A title James Frey might have found useful for a definition back in the day is How Fiction Works (James Wood, Jonathan Cape, April). In it Wood breaks down the main elements of fiction including narrative, detail, characterisation, dialogue and style. Of the many questions Wood investigates we are particularly interested in the answer to ‘why do most endings of novels disappoint?’ Running the gamut of authors from Homer to Beatrix Potter and (some might consider sacreligiously) finding room for that work of fiction, The Bible, How Fiction Works draws on the author’s work of two decades as a critic with the Guardian, The New Republic, The New Yorker and the London Review of Books.

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