Arifa Akbar

Arifa Akbar is literary editor of The Independent and i newspapers. She has worked at The Independent since 2001 as a news reporter and arts correspondent before joining the books desk in 2009. She was a judge for the Orwell Prize for books 2013, and the Fiction Uncovered Prize 2014.

The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon: Startling, good and gripping

Precursors: Dirk Bogarde and Bjorn Andresen in 'Death in Venice', 1971

What Belongs To You by Garth Greenwell: Repression and the rent boy

In it for the long haul: memorial for the children of Am Spiegelgrund, Vienna

The Chosen Ones may be a brick of a book - but I'm not giving up

Foot soldiers: Anjali Joseph’s latest novel revolves around an Indian shoemaker and British woman working in a shoe factory

The Living by Anjali Joseph: The drama of our inner lives