Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché review – an enjoyable homage to The X-Files

An idea born of lockdown conversations over Zoom, Macdonald and Blaché’s intriguing sci-fi is infused with their own cultural nostalgia

Sleepless by Marie Darrieussecq review – a poetic, panoramic memoir of insomnia

This exploration of where, why and how we sleep (or don’t) is as intelligent as it is eccentric

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

A Bird in Winter by Louise Doughty; A Line in the Sand by Kevin Powers; My Husband by Maud Ventura; Case Sensitive by AK Turner; The Turnglass by Gareth Rubin

Kit by Megan Barker audiobook review – the wildness of true friendship laid bare

Maxine Peake narrates a profoundly moving and unsparing hybrid memoir that explores unconditional love, in all its messiness

Bliss & Blunder by Victoria Gosling review – an Arthurian legend for our times

Tech bros are the new Knights of the Round Table in this whip-smart fable of friendship and misogyny

The Sitter by Angela O’Keeffe review – separating the wife from the artist

This compelling and playful novel is narrated from beyond the grave by Marie-Hortense Fiquet Cézanne, wife and frequent subject of the French painter

P.S. Burn This Letter Please by Craig Olsen review – tales from New York’s drag scene

An eccentric retelling of the lives, loves and traumas of 1950s and 60s queens

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck – the man who turned into a shark

This high-concept romantic debut explores the experience of facing life-changing and life-threatening conditions

Dust by Jay Owens review – the stuff that surrounds us

Dust is everywhere, but it’s so much more than a mere nuisance, as this eye-opening account shows

Serpico review – Al Pacino is at his intense best in classic 70s corrupt-cop thriller

Powerful story of disguise and alienation is led by the moral passion of Pacino’s countercultural whistleblower

Caret by Adam Mars-Jones review – a semi-infinite novel

The third instalment in the brilliantly immersive autobiography of tragicomic creation John Cromer takes a picaresque tour of 1970s England

The Stirrings by Catherine Taylor review – coming of age in Sheffield

A piercing memoir of growing up in 70s and 80s Yorkshire amid male violence, political protest and Pulp gigs

The Fraud by Zadie Smith review – from Victorian London to slavery in Jamaica

Inspired by a celebrated court case, Smith’s dazzling historical novel combines deft writing and strenuous construction in a tale of literary London and the horrors of slavery

The Monkey King review – lively Netflix animation revives ancient Chinese classic

The streaming service is capable of interesting works for children, with this one based on 16th century novel Journey to the West featuring an irritating protagonist

A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll review – haunting gothic tale with a heady whiff of Daphne du Maurier

The award-winning Canadian graphic novelist’s account of a young woman whose widower husband has a dark secret about his first wife is vividly drawn and masterfully plotted