Caliban Shrieks by Jack Hilton review – lost voice of the north

This rediscovered mix of autobiography and ‘artful rant’ – about working-class conditions in the 1930s – is full of energy and comedy

The Freaks Came Out to Write review – how the Village Voice changed American journalism

Tricia Romano’s entertaining oral history of the radical New York newspaper is an elegy to a rough and ready era of punch-ups and passion

Polar Vortex by Denise Dorrance review – hazards of a homecoming

The American cartoonist’s story of a trip to tackle her frail mother’s needs is funny, wise and magical

Wrong Norma by Anne Carson review – unjoined-up thinking at its best

The poet’s new collection of mainly prose pieces on subjects as diverse as Flaubert, snow and Roget’s Thesaurus is a nonstop triumph

Practice; Time and Tide; For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain – review

An Oxford student’s hopes and fantasies are slowly brought to life; a poetic study of the landscapes of Britain; and a remarkable novel about two 15th-century women

Clear by Carys Davies review – compelling Scots historical drama

A minister learns to communicate with the only inhabitant of his remote new island home in this memorable novel

Meet Me at the Surface by Jodie Matthews review – powerful forces in the Cornish wilds

A strange and beautiful novel from a first-time author who skilfully wields mystery and unease

Barcelona by Mary Costello review – potent snapshots of solitary confinement

The Irish author’s second volume of stories is written with an unsparing precision that is both affecting and uncomfortable

The Washington Book review: Carlos Lozada on Trump and other targets

The New York Times critic won a Pulitzer for a reason – he knows better than anyone how to read the US political scene

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar review – riotous tale of a grieving son

A bereaved man’s unhealthy obsessions are upended by a dying artist in the Iranian-American poet’s kaleidoscopic debut novel

Keir Starmer: The Biography by Tom Baldwin review – from ‘can’t win to can’t lose’: the making of a Labour leader

An insightful and illuminating biography of Keir Starmer is revelatory about the challenging childhood that shaped his character while acknowledging the fact that he remains hard to pin down

The Book of Love by Kelly Link review – a magical debut of life after life

In the celebrated short-story writer’s first novel, three resurrected teenagers must use magic to determine their fates

Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

A show of inner strength; stone age family life; a brilliant guide to the brain; plus a whistlestop tour of queer history and more

Wifedom by Anna Funder audiobook review – the first Mrs Orwell

The Australian writer explores the Nineteen Eighty-Four author’s treatment of women in an empathetic biography of his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy

Melting Point by Rachel Cockerell review – witnesses to history

An ingenious and idiosyncratic book about the search for a Jewish homeland that blends high politics and family memoir