Books review of the year 2008

Sebastian Faulks, author of the new James Bond book, Devil May Care, and Tuuli Shipster, the model on its cover, at a press launch for the book on board HMS Exeter, London Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

George Monbiot is ejected from the Guardian stage at the Guardian Hay festival on 28 May, after calling for a citizen's arrest of the former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton Photograph: Felix Clay

Harry Potter author JK Rowling arrives at the National Library in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 December to give a reading from her new book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, to 200 schoolchildren Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Steven Vander Ark outside the US District Court in New York in April. Harry Potter author JK Rowling sued Vander Ark and publisher RDR Books, claiming that a proposed book based on Vander Ark's website, called Harry Potter Lexicon, would have "irreparably harmed" her as a writer Photograph: Daniel Barry/Getty

Poet Carol Ann Duffy. The AQA exam board withdrew her poem, Education For Leisure, which begins: "Today I am going to kill something. Anything." Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

Eoin Colfer at the Edinburgh book festival 2008. He is to write a further instalment of the best-selling Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, 16 years after Douglas Adams penned the fifth and last book Photograph: Murdo Macleod

The offices of publisher Gibson Square in north London, In September, an apparent arson attack on the building was believed to be linked to the forthcoming publication of The Jewel of Medina, a fictionalised account of the relationship between Muhammad and his child bride A'isha. The book by Sherry Jones, described by Gibson Square as a "historical novel of the love story", has been at the centre of an international dispute Photograph: John Alex Maguire/Rex Features

Readers attend the midnight release party for Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn at Borders bookshop in New York in August. It is the fourth and final book of Meyer's Twilight series Photograph: Brad Barket/Getty Images

Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in May 2007. He died in March aged 90. His vast corpus of fiction, non-fiction, plays films and TV series included the novel 2001: a Space Odyssey Photograph: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet dissident writer and Nobel prizewinner whose books chronicled the horrors of Stalin's labour camps, on a visit to Vendee, France in 1993. He died aged 89 in August Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

Pat Kavanagh, the formidable literary agent who represented Ruth Rendell, Wendy Cope, Margaret Drabble, and John Mortimer amongst others, died in October Photograph: United Agents/PR

Palestinian poet and journalist Mahmoud Darwish reads during his poetry show in July 2007 in Haifa, Israel. Darwish died aged 67 in August Photograph: Getty

David Foster Wallace, the American writer renowned for his novel Infinite Jest, died in September aged 46 Photograph: Steve Liss/Getty

Studs Terkel, master chronicler of American life in the 20th century and veteran radio broadcaster, at his home in Chicago. He died in November, aged 96 Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

Playwright and author Simon Gray, who died aged 71 in August Photograph: Linda Nylind

American author, Michael Crichton, in Paris in 2003, renowned for having penned the bestseller Jurassic Park and created the popular TV series ER. He died in November Photograph: Eric Robert/Corbis

French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, winner of the 2008 Nobel prize for literature. The Swedish Academy, which decides the winner of the prestigious prize, praised Le Clezio for his adventurous novels, essays and children's literature Photograph: Scanpix Sweden/Reuters

Aravind Adiga poses for photographers after winning the 2008 Man Booker prize with his book The White Tiger, at London's Guildhall on 14 October Photograph: Alessia Pierdomenico/Reuters

Kate Summerscale, winner of the BBC Four Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction for The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, makes her acceptance speech at the award ceremony at the Southbank centre, London, on 15 July Photograph: Rosie Greenway/Getty

Alex Ross, author of The Rest Is Noise, winner of The Guardian First Book Award 2008. The book charts the history of music through the 20th century Photograph: Teri Pengilley

AL Kennedy makes a speech after winning the Costa book prize for her fifth novel, Day, watched by the chair of the judges, Joanna Trollope (left) Photograph: Sarah Lee

Orange prizewinner Rose Tremain, whose novel The Road Home tells the story of an eastern European economic migrant to Britain Photograph: Justin Williams/Rex Features