The Abandoners by Begoña Gómez Urzaiz review – why do some mothers desert their children?
A fascinating study of famous women who break the ultimate taboo is just as powerful in capturing the everyday guilt of mothers who quietly dream of freedom
Young adult books roundup – reviews
A rich tale of telepathic teens from Moira Buffini, stories of the power of sisterhood and female friendships, and a French exchange trip gone comically wrong
Apprentice in Wonderland by Ramin Setoodeh review – how Donald Trump’s big break changed America
The inside story of the creation of the reality show featuring the former US president shows how politics was transformed into a branch of the entertainment industry
Author Mark Haddon: ‘Bodies are such a good source of drama’
The writer on revisiting his boarding school days, watching 24 Hours in A&E, and reading everything from cannibalism novels to science encyclopedias
Yr Dead by Sam Sax review – comedy and darkness in an inventive debut novel
A young queer activist looks back on how a complex life unspooled into a final, fatal act in the award-winning poet’s ambitious, unflinching tale
The Voyage Home by Pat Barker review – a gritty Greek game of thrones
Agamemnon’s fateful return home reads like a blockbuster in the colourful third instalment of Barker’s women-centred Trojan wars series
In brief: The Most; The Ghost Lake; Anansi’s Gold – reviews
A too-brief dissection of a 1950s American marriage; an affecting working-class memoir of grief and landscape; and an engrossing tale of a massively successful Ghanaian con artist
The Island: WH Auden and the Last of Englishness review – a deep dive into the poet’s early years
Nicholas Jenkins’s exhaustive volume – part biography, part literary study, part marathon – draws together the many influences on the young writer, from the first world war to his fascination with the lead mines of the Pennines
The Art of Power review – Pelosi takes swipe at Trump
The former speaker’s illuminating second memoir details how she won an outsized place in Trump’s brain. Can she help beat him back again?
Exam Nation by Sammy Wright review – testing times
A teacher’s view of a schools system in crisis – and how we can fix it
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins review – brilliantly ticklish riff on a stack of literary tomes
Dressed as the publisher’s emblem, in orange flippers and not much else, the ingenious comic delivers a dizzy series of droll visual routines
Other Women by Emma Flint review – a gripping dissection of an affair
A love triangle culminates in tragedy in this cleverly constructed thriller, based on real-life events
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson; Guilty By Definition by Susie Dent; Sanctuary by Garry Disher; The Examiner by Janice Hallett; Sounds Like a Plan by Pamela Samuels Young and Dwayne Alexander Smith
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig review – a journey of rediscovery
A woman acquires supernatural abilities on Ibiza in this follow-up to The Midnight Library
The Land of Lost Things by Andy Griffiths review – a madcap adventure for young readers
The first in the highly anticipated post-Treehouse series delights in silliness, imagination and problem-solving