The Future Starts With Us by Gordon Brown review – the ex-PM’s recipe for beating populism

Global crises are tightly linked to how we treat each other at the local level, argues this optimistic book

Switzy by Emma Cline review – this Booker-listed account of a man’s last days is profoundly moving

Struggling with Alzheimer’s, the central character sets out on his final journey to a euthanasia clinic

The Trials of Magnus Coffinkey review – time stands still at 3.43am in fringe fairytale

Angele and Malcolm Galea’s two-hander cycles through grief and sorrow as a broken-hearted hero is trapped in purgatory

Children’s books roundup – the best new picture books and novels

Poetry with wonder and wit; a heartwarming tale for horse lovers; a portal to the future; a brilliant YA wartime romance and more

Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason review – a tale of literary obsession, with cameos from real-life authors

A heartbroken woman becomes fixated on a famous writer in this witty, touching follow-up to Sorrow and Bliss

The Secret Woman review – Claes Bang is dastardly gaslighter in Danish amnesia thriller

In spite of capable performances and deployment of hygge, gothic and Nordic noir elements, you’ll search for a feasible plot or a character insight in vain

Owl at Home review – this Edinburgh fringe hoot is a wise choice for children

Songs, physical comedy and clever design come together in Theatr Iolo’s adaptation of Arnold Lobel’s offbeat story, aimed at over-fives

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout audiobook review – brilliant portrait of an existential crisis

A teacher’s private anxieties are subtly combined with political events in this Booker-listed tale set in coastal Massachusetts

Kolkhoz by Emmanuel Carrère review – intricate portrait of an elite French family

The author of The Adversary and Yoga unearths a history that includes the Nazis, Russia, and the Académie Française

Penelope review – Odysseus’s other half sings of her own twists and turns

Grace McLean brings vocal and emotional range in the central role of Alex Bechtel’s Homeric song cycle

Passage by Colin Thubron review – mortality and memory in a gem of a novel

A terminally ill woman makes a final trip to Egypt in an exquisitely wrought portrait of end-of-life reckoning

Feminism for a World on Fire by Natasha Walter review – hope amid the hopelessness

A writer and activist links the climate crisis to battles for justice around the world in this vital book

Triage by Claudia Rankine review – how should we respond to the world’s atrocities?

The American poet and essayist weaves memoir, fiction, criticism and lyrical lament into a tale of friendship in an age of existential crisis

The Great Dictator by Matthew Sweet review – the fabulous life of Barbara Cartland

A brilliant new biography that does its subject the favour of taking her seriously – even if few else did

The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy! review – workplace meltdown borrows from classic sitcoms

Well-tuned performances help along a familiar set of laughs as a rickety library gets a new manager and an inspection