Tom Lake by Ann Patchett review – a lesson in how to kiss and tell
Patchett’s new novel, in which a mother tells her daughters about her early romance with a famous actor, is a gentle but revealing meditation on lost love and destiny
The Smeds and the Smoos review – songs and screams in Donaldson and Scheffler’s jolly voyage
This show from Tall Stories brings children into the action with a gentle warmth, squeal-inducing gags and engaging puppetry
Though the Bodies Fall by Noel O’Regan review – eloquent tale of trauma and absence
An unflinching debut novel set in west Ireland explores the pull of place and duty
Kit by Megan Barker review – roads not taken
This bittersweet debut fuses prose and poetry as a narrator struggles with a troubled friend and her own life of lost freedoms
In brief: Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age; Settlers; Commitment – reviews
New insights into the Roman empire, a study of the influence of Black African culture on London, and a novel about the effects of depression over generations
A Fan for all Seasons by Jon Harvey review – the agony and the ecstasy
A comedy writer’s memoir can’t quite connect a story of bereavement with an exploration of his late brother’s love of sport
The Trackers by Charles Frazier review – on the run in Depression-era US
An implausible tale of a painter turned detective does little to free the novelist from the shadow of Cold Mountain
Thunderclap by Laura Cumming review – a visionary examination of Dutch golden age art
With time-stopping attention to detail, the Observer’s art critic searches for redemption in the rubble of the catastrophic Delft explosion of 1654 – to miraculous effect
Blowback review: Miles Taylor on the dangers of a second Trump term
The aide who was Anonymous writes, under his own name, with an urgency the New York Times and others should note
Party Lines: Dance Music and the Making of Modern Britain by Ed Gillett review – the fight for a rave new world
This deep, engrossing history locates the Black blues roots of British clubbing and its role in a centuries-old commoners’ cause
Squirrel Nation by Peter Coates review – glad to be grey
What’s really behind the British favouritism towards red squirrels, animals once derided as ‘tree rats’?
Lessons by Ian McEwan review – chance, memory and the road not taken
Actor Simon McBurney narrates the tale of how a sexual relationship between a teenage boy and his piano teacher changes the course of his life
The best recent translated fiction – review roundup
Austral by Carlos Fonseca; Whites Can Dance Too by Kalaf Epalanga; The Incredible Events in Women’s Cell Number 3 by Kira Yarmysh; You, Bleeding Childhood by Michele Mari; The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer
The Black Eden by Richard T Kelly review – the story of North Sea oil
A capacious political novel examines corruption, greed and daring in the UK’s oil boom
The Beanie Bubble review – plushie-craze toy story goes down the cute route
The true story behind the once popular children’s playthings is taken on here by a decent cast who can’t stop proceedings unravelling