The Hearing Test by Eliza Barry Callahan review – a delightful debut about deafness
A promising first novel takes a jazzy, improvised journey with a young woman who has a sudden loss of hearing
New Cold Wars review: China, Russia and Biden’s daunting task
David Sanger of the New York Times delivers a must-read on the foreign policy challenges now facing US leaders
In brief: Whale Fall; The Beauty of Falling; My Friend Anne Frank – review
An impressive coming of age novel set on a Welsh island; a physicist’s lifelong obsession with gravity; and the harrowing story of a Holocaust survivor
Knife by Salman Rushdie review – a life interrupted
While the author’s account of the 2022 murder attempt is a courageous defence of free speech, it is also shot through with self-regard, making it a sometimes hard book to admire
The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh by Ingrid Persaud review – a bad man in Trinidad
The troubling allure of a real-life gangster is vividly captured in tales from the women who fell for him
1984 by George Orwell audiobook review – a starry cast drive this powerful dramatisation
Tom Hardy, Cynthia Erivo and Andrew Scott conjure menace and melodrama in this 75th-anniversary remake of Orwell’s classic
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Spy by Ajay Chowdhury; A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray; The Kitchen by Simone Buchholz; The Innocents by Bridget Walsh; The Grand Illusion by Syd Moore
Bald by Stuart Heritage review – hair today, gone tomorrow
An unexpected twist on the grief memoir sees the Guardian writer chart the five stages of male-pattern baldness
Thunderhead by Miranda Darling review – pacy Sydney thriller hits a superficial note
This tightly plotted story shows a woman on the brink, and doesn’t make much room for anything else
Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor review – a debut with dark undercurrents
In this haunting and restrained novel, a young woman sets out to escape the confines of a Welsh island
The Girls of Slender Means review – Muriel Spark’s postwar tale told with zingy wit
Expertly adapted novel about young women beginning adult life in the wake of the second world war is shadowed by trauma but full of life and merriment
Travels Over Feeling: Arthur Russell, a Life by Richard King review – Village voice
An icon of New York’s downtown music scene is brought vividly to life in this tapestry of archive and oral history
The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota review – the political is personal
This story of a man running to be union leader in a small Derbyshire town explores grief, guilt and ideological divides
Adventures in Volcanoland by Tamsin Mather review – fire and brimstone
A magical scientific exploration of volcanoes, and how they’ve shaped both nature and human destiny
Ten Years to Save the West by Liz Truss review – shamelessly unrepentant
The former PM’s account of her time in office is unstoppably self-serving, petulant, and politically jejune