The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig review – exquisite escapism
Two strangers on a train make a deadly pact in a witty state-of-the-nation novel combining romance and social realism
Rigged: America, Russia and 100 Years of Covert Electoral Interference by David Shimer – review
A convincing study reveals how the KGB and CIA fought for dominance in the cold war
In brief: The Rain Heron; One Long and Beautiful Summer; The Nickel Boys – review
An eco-thriller from Robbie Arnott, a defence of traditional cricket by Duncan Hamilton and Colson Whitehead’s prize-winning novel about a racist school
The Room Where It Happened by John Bolton review – a monument to his own grandiosity
The inevitable fallout between the president and his national security adviser makes for a punchy but self-aggrandising memoir
Ernest Bevin: Labour’s Churchill by Andrew Adonis – review
A working-class hero who helped lead Britain in its darkest hour is brilliantly brought to life in this compelling biography
Children’s books roundup – the best new picture books and novels
How to show love while we can’t hug, 50 poems dedicated to the moon, a memorial to Scottish witches and the best new YA
The Group by Lara Feigel review – friendship and privilege
This knowing rewrite of Mary McCarthy’s classic novel plays on bourgeois white female neuroses
The Next Great Migration by Sonia Shah review – movement is central to human history
This nuanced study argues that far from being an unwelcome threat to global stability, migration and mixing are essential to human survival
The Booksellers review – warm study of a fast-shifting subculture
New York’s bibliophiles provide the contents of a documentary about a once-cherished trade caught in a bind by the digital age
Rummage by Emily Cockayne review – the joys of rubbish
A dazzling, anecdote-rich study of what, in the past, has been reused, and what discarded
Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay; Devolution by Max Brooks review – tales of apocalypse
A new strain of rabies makes the jump to human transmission and Bigfoot attacks … two prophetic visions of crisis and isolation offer terror, resilience - and hope
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett review – two faces of the black experience
A light-skinned twin sister constructs a new identity as a white woman in a clever novel that confounds expectations
Rag and Bone by Lisa Woollett review – of mudlarks, scavengers and beachcombers
An absorbing memoir of generations of family raised on the Thames shoreline dredges up tales of desperate lives – and some bizarre flotsam
The Summer of Her Life by Thomas von Steinaecker and Barbara Yelin – review
The rich memories of an elderly German woman are brought vividly to life
The Covid-19 Catastrophe; Covid-19: The Pandemic That Never Should Have Happened – review
Two vital studies of Covid-19’s impact on the UK