The Latest Breaking News from Anne Tyler

The US author’s masterly portrait of a divorced couple brought together by their daughter’s wedding is beautifully observed

From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Curtis Sittenfeld, Daisy Lester rounds up the buzziest titles for this year

Books in brief

I should not worry so much, because reading slumps come and go. But every time one comes, I worry that it won't ever go. What if I've permanently lost my ability to concentrate? This is certainly possible, in this age of ever-distracting social media.

Pandemics force us to face our mortality, prompting profound questions about life’s meaning. It is not surprising, therefore, that since the days of medieval plague outbreaks, infectious diseases have attracted the imagination of novelists. These stories operate as cautionary tales, holding humanity to account.

Studies show men avoid female authors. Ahead of the Women’s prize for fiction, chair of judges Mary Ann Sieghart finds out why – and we ask male authors to redress the balance

From Franz Kafka to Anne Tyler, literature amplifies the author’s moving insights into living with agoraphobia and the remedies that have helped him

Anne Tyler’s 24th novel is an extraordinarily rich portrait of a family in flux, says Jessie Thompson

BALTIMORE — About five years ago, relatives began vanishing from the Baltimore novelist Anne Tyler’s life like disappearing ink. They faded away so gradually and quietly Tyler hadn’t even realized they were gone, leaving behind only faint traces of long-ago relationships.