The Times review: how the newspaper of record survived – and thrived
Adam Nagourney’s rigorous reporting shines, though he misses chances to illuminate less well-known parts of the story
One Fine Day by Matthew Parker review – compelling portrait of the British empire on the brink of decline
Through the prism of a single September day in 1923, from Jamaica to London to a tiny Pacific island, Parker captures peak British imperialism in vivid detail
The Glutton by AK Blakemore review – the man who ate everything
Based on the real-life story of a peasant in revolutionary France, this hallucinatory tale is set to be one of the most remarkable novels of the year
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
A joyful picture-book account of family life; a magical fantasy series begins; an addictive epistolary friendship; fast-paced feminist YA; and more
Tiger Work by Ben Okri audiobook review – dispatches on a post-apocalyptic world
Ashley Zhangazha narrates a collection of essays, poems and short stories that rail against human inaction in the face of environmental catastrophe
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith review – a riveting race against time
JK Rowling’s will they/won’t they detective duo return in a hefty but immersive tale of an attempted rescue from a cult
Great-Uncle Harry by Michael Palin review – a soldier’s life
The actor and comedian reconstructs the story of a relative who died at the Somme to quietly devastating effect
Body Friend by Katherine Brabon review – poetic reflections on living with chronic pain
Three women inhabit the space between illness and recovery in a novel that moves with a syrupy slowness, refusing our thirst for plot
Goth: A History by Lol Tolhurst review – the dark is rising
The former Cure drummer traces the genre from its 18th-century literary roots to its flourishing as a music subculture
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff review – a survival story
A servant girl is deep in the woods and on the run, in this exhilarating fable set in an embryonic America
Metamorphosis review – Lemn Sissay adaptation is more poetic than dramatic
This staging of Kafka’s story is physically exciting, even tireless, but it hits an early peak of terror then has nowhere to go for two hours
Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill review – nowhere to hide
From stalkers to authoritarian states, the use and abuse of facial recognition tech
The Variations by Patrick Langley review – hearing the voices of the dead
There’s a Nabokovian intrigue to this thrilling tale of a composer and her grandson with the same mysterious gift
The Young Man by Annie Ernaux review – an expert dissection of sex, age and power
The Nobel winning French writer documents her affair with a much younger man
Absolutely & Forever by Rose Tremain review – a lost first love
This delicate novel traces a young woman’s awakening, from 1950s country house parties to not-so-swinging London and an unhappy marriage