John Self

From the secret gay life of a British-Caribbean man to that controversial shared Booker win, the author has blazed a trail across the literary landscape. Here are seven of her top titles

This debut by 26-year-old Albertine Clarke is a surreal black comedy about a young woman whose dad runs off to become a bodybuilder

A lonely teenager lodges with his father’s cousin in this story of substitute love and male friendship

The Jack Reacher creator has taken inspiration from his beloved football club for years. Other authors have looked to graveyards, the phone book — and their enemies

Ben Faccini took 20 years to write Other People’s Children, the story of a hassled man uncovering family secrets. It was worth it

From Naomi Ishiguro to Jess Atwood Gibson, more children of high profile writers are becoming authors themselves. Parents and their literary offspring discuss the pressures of measuring up

Political oppression in Tehran, a witch’s tale from France, a film-maker in Nazi Germany … we weigh up the contenders for the International Booker prize 2026

Agnes Owens is finally getting her due 100 years after her birth. Her reissued debut, Gentlemen of the West, packs in violence, revenge and a comic twist

This book is at heart an account of the records of the female patients in Cork District Lunatic Asylum at the turn of the 20th century

Covering the writer’s late teens and early twenties, this pleasurable read is an elegant account of self-development through art