To Anyone Who Ever Asks by Howard Fishman review – vanishing act
The mysterious story of 1950s New York folk singer Connie Converse, who disappeared before her music found popular recognition
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng review – tragedy in the tropics
Somerset Maugham appears as a flawed actor in a colonial morality play inspired by his classic short story
Loaded review – Danny Ball is magnificent in Christos Tsiolkas adaptation
The stage adaptation thrums with dark energy – but the stakes and politics that drove the 1990s novel don’t quite land when it’s set in the modern day
The Sleep Watcher by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan review – an adolescent awakening
A teenage girl is witness to the hidden dynamics of her parents’ marriage after she embarks on a series of out-of-body night-time adventures
Psychonauts by Mike Jay review – the drug-takers who changed history
Humphry Davy on laughing gas, Sigmund Freud on cocaine … how self-experimentation shaped science and art
The Eight Mountains review – a movie with air in its lungs and love in its heart
A meditation on our capacity for love shapes this sweeping story of two friends, torn apart by family and life’s journeys but bound by something deeper
Golden Age by Wang Xiaobo review – sex, death and politics
This bawdy, irreverent Cultural Revolution classic is also bizarrely moving
God Is an Octopus by Ben Goldsmith review – the consolations of nature
A conservationist’s search for meaning after his daughter’s sudden death
Blood Feather by Patrick McGuinness review – on the wings of grief
The multitalented writer returns to poetry after 13 years with a striking, moving collection sparked by the death of his mother
The Guest by Emma Cline review – strange depths and an arresting originality
The Girls author’s smart, menacing tale of a young female serial deceiver succeeds as a treatise on sex and alienation and an engrossing beach read
Politics: A Survivor’s Guide by Rafael Behr review – a plea for sanity from the centre ground
The political commentator is an elegant voice of reason in an often polarised world
Revolutionary Spring by Christopher Clark review – the revolts that reshaped Europe
This magnificent reappraisal of the 1848 revolutions illuminates their impact on the fraught relationship between liberals and radicals
Book Club: The Next Chapter review – smirking sequel as the squad head for Italy
Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda et al go on a bookish holiday after keeping their reading club going through lockdown, but jokes are thin on the ground
In brief: A Life of One’s Own; Blue Skies; Memphis – reviews
Joanna Biggs rebuilds with her favourite authors in a literary memoir; TC Boyle charms with an eco-thriller; and Tara Stringfellow’s southern saga explores African American trauma
The Power of Trees by Peter Wohlleben review – let’s turn over a new leaf
In his latest book, the forester and author argues that narrow perspectives are ignoring the vast beneficial effects that forests – especially ancient forests – generate for global temperature management