Here were three writers not afraid to tackle serious issues: racism and homophobia, the right to die, the meaning of art, the absurdity of cycles of vengeance, faith and religion – and much more. Their novels are gripping, generous and thought provoking. They discussed the role of literature and its impact on our lives.

Make way for the almighty teenager. Long have we suspected that this awkward figure, lurking in the shadows is an underrated entity. Here are two novels which pull him into the limelight. In Meg Rossoff’s There is No Dog the role of God has been designated to Bob, a typical teenage boy who approaches the task with all the expected sloth and reluctance, until he discovers one particular female human. In The Odyssey of Samuel Glass the north-London protagonist travels to late 19...

In Jonathan Unleashed, a romantic comedy set in Manhattan, the wryly funny prize-winning author Meg Rosoff, in conversation with novelist Amanda Craig, presents her first novel for adults, a quirky take on the Bildungsroman. Have you ever wished there was a handbook on How to be a Person ? That’s exactly how Jonathan Trefoil feels as he struggles to meet the demands of adult life.

Fractured and fractious families are at the heart of two witty contemporary morality tales. Amanda Craig’s The Lie of the Land traces the trajectory of the sexually unquenchable Quentin and his unhappy partner, Lottie, whose problems only escalate when they decamp to Devon’s remote arcadia. Francesca Segal’s razor-sharp, The Awkward Age, tells of the fallout when two families merge in North London and civil war ensues.

In Insomnia, Marina Benjamin has produced an unsettling account of an unsettling condition, treating our inability to sleep not as a disorder, but as an existential experience that can electrify our understanding of ourselves, and of creativity and love. Lisa Appignanesi, in Everyday Madness, writes of the rage she experienced when her partner of 32 years died. In this brave examination of an ‘ordinary enough’ death and its aftermath, she scrutinises her own and ...