The Watermark by Sam Mills review – a time-travelling romp

Two lovers are trapped in a series of books, tumbling through different eras and genres, in this superb metafictional adventure

Touch review – unashamedly emotional love story travels back to the 1960s

Baltasar Kormákur’s beautifully shot romance sees Kristófer try to track down Miko, a lifetime after their youthful love affair is unexpectedly cut short

Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak and Dogs by Jordan Stephens review – not so chill

The Rizzle Kicks star explores the fallout from fame in this candid portrait of the artist as a struggling young man

Good Nature by Kathy Willis review – flower power

A scientist’s deep dive into the extraordinary health benefits of getting close to nature

Bluff by Danez Smith review – ‘Afropessimism’ as an artform

The American poet’s dark, politically conscious fourth collection tackles the entrenched problem of anti-blackness and the aftermath of the George Floyd protests

Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence by Will Hodgkinson review – portrait of a wayward would-be pop star

His bands Felt and Denim never quite made it. So will this sympathetic biography help give indie’s most enigmatic figure the status his stoicism deserves?

If Only by Vigdis Hjorth review – love will tear her apart

The pursuit of an unprepossessing academic is pushed to its tragicomic limits in this highly pleasurable tale of unrequited passion

A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown review – a crown jewel among royal biographies

The Private Eye satirist’s portrait of the late monarch is rich in vignettes, but also has a revelatory depth

Becoming Earth by Ferris Jabr review – our planet: a living, breathing, mutating miracle

The US-based journalist has fashioned a wide-ranging and thought-provoking study of how everything from microbes to mammoths transformed our world into a living organism

Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon review – myth and legend refocused in deft short stories

The author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time gives fresh legs to the Minotaur, Actaeon, his hounds and more

The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer review – a not so smashing follow-up

The comedian’s flights of fancy are again to the fore in this sequel to his award-winning crime caper, but sadly, momentum and intrigue are a little lacking

Edinburgh festival theatre 2024: The Fifth Step; The Outrun; I Wish You Well; Gwyneth Goes Skiing – review

Jack Lowden and Sean Gilder compel in David Ireland’s crackling new AA drama

In brief: Peggy: A Novel; Oaklore: Adventures in a World of Extraordinary Trees; My Men – reviews

Rebecca Godfrey’s fictionalised biography of Peggy Guggenheim is full of adventure; Jules Acton’s woodland wisdom is infectious; and Victoria Kielland’s novel gets into the mind of the first female US serial killer

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner review – double dealing in deepest France

Longlisted for this year’s Booker prize, Kushner’s cleverly paced tale of espionage, narrated by a ‘wild and boastful’ agent provocateur, juggles a killer plot with anarchy, agriculture and prehistory, making for her most entertaining novel yet

The Abandoners by Begoña Gómez Urzaiz review – absent mothers

An idiosyncratic study of women who leave their children, from Doris Lessing and Muriel Spark to Joni Mitchell