China Room by Sunjeev Sahota review – from northern England to Punjab
An alienated youth travels to remote rural India, where his great-grandmother lived in 1929, in Sahota’s hushed and subtle third novel
Wild Mountain Thyme review – Emily Blunt in an awful Irish stew
This bucolic romance, co-starring bashful Jamie Dornan, is awash with whimsy, wonder – and laughable accents
Things Heard and Seen review – moody Netflix ghost story fails to haunt
Amanda Seyfried is a woman coming undone, thanks to a supernatural entity and a toxic husband, in a strangely inert combination of horror and drama
Civilisations by Laurent Binet review – counterfactual hi-jinks
What if the Incas had invaded Europe? Flights of fancy reimagine a 16th century that never happened
Cold New Climate by Isobel Wohl review – a confident, pleasurable debut
Wohl’s novel about a taboo relationship takes the style of contemporaries such as Sally Rooney and gives it new twists
Finding the Raga by Amit Chaudhuri – a passion for Indian music
The renowned novelist explores the thrill of improvisation in a delightful, insightful book that is part singing diary, part memoir and part musical history
Second Place by Rachel Cusk review – exquisitely cruel home truths
The deeply gendered experience of freedom is cunningly exposed in a shocking interrogation of art, privilege and property
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse review – macho adventure plays by the book
Michael B Jordan stars as a Navy Seal out for revenge in this formulaic update of Clancy’s 1993 bestseller
The Foghorn’s Lament by Jennifer Lucy Allan review – a whole world in a sound
From Shetland to San Francisco ... in praise of the coast’s most monstrous and melancholy sound machines
Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal review – atmospheric Victoriana
An egotistical ringmaster gives his “monsters” a chance to shine in this glittering follow-up to The Doll Factory
Pedro and Ricky Come Again by Jonathan Meades review – dandyish Hulk rampage
From Duchamp to Orwell, fascism to Brexit … this collection of journalism and speeches showcases one of the world’s best haters, who has never composed a dull paragraph
Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor review – slogging it out in the frozen wastes
A polar adventure becomes a tale of recovery that evokes unstinting grind with too much accuracy
Summer Brother by Jaap Robben review – empathic portrait of a dysfunctional family
A young boy looks after his disabled sibling in this shrewd and humorous International Booker-longlisted novel
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri review – hypnotic disappearing act
An unnamed woman in an unnamed city wavers between solitude and brief encounters in a spare examination of alienation
In brief: Love in Five Acts; The Musical Human; Footprints – reviews
Stories of female desire and ambition, an all-encompassing history of music, and our shocking environmental legacy