Let’s Be Honest by Jess Phillips review – manifesto for a better politics speaks plainly but falls flat

The fourth book from the admirable Labour MP is part memoir, part rallying cry – but it feels a bit rushed and too familiar

Rosarita by Anita Desai – a luminous search for a mother

This short, exquisite novel about a young Indian woman’s encounter with a flamboyant stranger shows that Desai has lost none of her powers

The Outrun review – ambitious staging of Amy Liptrot’s Orkney addiction memoir

Vicky Featherstone’s directing and Isis Hainsworth’s fine lead turn valiantly blur the wild and the urban to portray the writer’s introspective journey to sobriety

Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan review – old grudges die hard in rural Ireland

The Irish author’s follow-up to his 2012 novel The Spinning Heart revisits its characters 10 years on in a story notable for its rough-edged poetry

‘The obnoxious one’: new book by Trump’s nephew exposes a sordid past

Fred Trump III’s portrayal of the Queens-born former president shows him as volatile, uncaring and racist

The Garden by Clare Beams review – Mother Nature’s mystical powers

A mysterious country garden responds to women desperate for a child in a sometimes slow-going chiller

In brief: The Newsmongers; The Night in Venice; Vital Organs – review

An informed history of tabloid journalism; an atmospheric Edwardian-era mystery set in Italy; and a riotous study of famous people’s body parts

All in the Family by Fred Trump review – when dollars are thicker than blood

The nephew of former US president Donald Trump tries to set himself aside from his notorious clan in this history of the family, but their vicious and venal conduct is apparent at every turn

Complicit by Reah Bravo review – a revisionist history of #MeToo

An attempt to understand the complexities of workplace abuse that is more nuanced than its provocative title suggests

Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers review – northern soul and second chances

Once again, the author of Cuddy develops a deep sense of place, for a story that takes joy in its characters and their passions

The Years review – Annie Ernaux’s faint-inducing masterpiece roars into devastating life

Eline Arbo’s profound but playful adaptation celebrates the multitudes contained within a single life, as big history is embodied by womanhood – including Romola Garai’s shatteringly raw abortion scene

The best recent poetry – review roundup

Bluff by Danez Smith; Fantasia by Nisha Ramayya; a great shaking by Edwina Attlee; Ruin, Blossom by John Burnside; Tanya by Brenda Shaughnessy

The Piano Player of Budapest by Roxanne de Bastion audiobook review – music and survival

The musician traces the story of her grandfather, from his life as a pianist and composer in Hungary to surviving the concentration camps in wartime Austria

Failed State by Sam Freedman review – how to fix Britain

Even the best governments can’t bring about change in a broken system, according to this urgent plea for reform

If You Go by Alice Robinson review – what would you do with a second chance at life?

This ambitious novel, which follows a mother who wakes up in the future without her children, wrestles with complex existential questions