The Scope of Permissibility by Zeynab Gamieldien review – a Muslim take on the Australian campus novel

Gamieldien’s debut adds refreshing complexity to the familiar narratives of politics, power and taboo love, in a novel that occasionally fails to feel real

Sovereign review – CJ Sansom’s historical doorstopper comes home to York

Large-scale community play casts Henry VIII putting an end to the city’s beloved Mystery Plays as a clever framing device in Mike Kenny’s adaptation

Under the Knife by Dr Liz O’Riordan review – cancer from both sides

A breast surgeon is diagnosed with the cancer in which she specialises in this frank memoir of illness and recovery

Pet by Catherine Chidgey review – a teacher’s masterclass in manipulation

A Catholic primary school in New Zealand provides the setting for this atmospheric tale of cruelty and betrayal

A Thread of Violence by Mark O’Connell review – evil in a bow tie

A remarkable meditation on the murder case that rocked 1980s Ireland

Big Caesars and Little Caesars by Ferdinand Mount review – rogue’s gallery

A needle-sharp book about political liabilities from Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson

Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein review – life in limbo

The trauma of the Holocaust is invoked for an uncertain journey into guilt and complicity

The Other Pandemic by James Ball review: QAnon as post-truth pathogen

An insightful book about the conspiracy movement compares it persuasively to a self-replicating disease

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah review – criminally entertaining

Prisoners fight for survival on reality TV in an exuberant dystopia of doomed love and industrialised racism

How to Be: Lessons from the Early Greeks by Adam Nicolson review – ancient wisdom for today’s world

A self-help book of sorts, this distillation of pre-Socratic philosophy succeeds in being both populist and profound

High Caucasus by Tom Parfitt review – one man and a mountain range

This record of an extraordinary 1,000-mile trek across the mountainous southern Russian republics of the Caucasus uncovers a brutal history that resonates today

Juliette by Camille Jourdy review – an exquisite story of love and loss in rural France

This gorgeous graphic novel about a woman escaping the pressures of Paris for her home town, and the complications that follow, is a masterpiece

Jekyll and Hyde review – Shakespearean style shows another side to Stevenson thriller

Bard in the Botanics stages Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic novella as a tense three-way struggle that asks big questions about human nature

The Country of the Blind review – a penetrating study of the loss of sight

Andrew Leland’s thoughtful, beautifully expressed memoir about losing his eyesight invites us to rethink ideas about identity and independence

In brief: Little Monsters; What an Owl Knows; Chorus – review

Powerful family dramas from Adrienne Brodeur and Rebecca Kauffman, and a must-read for fans of that most enthralling of birds, the owl