The Unfragile Mind by Gavin Francis review – a GP’s guide to mental health
Powerful case studies can’t make up for this book’s superficiality when it comes to the broader issues
Railsong by Rahul Bhattacharya review – a heartfelt tale of life on the Indian railways
We follow one woman across decades of change in this deeply compassionate novel of independence and dreams
Evening All Afternoon review – Erin Kellyman makes blazing stage debut as spiky stepdaughter
The 28 Years Later star joins the impressive Anastasia Hille in Anna Ziegler’s two-hander about grief and family
My Bags Are Big by Tibor Fischer review – how to make it in crypto
Amusing oddballs populate a wise-cracking wheeler-dealer’s tale of leaving London for Dubai in search of loot and laughs
Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block review – a true ‘Misery’ memoir
A compelling and fitfully harrowing child’s-eye account of a mother’s unravelling
Bird Grove review – George Eliot’s true story embellished in a tender drama
Elizabeth Dulau is terrific in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s new play as the young woman set to become a daring pioneer in fiction and real life
Suckerfish by Ashani Lewis review – the ordeals of having a difficult mother
This is a wry and likably feisty account of the destructive power an unstable parent can wield over her offspring
Nonesuch by Francis Spufford review – a dazzling wartime fantasy
Dark magic, fascism and romance in blitz-stricken London: this exuberant novel is a popcorny delight
All You Need Is Kill review – time loop anime offers giant alien flower for Groundhog Day with mechs
New version of the sci-fi day-on-repeat sees a perplexed duo repeatedly battle monstrous plants but leaves you feeling as bored as the protagonist appears
As If by Isabel Waidner review – surreal doppelganger story
Two uncannily similar men switch places in an existential farce that playfully explores the precarity of working life
Politics Without Politicians by Hélène Landemore review – could we get rid of Farage, Truss and Trump?
A Yale professor’s radical proposal to replace elected leaders with ordinary people, chosen by lottery
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Barbecue at No 9 by Jennie Godfrey; A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage by MK Oliver; A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford; Holy Boy by Lee Heejoo; A Stranger in Corfu by Alex Preston
In the age of the ‘rough sex defence’, Emerald Fennell’s treatment of Wuthering Heights’ Isabella Linton is grotesque
By portraying the young woman Heathcliff abuses as a sexily willing participant in her own degradation, Fennell’s adaptation betrays the book, and her audience
I’ll Be the Monster by Sean Gilbert review – are they fantasists or psychopaths?
The dark past of a seemingly perfect couple is gradually revealed in this observant debut of obsession and control
Cold Storage review – mutant-mildew plague horror comedy stuffs fun into the fungi
Stranger Things’ Joe Keery is joined by a stellar cast battling an outbreak of virulent brain spores, but the film doesn’t offer much more than endless wisecracks and a splatterhouse grossfest