Books by Margaret Atwood

The full list of Margaret Atwood’s novels for adults, arranged in order of publication, aimed at fans with completist tendencies:  from 1969’s The Edible Woman to the joint 2019 Booker Prize winner The Testaments—with her popular Angel Catbird graphic novels thrown in for good measure.

Those who love historical fiction have plenty of choice among the list of past Booker Prize-winning novels. We asked Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn to put together an overview of the Booker’s past victors that will sweep you from Tudor England to 20th-century India by way of the 19th-century Australian outback.

As we know that many of our readers like to work their way through the list of Booker-winners, we’ve compiled an overview the winning titles from the last two decades.

Every year, the Audie Awards celebrate the best audiobooks published over the previous year. Veteran audiobook reviewer Robin Whitten of AudioFile Magazine and Mary Burkey, who has served on multiple audiobook judging panels, explain what makes a good audiobook and talk us through the brilliant books that were finalists in the 2020 ‘Audiobook of the Year’ category.

Each year, a panel of esteemed judges reads over 100 novels to determine which titles will vie for the award of the Booker Prize for Fiction. Peter Florence, chair of the 2019 judges and founder of the famous Hay Festival, tells us why the books on this year’s shortlist are gripping, enthralling must-reads.

Epistolary novels are told through the form of written correspondence between characters, or sometimes by way of diary entries or fictional documents. Though there were earlier examples, the epistolary novel took off as a form in the 18th century and remains very popular for its immediacy and sense of realism. We’ve put together a selection of  epistolary novels—notable for their literary significance or their evergreen popularity—many of which have previously been recommended by our expert interviewees.

If you enjoy listening to books as audiobooks, it’s a great time to be alive. From Rosamund Pike narrating Pride and Prejudice, Jeremy Irons reading Lolita to Meryl Streep telling the story of Heartburn, many prominent actors have signed up for performing their favourite books in unabridged versions.

Catherine Mayer—author, journalist and president of the Women’s Equality Party—talks to Five Books about her optimism for a more equal future for society by way of her favourite science fiction visionaries and their work.

The award-winning writer recommends the best books on friendship, the theme of her latest novel Animals.

The Victorian era—defined by its imperial ambition, strict moral and social codes, and flashes of brutality—serves as fertile ground for historical fiction, argues Virginia Feito, whose acclaimed new book Victorian Psycho satirises the hypocrisy of the age. Here, she recommends five boundary-pushing novels that expose the darker underbelly of a most mannered age.

Exploring a historical era through crime is a particularly interesting way to look at that society, says award-winning novelist Anna Mazzola. Here she recommends five fabulous works of fiction that bring to life the impact of crimes in historical settings, from Victorian Britain to 18^th-century Jamaica.

Historical fiction brings the past to life, while exploring the feelings as well as the facts. Here, the novelist Louisa Treger recommends five favourite historical novels based on people who really existed, sweeping us from ancient Rome to 1930s Switzerland and everything in between.

We are living in times of unprecedented uncertainty and upheaval – and of unprecedented progress and opportunity. Chris Kutarna, political scientist and co-author of Age of Discovery, selects five books to help young adults navigate an uncertain future and achieve their full potential.

Do you take perverse pleasure in reading about the end of the world as we know it? Us too. Here, we’ve gathered together a selection of the best post-apocalyptic novels ever to appear on Five Books to help you choose your next horrifying, exhilarating literary parlay into armageddon.

Sci fi opens up new possibilities for romance stories, unconstrained by social reality. It’s an exciting time for the genre, says Natasha Pulley, bestselling author of The Mars House. Through her five contemporary favourites, she explores how human emotion – including romantic love and friendship – elevates the best sci-fi novels, creating stories with realism and depth.

What makes the most successful societies tick? The RSA’s Matthew Taylor says we should recognise that relationships and values are more important than scientific or economic advances

A short novel can be the perfect way to occupy the mind during an empty evening or a long journey. One can also appreciate a well-written book’s true complexity when it can be read and digested in a single, immersive sitting. Here, we’ve pulled together a list of short literary novels—most of them fewer than 200 pages in length—that have been recommended on Five Books over the years.

The Odyssey has been constantly rewritten by centuries of writers, but like so much of Greek myth, it's always already open to revising its own narrative. Emily Wilson, Professor of Classics at the University of Pennsylvania and the first woman to translate the Odyssey into English, recommends the best books to read after (or alongside) the Ancient Greek epic, and offers sage wisdom about both translating ancient epics and why everyone can learn from the Odyssey today.