Frida Slattery As Herself by Ana Kinsella review – will-they-won’t-they in a skilful theatrical romance
This impressive and charismatic debut novel revisits an actor and a director over various collaborations
Lovers XXX by Allie Rowbottom review – a wild journey through the 80s LA porn scene
A young woman begins a career in the adult industry while, 30 years later, her friend tries to find out what happened to her, in an addictive, twist-filled story
Stolen Revolution by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Yeganeh Torbati review – Iran’s recent history explained
This account of the Islamic Republic and its discontents told via six contrasting lives should be required reading
Flamboyance by Jack Parlett review – a serious study of the spectacular
What does it mean to push the boat out, and can peacocking be more than just a beautiful gesture?
The End of Everything by M John Harrison review – near-future visions from an SF master
This bleak but brilliant tale of enigmatic alien entities and slow social collapse exposes the terrifying insecurity of life right now
Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer review – fun in the Tuscan sun
The Pulitzer-winning author of Less has crafted a breezy confection of fish-out-of-water wit, insecurity and self-discovery set in an Italian paradise
A British Childhood by Frank Cottrell-Boyce review – are we raising a bookless generation?
This clarion call about the impoverishment of children’s lives is also a reminder of the sheer magic of reading
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Haunting the Black Air by Anthony Joseph; Selected Poems by Leontia Flynn; Sparrow on the Rooftop by Rachel Long; You Must Live: New Poetry from Palestine, edited by Jorie Graham; Melete by Jennifer Lee Tsai; Somebody Should Have Pressed Record by Galia Admoni
The Children by Melissa Albert review – intriguing fairytale of creativity’s dangers
In her first novel for adults, the YA author explores the dark side of writers who fictionalise their children’s lives
The Ruiners by Ellena Savage review – a playful and subversive take on Great Expectations
In her sharp and intellectual first novel, the author finds tragic comedy in socialism, inequality and the flawed ways we connect as the world burns
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan audiobook review – a grim life in China’s gig economy
This memoir of a man who moved around China chasing low-paid work for 20 years is an indictment of a shocking system, read in a suitably austere way
Dominion by Addie E Citchens review – Women’s prize-shortlisted portrait of patriarchy’s horrors
The violence of male entitlement is embodied in the charismatic son of a Mississippi pastor, in a sharp portrait of cruelty and inheritance
The Traveller by Andrea Wulf review – an 18th century explorer far ahead of his time
A revelatory account of the life of George Forster, whose rejection of racial hierarchies stood out amongst his peers
Mrs Dalloway review – Virginia Woolf’s party planner plays all the roles herself
Kit Green takes on all the characters in an imaginative interpretation of the 1925 day-in-the-life novel
Ambivalence by Brian Dillon review – an odd man out
The critic’s memoir’s is a portrait in determination to go against the grain and ‘pursue a life in words and ideas’