Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart review – a ringside seat for mayhem

The life of a minister is described with flair and frustration by the former Tory MP and cabinet member

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms review – immortals and armies wreak havoc

Director Wuershan’s ambitious adaptation of Xu Zhonglin’s 16th-century novel has too much highly variable CGI but its idiosyncrasies set it apart

Oh Miriam! Stories from an Extraordinary Life by Miriam Margolyes review – a ‘national trinket’ remembers

The actor follows her unfettered 2021 memoir with a miscellany of showbiz tales, agony aunt advice and her F-bomb on the Today programme

The New Leviathans by John Gray review – should we abandon hope and prepare for anarchy?

The philosopher falls back on generalities and sketches of oddballs in his latest, sometimes frenzied assault on liberalism and humanity

Rebecca review – Mrs Danvers steals the show in Du Maurier musical

Among polished performances, Kara Lane’s creepily obsessed housekeeper proves a powerful force

Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki review – a blissful ode to female friendship and New York

The award-winning cousins beautifully capture the magic and misery of the Big Apple through the tumultuous experiences of three young women

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff review – on the run in the new world

The American’s latest novel, set in 17th-century New England, is a repetitive but lyrical story of a young woman’s flight from community and her battle for survival

In brief: Invisible Lines; The Owl and the Nightingale; They Fell Like Stars from the Sky – reviews

A wide-ranging look at the world’s borders, a witty update on a medieval poem, and subtly political Palestinian short stories

Rouge by Mona Awad review – like drowning in poison

A woman is recruited into a demonic beauty cult in this intricate, sometimes funny novel, but the protagonist’s contemptuous voice becomes tiresome

Weirdo by Sara Pascoe review – astute observational comedy

An oddball woman gets a second stab at love in this entertaining if meandering debut novel shot through with subversive ideas about romance and lust

The Psychosis of Whiteness by Kehinde Andrews review – provocative but problematic

This insightful journey through the realms of racial oppression is marred by a careless disrespect for black female scholars

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein review – across the great divide

The writer’s enjoyable obsession with the ‘other Naomi’ (Wolf), a conspiracy theorist, becomes a deeply insightful inquiry into the way technology fuels the polarisation of society

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson review – pillock, genius, or both?

The tech mogul is portrayed as a brutal visionary with father issues in this comprehensive biography

North Woods by Daniel Mason review – an epic of American lives

This dazzling fragmentary history of a small patch of woodland in New England travels to the limits of what the novel can do

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper; The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman; You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace; The Winter List by SG MacLean; Tell Me Your Secrets by Mel McGrath