Empireworld by Sathnam Sanghera review – the contradictions of colonialism

A nuanced account of the British empire’s impact on the world that is strikingly alive to the complexities of history

All of Us Strangers review – Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott tremendous in a beautiful fantasy-romance

Scott, Mescal and Claire Foy shine in a drama about a screenwriter who visits his childhood home to find his parents, who were killed in a car crash, still living there

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid review – juicy campus drama

A writer appointed as visiting professor eavesdrops on gossip for inspiration in the follow-up to Such a Fun Age

Where We Come From by Aniefiok Ekpoudom review – a social history of British rap

This unusual account of a musical movement eschews grand narratives and embraces the small-scale

Day by Michael Cunningham review – living through the pandemic

The author of The Hours explores the inner lives of a Brooklyn family, before, during and after lockdown

Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets by Clair Wills review – a search for truth

A family history that lays bare the brutal treatment of Ireland’s unmarried mothers

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips review – ravages of the US civil war

A little girl and her mother suffer the brutal fallout of the conflict in an unsparing novel that illuminates the human cost

The Picnic by Matthew Longo review – the party that pulled down the iron curtain

A novelistic account of the revellers in Hungary who helped speed the collapse of communism

Picture books for children – reviews

A fantastical celebration of dim sum, Tim Hopgood’s update of a 19th-century poem and a feline sleuth in a hoodie tracks down a missing bird

Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets review – a voyage into Ireland’s dark heart

The appalling treatment of unmarried mothers and their babies is given a profound new dimension by Cambridge professor Clair Wills as she investigates the story of a lost cousin

Phew, Eh Readers? The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert review – the PG Wodehouse of pop journalism

As this collection illustrates, the late Smash Hits and Q scribe was an inimitable master of mischief whose interviews skewered everyone from Bros to Margaret Thatcher

Hardy Women by Paula Byrne review – brilliant writer of women, very bad husband

An exhaustive biography of Thomas Hardy’s romantic life is most fascinating when it chronicles his complicated menage with his wife and a young typist

In brief: Kubrick: An Odyssey; The Book of Days; Toy Fights – review

A biography of the storied director brings revelations, Francesca Kay’s witty fourth novel recalls Iris Murdoch, and Don Paterson’s Dundee memoir is a gripping ride

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon review – uproarious am-dram in ancient Sicily

This witty debut novel, set in 412BC, imagines a couple of locals drumming up a production of Medea with captured Athenian soldiers

Loot by Tania James review – imperialism through the eye of a tiger

James uses the pursuit of a plundered 18th-century artefact to examine the legacy of colonialism in a vivid novel that straddles continents