He was going nowhere as a writer. Then a shocking chat with a teenage girl in Detroit changed everything. Here, the author reveals the astonishing story behind his explosive debut

Sunlit suburban calm masks the shocking nature of the story itself: a horrendous tragedy in the guise of a teenage coming-of-age movie

I grew up in Florida, but Jeffrey Eugenides’s story of five doomed midwestern sisters felt intensely familiar. What is it that makes me return to this bleakly comic novel again and again?

The novelist Niamh Campbell on why describing intimacy is so difficult and how creative writing about sexuality is changing. Plus, she picks 10 of her favourite examples

Comfort reading helped author Megan Nolan make it through 2020, but now it’s time for a return to hard-won rewards

A melancholic adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel about death in 70s suburbia remains a perfect marriage of style and substance

Financial anxiety, envy and greed unite the short stories in this excellent collection from the Pulitzer prize winner

Husbands and fathers harbour dark thoughts in the novelist’s witty collection of short stories whose characters prove hard to love

Why does literature so often depict the onset of sexuality – or indeed any aspect of girls’ growing up – as a strange, feverish thing? Two recent novels, by women, are redressing the balance with heartfelt depictions of teenagers that ring true

If you’re planning a trip to Michigan, or feel attracted by the contradictions of the ever-changing Motor City, here are our readers’ book suggestions

The Motor City has inspired impassioned poetry, meticulous realism, tales of the supernatural, riveting non-fiction dramas and more. Anna Clark sorts through a great city’s stories

From Ali Smith to Saint-Exupéry, the author picks the best 'two-hour' tales of complicated passion