Covid by Numbers review – how to make sense of the statistics
David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters delve into the detail behind the data and explore the true human cost of the pandemic
Palmares by Gayl Jones review – a long-awaited vision of freedom
Set in 17th-century Brazil, this wild and winding epic about a community of Africans who have escaped slavery is a revelation
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen review – a fine start to a family trilogy
This simmering 70s-set domestic drama is warm, expansive and funny – a pure pleasure to read
No Time to Die review – Daniel Craig dispatches James Bond with panache, rage – and cuddles
The long-awaited 25th outing for Ian Fleming’s superspy is a weird and self-aware epic with audacious surprises up its sleeve
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life review – beautiful and honest study of an amazing man
Remarkable footage shows the pioneering neurologist at work in this excellent documentary
The Sun Is Open by Gail McConnell; Cheryl’s Destinies by Stephen Sexton – review
Keen wit and literary grit infuse the work of two Belfast writers who both show how poetry can transcend the everyday
Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa review – the bloated body politic
The Washington Post journalists pick apart the transfer of power from Trump to Biden in an F-bomb-peppered account of the corporeal and divine in US government
The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain by Tristram Hunt – review
An accessible new biography by the director of the V&A repositions the potter as not only a giant of design and manufacturing but a model of the best an entrepreneur can be
Matrix by Lauren Groff review – thrilling trip into the mystic
The Fates and Furies author reconstructs the life of a 12th-century nun, drawing out conflict, drama and queer undercurrents
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka review – a vast danse macabre
The Nigerian writer’s first novel in nearly 50 years is a vivid, shocking story of political corruption in a country much like his homeland
In brief: Lemon; The Nutmeg’s Curse; Dirt – reviews
Kwon Yeo-Sun brings eerie beauty to crime fiction, Amitav Ghosh traces the climate crisis to colonialism and Bill Buford goes to the heart of French cuisine
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr review – all human life is here
Classical philosophy meets the climate crisis in the Pulitzer prize-winner’s propulsive novel stretching over 700 years
Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé – a village united by a vagabond
The death of a newcomer to a Guadeloupean community sparks a meandering, fascinating novel about the locals’ interconnected lives
And Away… review – how Bob Mortimer went from sidekick to standalone
An often moving memoir examines the comedian’s unlikely journey from Big Nights Out to riverbank ruminations with Paul Whitehouse
The Magician by Colm Tóibín review – a difficult Mann to know
This dramatisation of Thomas Mann’s private and public life never quite convinces as biography or fiction