Can fiction change your life? From ancient Sicily to the space station, 2024’s authors have taken readers on some amazing 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
Imagination - The ability to have new ideas or make mental pictures of things you have not seen.
Astronauts - Someone who travels on a rocket into space.
Government - The group of people who govern - or lead - the country.
Mark Twain - The pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a 19th Century writer known as "the father of American literature".
Slave - Somebody who is forced to work without pay and cannot leave.
Libyan - From Libya, a country in North Africa.
Protest - Around 500,000 people attended the Women's March on Washington on January 21st. Similar marches took place in cities around the world; it is thought that around 5m people took part.
Ancient - Very old.
Sicily - The largest island in the Mediterranean. It is part of Italy.
Bond - Connect, or find common ground.
Euripides - An ancient Greek playwright, known for his tragedies.
Boredom - The feeling of frustration when you do not having anything to entertain you.