Flamboyance by Jack Parlett review – a serious study of the spectacular
What does it mean to push the boat out, and can peacocking be more than just a beautiful gesture?
The End of Everything by M John Harrison review – near-future visions from an SF master
This bleak but brilliant tale of enigmatic alien entities and slow social collapse exposes the terrifying insecurity of life right now
Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer review – fun in the Tuscan sun
The Pulitzer-winning author of Less has crafted a breezy confection of fish-out-of-water wit, insecurity and self-discovery set in an Italian paradise
A British Childhood by Frank Cottrell-Boyce review – are we raising a bookless generation?
This clarion call about the impoverishment of children’s lives is also a reminder of the sheer magic of reading
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Haunting the Black Air by Anthony Joseph; Selected Poems by Leontia Flynn; Sparrow on the Rooftop by Rachel Long; You Must Live: New Poetry from Palestine, edited by Jorie Graham; Melete by Jennifer Lee Tsai; Somebody Should Have Pressed Record by Galia Admoni
The Children by Melissa Albert review – intriguing fairytale of creativity’s dangers
In her first novel for adults, the YA author explores the dark side of writers who fictionalise their children’s lives
The Ruiners by Ellena Savage review – a playful and subversive take on Great Expectations
In her sharp and intellectual first novel, the author finds tragic comedy in socialism, inequality and the flawed ways we connect as the world burns
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan audiobook review – a grim life in China’s gig economy
This memoir of a man who moved around China chasing low-paid work for 20 years is an indictment of a shocking system, read in a suitably austere way
Dominion by Addie E Citchens review – Women’s prize-shortlisted portrait of patriarchy’s horrors
The violence of male entitlement is embodied in the charismatic son of a Mississippi pastor, in a sharp portrait of cruelty and inheritance
The Traveller by Andrea Wulf review – an 18th century explorer far ahead of his time
A revelatory account of the life of George Forster, whose rejection of racial hierarchies stood out amongst his peers
Mrs Dalloway review – Virginia Woolf’s party planner plays all the roles herself
Kit Green takes on all the characters in an imaginative interpretation of the 1925 day-in-the-life novel
Ambivalence by Brian Dillon review – an odd man out
The critic’s memoir’s is a portrait in determination to go against the grain and ‘pursue a life in words and ideas’
Wimmy Road Boyz by Sufiyaan Salam review – an electric debut set on Manchester’s Curry Mile
Written in breathless multilingual prose, this coming-of-age meets state-of-the-nation novel is an incredible literary performance
Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day review – dreamy adaptation reaches for the stars
Woolf’s novel about a headstrong young Edwardian woman takes flight under Tina Gharavi’s direction, with Timothy Spall and Jennifer Saunders among the ensemble cast
My Only Boy by Rosa Rankin-Gee review – a darkly funny near-future dystopia
A surprising romance is set against a backdrop of climate crisis, political instability and corporate corruption in this bleak but witty novel