Tonight the Music Seems So Loud by Sathnam Sanghera review – a heartbreaking portrait of George Michael

This affecting exploration of the troubled genius’s impact is packed with anecdote, sharp analysis and social context

Fuck the Polis review – cryptic docu-essay is a sphinxlike study of Greek myth and modernity

This film may be making a point about the classical vis a vis the contemporary, but its visual collages and dense poetic texts render it inert

The Common Good Economy by Mariana Mazzucato review – how can Labour really turn things around?

It’s not enough to wish for growth; economic success requires a sense of purpose, according to this academic

Land by Maggie O’Farrell review – an ambitious story of mapmaking in Ireland

Set in the aftermath of the famine, the Hamnet author’s family saga folds in myth and folklore

The best recent translated fiction – review roundup

Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami; All Flesh by Ananda Devi; The White Desert by Luis López Carrasco; The Home of the Drowned by Elin Anna Labba

Prestige Drama by Séamas O’Reilly review – brilliant wry comedy of Derry and the shadow of the past

A British and American film crew descend on the Northern Irish city to film a drama about the Troubles, in a keenly observed and snappily written debut

Capture by Amanda Lohrey review – a superb novel about a study of alien abductees

The Miles Franklin winner’s plot teeters on the edge of profound silliness, but it’s also a vehicle for making meaning of our lived experiences – and those of others

The Book of Birds by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris audiobook review – a love letter to our feathered friends

This compendium profiles 49 of Britain’s threatened species, with each entry featuring a prose poem evoking the unique qualities of each bird and their meticulously recorded call

Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly review – lust at first sight

Shortlisted for the Women’s prize, this story of a writer’s infatuation with an older woman begins with bracing verve

Escaping Babylon by Jesse Bernard review – an intimate history of Black British music

A personal exploration of the sounds that defined a community, from Soul II Soul to Dizzee Rascal

What We Ask Google by Simon Rogers review – the secrets of our search history

The company’s data editor trawls through billions of queries to deliver a portrait of the world’s preoccupations

Fieldwork As a Sex Object by Meena Kandasamy review – story of a deepfake sex tape

The author of When I Hit You returns with a pithy, savagely funny tale of online shaming and the Indian manosphere

Leonora in the Morning Light review – pioneering British artist who fled convention for the surrealists

From Paris to Mexico, Leonora Carrington’s extraordinary life is retold with intelligence and restraint, though not quite enough imagination

Fairyland review – moving memoir of queer parenting and new kinds of family in 70s San Francisco

Andrew Durham’s tender adaptation of Alysia Abbott’s book finds warmth, humour and heartbreak in an unconventional family unit shaped by love and loss

The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams review – twisted love story from a cult writer

Williams follows her prize-winning debut with a gothically overstuffed tale of a cynical young woman in a crumbling university town