The Great Wave by Michiko Kakutani review – overcoming ‘permacrisis’
The Pulitzer prize-winning critic turned author identifies a polarised and unstable world and suggests solutions: embrace risk, welcome otherness and open dialogue
Morning After the Revolution by Nellie Bowles review – the perils of failing to toe the party line
The former New York Times journalist exposes the excesses of hyper-‘woke’ culture and the suffocating impact of groupthink in this enjoyable study of a topsy-turvy world
Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru review – sex, drugs and conceptual art
The novelist’s love triangle has its sights set on the elite insularity of the New York art world but its plot is programmatic
Wuhan: How the Covid-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control; Wuhan: A Documentary Novel – reviews
Dali L Yang’s critique of China’s response in the early days of the Covid pandemic is thoroughgoing if academic, while poet Liao Yiwu’s account mixes fact and fiction to extraordinary effect
In brief: Hey, Zoey; You Could Make This Place Beautiful; The Light Eaters – review
A thoughtful meditation on love and loneliness via an AI-based sex doll; an outstanding debut memoir of infidelity’s aftermath; and a passionate and insightful botanical study
The Bullet by Tom Lee review – a complicated inheritance
This insightful memoir addresses the author and his parents’ struggles with mental illness, and offers a historical account of treatments
Long Island by Colm Tóibín review – the sequel to Brooklyn is a masterclass in subtlety and intelligence
This follow-up, set 20 years on, kicks off with a marriage in crisis and skilfully conveys how blind we are to our own motivations
The Darkness Has Not Overcome: limp pro-Trump piety for a second coming
Cliff Sims wrote Team of Vipers, an early Trump tell-all. His new book is nowhere near as compelling – even the bits he repeats
Rumbles by Elsa Richardson review – gut reaction
A vivid cultural history of digestion, from ancient Greece to All-Bran
Oh, Canada review – Paul Schrader looks north as Richard Gere’s draft dodger reveals all
A dying director who fled from the US to Canada agrees to make a confessional film in Schrader’s fragmented and anticlimactic story
Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finkelstein audiobook review – a gripping tale of endurance
Writer and peer Daniel Finkelstein narrates his family’s extraordinary story with a mixture of horror and wonder
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
Hunted by Abir Mukherjee; Bonehead by Mo Hayder; When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips; The Mystery of the Crooked Man by Tom Spencer
Henry Henry by Allen Bratton review – a Shakespearean tangle of hedonism and duty
A compelling debut digs into the conflicting emotions at the heart of an aristocratic family in 2010s England
Only the Astronauts by Ceridwen Dovey review – playful and deeply moving close encounters
Metal objects launched into space observe perplexing humanity in this wildly inventive novel from the author of Only the Animals
Catland by Kathryn Hughes review – paws for thought
From pests to pampered pets … how Victorian artist Louis Wain ushered in the age of the cat