What a Way to Go by Bella Mackie review – Succession-style satire

A vile multimillionaire dies in mysterious circumstances in this entertaining follow-up to How to Kill Your Family

The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke review – a doctor’s remarkable account of an organ transplant

The remarkable journey of a young girl’s heart to a young boy’s body is told in an accessible, humane way

The Critic review – Ian McKellen’s poison pen sharpens 30s society cosy-crime drama

As a jaundiced reviewer with a dangerous private life, McKellen brings glorious life to this story of sour toffs in a dishonest decade

The Happiness of Dogs by Mark Rowlands review – a masterclass in canine philosophy

From delighting in repetitive tasks to unselfconscious joy, there is much to be learned from a dog’s approach to life

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout review – when Olive Kitteridge met Lucy Barton

The worlds of Strout’s previous books converge in this quietly stunning novel of interlocking stories

Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari review – end of days?

The Sapiens author may be a superb narrative writer, but his apocalyptic pontificating about AI stretches credulity

Playground by Richard Powers review – the wonder of the oceans

This ambitious, rapturous Booker-longlisted epic explores life underwater, generative AI, climate crisis and the power of play

Elaine by Will Self review – an intense reimagining of the author’s mother’s life

Elaine is a thwarted writer in 1950s upstate New York, on the brink of affairs and murdering her own child, in a claustrophobic novel full of Self’s stylistic mannerisms

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari review – rage against the machine

The author of the bestselling Sapiens offers a penetrating critique of the insidious dangers of machine learning and its capacity to manipulate the truth

The Vourdalak review – deviously fun horror is très drôle vampire chamber piece

A foppish French aristocrat encounters a clan of peasants and their blood-sucking patriarch in a deliriously camp period yarn

Final Cut by Charles Burns review – a book to be read and reread

A horror movie shoot grows complicated for a group of young friends in a rich story of anxiety and betrayal steeped in dread

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux review – savage with a sensitive side

This detailed biography complicates our perception of the bad boy of French art and illuminates his fraught friendship with Van Gogh

Want: Sexual Fantasies, edited by Gillian Anderson review – intriguing survey of desire

Inspired by research for her role in Sex Education, the actor has collected a rich picture of modern women’s sexuality through clandestine contributions

Exam Nation by Sammy Wright review – an essential lesson for Britain’s grade-obsessed education system

This entertaining, insightful study by a head teacher argues that schools have lost sight of the real point of learning and suggests ways to fix this

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman review – his new crime-fighting team is another winner

A private security officer and the famous novelist in her charge are pursued around the world by a killer in the delightful first book in Osman’s new series