The stories of a satanic architect and a brooding detective cross in this shadowy novel by Peter Ackroyd.

Astronauts board a mysterious intergalactic vessel in this inquisitive SF novel by Arthur C. Clarke.

A monk tells a cautionary tale of construction and sacrifice in this unsettling novel by Ismail Kadare.

A circle of acquaintances meet to gossip and trade barbs in this sharp novella by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

A time-travelling messiah appears in eighties Manhattan in this satirical SF novel by Patrick Tilley.

A group of Californian yuppies walk the treadmill of life in this virtuosic novel in verse by Vikram Seth.

A university student investigates his uncle's disappearance in this coming-of-age novel by Iain Banks.

A promising English novelist embarks on a stateside journey in this wry novel by Malcolm Bradbury.

Supernatural meets mundane in this sprawling novel about the fictional Trueba family by Isabel Allende.

The sights, smells, and sounds of Morocco come to life in this vivid book of essays by Elias Canetti.

A forbidden romance blossoms within the confines of an Indian village in this novel by Arundhati Roy.

Stories are cut short and readers are dragged into the action in this beguiling novel by Italo Calvino.

A revolving cast of characters bare the scars of post-war London in this novel by Maureen Duffy.

A Victorian media sensation convicted of murder tells her story in this historical novel by Margaret Atwood.

A narcissistic doctor understands brain surgery but not people in this visceral novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

A dysfunctional family relocates to the craggy expanse of a Canadian island in this novel by Annie Proulx.

A woman attempts to escape from ennui by taking to the freeway in this blistering novel by Joan Didion.

Contemporary London is depicted in all of its cultural complexities in this sprawling novel by Zadie Smith.

An elderly composer becomes a fugitive suspected of bioterrorism in this lively novel by Richard Powers.

The horrors of the Holocaust become a cat-and-mouse metaphor in this graphic novel by Art Spiegelman.

An ageing narrator revisits a coastal village from his childhood in this melancholic novel by John Banville.

Pot roasts, potatoes, and humble pie are stuffed into the pages of this side-splitting novel by Nora Ephron.

Microscopic monkey gods fight tentacled beasts in Daljit Nagra's vibrant retelling of an ancient poem.

A Sudanese woman adjusts to life in Aberdeen in this touching novel about exile and friendship by Leila Aboulela.