The Best Fiction Books

Susan Abulhawa, author of Mornings in Jenin, chooses five books about Palestine by Palestinian writers. She says what she sees among the young people in Palestine is humbling, 'they have such remarkable spirit'

Australia is a highly urban place and yet the imagination of its writers goes to remote places and times, says Australian novelist Nicholas Jose. He picks the best Australian novels.

Jane Eyre, 1984 and Anne Frank's diary all make it onto novelist Amanda Craig's list of books that changed the world. On Black Beauty's underrated importance: 'People forget that William Wilberforce, who abolished the slave trade, also founded the RSPCA.'

Novelist Simon Mawer picks his favourite books on forgiveness.

Author Matt Lynn says that good thrillers need a sense of foreboding and tension – and a brilliant central character. "The thriller has always been a very political genre, a kind of snapshot in time"

The Guardian's chief arts writer, Charlotte Higgins, believes that the contemporary value of the Classics is incalculable – here, she tells us why, via her selection of the great and good of classical literature.

The cartoonist and illustrator says the relationship between words and pictures is an interesting one. A bad picture book would say "this is an apple", a good one "this is not a pipe"

Pakistani writer Daniyal Mueenuddin explains that if you live somewhere as stable as England it’s very difficult to understand how quickly things are changing in Pakistan

The award-winning novelist thinks Africans want to know how it is that white men have got their hands on all the money. He picks five books on what it means and meant to be white in Africa

Which are the best horror books ever written? Novelist and horror expert Kim Newman, author of Anno Dracula, talks us through his top five and reveals which of the classics is, for him, the greatest of them all.