Amy Winehouse: In Her Words review – poignant vignettes of a fledgling superstar
A scrapbook of the late singer’s diary entries, notes, photos, teen poetry and lyrics leans heavily on her early life but offers a vivid snapshot of her personality
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith review – notes on self-regard
Smith’s memoir concerns the end of her marriage but its real subject is self-love
Lifescapes by Ann Wroe review – a master biographer chases the essence of life
The Economist’s obituarist sheds light on her belief in the sublime – and her intense, sometimes baffling inner life – in this beautiful and brave book
The Future Future by Adam Thirlwell review – lost in space
The prodigious writer’s tricksy new novel features Napoleon, an alien named Harper and a trip to the moon. So why is it so dull?
The Fraud by Zadie Smith review – a trial and no errors
Inspired by an extraordinary court case, and featuring a real-life Victorian novelist, Smith’s funny, almost flawless new novel examines identity, the notion of truth and 19th-century England and Jamaica in flux
The week in audio: Under Cover of Knight; The Missing Madonna; The Trial of Lucy Letby; Four Sides of Seamus Heaney – review
A woman’s death in Texas is unexpectedly mundane and the nurse’s court case a little too lurid. But there’s lots to love in the true story of a stolen Leonardo and a portrait of the Irish poet
What to read this autumn: 2023’s biggest new books
Sara Pascoe’s new novel, rare Terry Pratchett, memoirs from Barbra Streisand and Britney Spears, plus the essential reading on today’s hot button topics – all the releases to look out for
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright review – the female gaze
A ferocious sendup of a self-satisfied Irish poet and a brilliantly honest portrait of the women he leaves behind
Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer review – quirky, tender tale with echoes of ET
The actor Johnny Flynn captures this debut novel’s offbeat humour and the intense loneliness of its protagonist in his terrific narration
Nothing Ever Just Disappears by Diarmuid Hester review – room with a view
Hester underlines the importance of place in this study of seven queer lives, from EM Forster to Josephine Baker
Pearl by Siân Hughes review – a circling story of memory and loss
Taking a Middle English classic as its inspiration, this is a novel about a lasting grief that echoes through time
Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie review – the grizzly truth
From spectacled to moon to polar, Dickie captures the majesty of these enigmatic creatures and their struggle to survive
But The Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu review – an impressive debut
This observant novel follows a young Malaysian Australian writer as she unpicks her preconceptions of an artist’s life, postcolonialism and Sylvia Plath
No One Dies Yet by Kobby Ben Ben review – a bold and provocative debut from Ghana
Black gay American friends explore Ghana’s queer underground while a killer commits a grisly string of murders in this thrilling read
Four Ways of Thinking by David Sumpter review – safety in numbers?
A mathematician tries to make sense of the world through different lenses in this surprisingly original book