Hisham Matar, Sarah Perry and Samantha Harvey in running for prize, along with the first Native American and Dutch authors ever to be nominated

• The Booker longlist might just be the most enjoyable of recent years

Percival Everett, Hisham Matar and Sarah Perry are among the 13 novelists longlisted for the 2024 Booker prize. The “Booker dozen” also features works by Richard Powers, Tommy Orange, Rachel Kushner and Anne Michaels.

This year’s “glorious” list comprises “a cohort of global voices, strong voices and new voices”, said judging chair and artist Edmund de Waal.

To explore all the books on the Booker prize 2024 longlist, visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Described as a ‘masterclass in tragicomedy’, the novel, set in Syracuse in 412BC, follows two locals who decide to stage Medea in a quarry using prisoners as actors

Ferdia Lennon has won this year’s Waterstones debut fiction prize for his “riotous, exuberant treat of a novel”, Glorious Exploits.

The novel, which took about seven years to write, is set in Syracuse in 412BC, in the aftermath of Athens’ failed invasion of Sicily. It follows two locals who decide to stage an adaptation of Medea in a quarry where Athenian soldiers are held captive, using the prisoners as actors.

A phrase popularised by Love Island joins more than 3,200 other entries relating to online gaming, parcel thefts and more

“The ick” is among the more than 3,200 words, terms and phrases added to the Cambridge Dictionary so far this year.

Meaning “a sudden feeling that you dislike someone or something or are no longer attracted to someone because of something they do”, the term has gained prominence online in recent years after being used on reality show Love Island.

In Ascension takes prestigious science fiction prize for a story that follows a marine biologist exploring the ocean depths

Scottish writer Martin MacInnes has taken home this year’s Arthur C Clarke award for what judges described as an “intense trip” of a novel, moving from the depths of the ocean to outer space.

In Ascension, MacInnes’s third novel, was revealed as the winner of the award, recognising the best science fiction novel of the year, at a ceremony in London on Wednesday.

Social media distraction, lack of time and difficulty focusing are factors in the decline of leisure reading

Half of adults in the UK do not regularly read for pleasure, according to new survey data.

The study, commissioned by the charity the Reading Agency, saw 15% of adults reporting that they have never been regular readers, and 35% saying that they are lapsed readers, meaning that they used to read regularly for pleasure, but rarely or never do now.