Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga review – prelude to violence

Tensions at a school for privileged girls in Rwanda foreshadow the 1994 genocide in this surprisingly bright, light-touch debut

Boy on Fire by Mark Mordue review – Nick Cave’s pre-fame years

This thorough portrait of the artist as an adolescent uncovers the passions and environmental factors that shaped the rock great’s singular style

In brief: The Barbizon; Bright Burning Things; The Home Stretch – reviews

An elegant history of a women-only hotel; the story of a failed actor turned alcoholic… and who wants to be a domestic goddess?

The Mirror and the Palette by Jennifer Higgie review – five centuries of the female gaze

A sprawling history of women’s self-portraits rattles along without ever really getting under the skin of the artists in question

Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley review – a rich, ribald tale of old Soho under siege

The author of Elmet takes an unexpected turn into a Soho brothel for her deeply humane second novel

Failures of State by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott review – how Britain became ‘Plague Island’

In this meticulous, damning investigation, two journalists reveal how the government squandered a legacy of pandemic planning and led Britain into a dead end

Chaos Under Heaven review: Trump as raging bull in a China policy shop

Before Covid upended everything, the US president upended relations with Beijing – without interest or ability to build anew

The Rag and Bone Shop by Veronica O’Keane review – the nature of memory

A fascinating and compassionate investigation, with vivid case histories, into how our memories make us

Henry ‘Chips’ Channon review – the celebrated diaries, unredacted

Sex, scandal, kinks and queens … edited by Simon Heffer, these interwar diaries by the Tory MP are a masterpiece of storytelling and character assassination

Friendly Fire review: Israeli warrior Ami Ayalon makes his plea for peace

The former head of Shin Bet came to realize all-out war against terrorists only deepened an existential mire

The best recent science fiction and fantasy – reviews roundup

Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley; Birds of Paradise by Oliver K Langmead; The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey; A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel; and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Karachi Vice by Samira Shackle review – life in the shadow of violence

The stories of five residents illuminate different aspects of the Pakistani city where terrorism and ethnic conflict have been rife

The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore review – a darkly witty debut

In the poet’s first novel, a richly textured account of the Essex witch trials, the persecuted women are brought vividly to life

Monsters: A Reckoning by Alison Croggon review – beware the many-tentacled beast of empire

A tale of family estrangement and a discomforting, roiling sea of ideas that threatens to pull the reader under rather than along

The Good Girls by Sonia Faleiro review – the story of an ‘ordinary killing’

Two teenage girls are found hanged in an Indian village ... a shocking and mesmerising investigation