The History of Ideas by David Runciman review – casting around

A spinoff from the podcast of the same name, this potted philosophical primer fails to live up to its title

Mary and the Rabbit Dream by Noémi Kiss-Deáki review – an 18th-century hoax

The remarkable story of how, in 1726, the medical establishment believed that a poor woman had given birth to rabbits

Twelve Trees by Daniel Lewis review – a global arboreal odyssey

From 2,000-year-old Pacific redwoods to the mighty Peruvian ceiba, a survey of extraordinary trees

Napalm in the Heart by Pol Guasch review – the aftermath of apocalypse

Love, death, war and occupation are explored in a gripping and poetic examination of the human condition

History for Tomorrow by Roman Krznaric review – looking back, moving forward

From Arab scholars to hippy mothers, can history offer forgotten answers to modern problems?

The Unwilding by Marina Kemp review – dark family secrets

A young female writer is drawn into the family of a revered novelist and patriarch, in this powerfully compelling dissection of the creative process

Crime and thrillers of the month – review

A luminous tale of abducted teens, a page-turning marriage to a mass murderer – and a deadly gameshow

The Fifth Seal review – a spiky political cabaret of cruelty and fear

Zoltán Fábri’s 1976 film follows military veteran Karoly in wartime Hungary as he asks fellow drinkers in a bar what they would choose: be the slave master or the slave

Kafka: Selected Stories, edited by Mark Harman review – the master who never wasted a word

A Franz Kafka scholar’s perceptive annotation and translation highlights every subtle shade of humour and brilliant aphorism in these singular tales

I Will Crash by Rebecca Watson – family dynamics poisonously awry

A bullying brother’s death is the spur for an extraordinary and chilling portrait of sibling enmity in the second novel by the author of little scratch

Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan review – a lacerating exposé

The journalist’s sickening account of how generations of Kennedys casually abused the women around them with impunity is a timely reminder of the dangers posed by damaged men who crave power

In My Time of Dying by Sebastian Junger review – from here to eternity

The veteran war reporter’s near-death experience during a vascular emergency forms the basis of a philosophically ambitious and questioning memoir

I Was There by Alan Edwards review – the rock gods’ right-hand man

The ‘godfather of British music PR’ delivers a raw, warm and anecdote-packed account of sometimes bruising encounters with Bowie, McCartney, Jagger et al

The Material by Camille Bordas review – when life is one long joke

Students on a comedy course devote their every moment to mining material for their on-stage routine in a novel that relies on how much it can make the reader laugh

Orlando, My Political Biography review – inventive spin on Virginia Woolf’s novel

Trans director Paul B Preciado uses Woolf’s classic text as a literary exploration and an intimate personal journey to powerful effect