Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer review – beauty and the beast

Is it OK to love the art of a morally repugnant artist?

The Imposters by Tom Rachman review – novelists writ large

The story of Dora, an ageing writer, is told in observant fragments that form a ‘punishing self-portrait’

Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations by Simon Schama review – scientists to the rescue

The historian offers up lessons from past pandemics in an indictment of modern leaders’ response to Covid

Anam by André Dao review – decades-spanning family epic examines the difficulties of memory

Novel, at first glance, is the tale of the author’s grandfather. But it doubles as a meditation on remembering the past – its challenges and its anguish

Anna Karenina review – sparky feminist reading of Tolstoy

Lesley Hart’s adaptation of the classic novel is driven with tremendous energy following its tragic heroine as she discards bourgeois convention

Sparrow by James Hynes review – a boy’s life in a Roman empire brothel

The experiences of an orphaned slave boy are vividly and at times gratuitously described in this brutal tale

Is This OK? by Harriet Gibsone review – second life

A woman comes of age on the internet in a memoir that swings between funny and profound

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese review – a curse in Kerala

Water affects a family’s fate in this enthralling epic from the physician-author, set across three generations

Occupied City review – Steve McQueen’s moving meditation on wartime Amsterdam

The monumental film which tracks day-to-day life in Amsterdam under Nazi rule asks hard questions of what we think about the gulf between past and present

The Swimmer: The Wild Life of Roger Deakin by Patrick Barkham review – reflecting waters

A tapestry-like life of the influential nature writer

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret review – Judy Blume’s classic pre-teen tale retold

Set in 1970, the year Blume’s novel was published, the sweet-natured story is engaging but does feel a little out of date

Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy review – immersive dive into the baby years

The chaos and horrors of early motherhood are vividly, remorselessly evoked in a woman’s monologue to her son

The Russo-Ukrainian War by Serhii Plokhy review – the first draft of history

An impressive account of the origins and early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup

All the passengers on a luxury liner have disappeared, an author is riled by a one-star review and a new offering from Catriona Ward is eerie and disturbing

Tory Nation by Samuel Earle review – tangled up in blue

The political journalist argues that enduring values rather than reinvention is key to the Conservatives’ dominance. But he underplays the party’s current volatility