Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers review – trauma unearthed

The follow-up to Small Pleasures is set in a mid-century psychiatric hospital, as an art therapist delves into a patient’s past

Atonement by Ian McEwan audiobook review – secrets and lies

Succession actor Harriet Walter narrates this unsettling portrait of class, memory and the nature of fiction

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

A beanstalk murder; the heroines of Greek myth; a history of AI; a mysterious golden island, and more

The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer review – more affable nonsense

Is the follow-up to The Satsuma Complex a celebrity cash-grab, or a sweet, silly meta-commentary on thrillers?

Hope for Cynics by Jamil Zaki review – beating the ‘trust recession’

A psychologist on the deleterious effects of cynicism and how faith in others is the key to building a better future

Young Hawke by David Day review – a gritty, disturbing addition to former prime minister’s story

The childhood roots of Bob Hawke’s adult bad behaviour are carefully examined in this biography of the often lionised figure

Munichs by David Peace review – bravura portrait of a football tragedy

An electrifying retelling of how the Munich air disaster changed football and Britain for ever

How Tyrants Fall by Marcel Dirsus review – road to revolution

A ‘blueprint’ for bringing dictators down that could equally function as a Machiavellian manual for staying in power

Nothing But the Best review – raffish Alan Bates comedy is a time capsule of 60s London

Millicent Martin and Denholm Elliott also star in Clive Donner’s 1964 satire on class, filled with macabre twists

Liars by Sarah Manguso review – searing tale of a toxic marriage

This compulsive, claustrophobic account of a bad relationship becomes starved of oxygen in the same way the narrator is

Other Rivers by Peter Hessler review – spotlight on Generation Xi

An American’s view of life in China during the tumultuous Covid years

The 39 Steps review – comic homage to Hitchcock thriller goes off the rails

With four actors playing 130 parts, this revival of Patrick Barlow’s take on the spy film is fitfully funny but ultimately frustrating

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable review – compelling tale of Vivaldi’s musical protege

A well-crafted historical fiction inspired by the composer’s tenure as music teacher in a Venetian orphanage

The Last Dream by Pedro Almodóvar review – fantastical fictions and candid personal curios

The Spanish director’s 12 tales, written between the late 60s and today, are a heady mix of factual and fictitious, befitting of one of cinema’s most imaginative storytellers

And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music by Joe Boyd review – the Proust of music

The producer’s epic account of global music’s cross-pollination is an inspiring tale of seduction, expression and freedom from oppression