Can fiction change your life? From Sicily in the 5th Century BC to a present-day space station, 2024’s novelists have taken readers on some extraordinary journeys.
Review of the year: greatest novels
Books of 2024: Samantha Harvey's Orbital, a drama about six astronauts on an orbiting space station, won the Booker Prize this year. Glossary
Margaret Atwood - Canadian novelist whose best-known book is The Handmaid's Tale.
Kurt Vonnegut - An American author (1922 - 2007) known for his satire and dark humour.
Supertyphoon - When a typhoon (which is the same as a hurricane) has a sustained surface-wind strength of 240km or 150mph.
Cosmos - The universe, especially when it is understood as an ordered system.
Commune - A group of people who live together and share possessions, income and responsibilities. They often live in an unconventional way.
Mark Twain - The pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a 19th Century writer known as "the father of American literature".
Embassy - The workplace of a group of government officials who represent their country in another country.
Exile - Forced out of one's country, often as a form of punishment.
Peloponnesian War - A long and bloody war fought between Sparta, Athens and the allies of each side. Sparta ultimately triumphed, but the war tipped the whole Greek world into decline, and both powers would soon succumb to Macedonia and then Rome.
Euripides - An ancient Greek playwright, known for his tragedies.