Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan review – bravura small-town chorus
The inner thoughts of an Irish community speak volumes about the state of the nation in Donal Ryan’s sequel to The Spinning Heart
The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville review – pulpy hijinks
A film star and a fantasy icon collaborate on an ultraviolent tale of a superhero’s search for mortality
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new chapter books
A hair-raising gameworld adventure, a dystopian thriller set in Edinburgh and a magical tale involving book jumping are among this month’s highlights
Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life by Michael Nott review – the poet laureate of Haight-Ashbury
The San Francisco poet’s work is richly illuminated by this detailed account of his early traumas, dread of ‘deep emotion’ and addiction to casual sex
The Echoes by Evie Wyld review – a jigsaw puzzle portrait of buried family secrets
In the fourth novel by the award-winning author of The Bass Rock, Wyld weaves a cleverly fragmented story of an Australian woman whose traumatic past casts a long shadow on the present
Cloudland Revisited by SJ Perelman review – the humorist who broke the mould
The Marx Brothers collaborator and New Yorker writer returns to the dime store novels and schlocky movies of his teens – and nails American culture
Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers review – the myriad faces of a musical maverick
The critic leaves no thought unturned in a personal, interrogative exploration of the life and work of a much-mythologised musician
Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England: Staffordshire review – the final word on the nation’s finest buildings
Nearly 80 years after it was conceived, an update to a peerless series of guides to the country’s architecture concludes with a detailed Staffordshire handbook that, typically, isn’t just an exercise in nostalgia
Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi review – fast and filthy in New Lagos
Existential literary fiction meets underworld caper in this unflinching tale of two recently parted lovers licking their wounds on a wild weekend in a corrupt city
Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise by Lin Yi-Han review – Taiwan’s #MeToo movement
This finely written, semi-autobiographical tale of a 13-year-old girl’s grooming by her tutor is given tragic depth by the author taking her own life after publication
In brief: A Ride Across America; This Motherless Land; Be Mine – reviews
A bicycle-led musing on the state of the US; a page-turning, Nigerian-inflected reworking of Mansfield Park; and a wistful final chapter for Richard Ford’s sportswriter Frank Bascombe
Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health by Sophie Harman – the war on wellbeing
The British academic offers a devastating diagnosis of the forces that have shaped female healthcare worldwide, along with a powerful prescription for change to remedy the failings, inequalities and injustices
Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler review – witty millennial angst
A young woman returns to the university town where she grew up in this biting satire of precarity and privilege
Track Record by George the Poet audiobook review – a heartfelt blend of the personal and political
The British-Ugandan writer looks back at his creative journey into a social landscape still defined by colonialism and inequality
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker; The God of the Woods by Liz Moore; Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox; How Can I Help You by Laura Sims; The Exile by Patrick Worrall