and work
The great Peruvian writer charted the culture and turbulent politics of Latin America in his exuberant, often thoroughly entertaining books. Here are some of the best
Sayaka Murata’s eyebrow-raising new novel is set in an alternative Japanese society of artificial insemination and suppressed desire
The German writer explores friendship, family and generational trauma in three luminous interconnected essays
Ingenious, elegant and inventive, the Nobel Prize-winning writer was a virtuoso storyteller of private passions and power misused
The feted novelist coolly dissects hidden narratives and the performative side of everyday conversation and relationships
Three books that bring real insight into how dreams create a window to our psyches and mirror the anxieties of our times
From a portrait of an Insta-perfect couple to the first in a seven-novel sequence about a woman stuck in a time loop, here are our critics’ views of four of the translated works of fiction in the running for this year’s award
Shortlisted for the International Booker, the French philosopher’s new novel is a damning exploration of apathy in the face of calamity
Two sixtysomethings strike up an unlikely liaison in this contemporary fairy tale by the ‘Call Me by Your Name’ author
Body modification in Korea, short stories about automatons through history, and how humans might cope in a dystopian Lilliput
Fact and fiction merge in Burhan Sönmez’s novel about a man out to avenge the wrong done to Kafka
In the first two of seven volumes, the International Booker-longlisted Danish author follows her protagonist, again and again, through the same day
An ocean-going 1940s sleuth aspires to write a memoir (and film script) based on the unsolved 1931 killing of Julia Wallace
Madeleine Watts’ shrewdly funny novel anchors the climate crisis in personal grief and prescient parallels with California’s wildfires
Xiaolu Guo’s reworking of Melville’s epic is an artful and energetic exploration of contemporary issues such as race and gender
Stephen May vividly imagines the story behind a real-life 1920s disappearance
A compelling portrait of a professor driving across America in a bid to rediscover his freedom
A century on, F Scott Fitzgerald’s lovelorn millionaire is reimagined as a female influencer — the latest beloved character to be reshaped for new readers
Books by Anthony Shapland, Gabrielle Griffiths, Charlotte Tierney, Krystelle Bamford and Christine Murphy
Claire Baglin’s assured debut novel explores the powerlessness of a young woman trapped in mindless work
Echoing the author’s own upbringing, this latest novel is about coming to terms with the ghosts of the past
A powerful novel set in the Dust Bowl era of America that is packed with secrets, sinister falsehoods and a passionate care for the environment
