Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee review – an exceptional biography

An astute study of the dazzlingly clever playwright, which details the parties and famous friends, but also identifies the emotions that drive much of his work

Rialto review – raw emotional power fuels a punishing character study

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor excels in this bleak Dublin-set drama about a closeted gay man whose life is unravelling

The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale review – a terrific true ghost story

Objects flying, doors slamming and a terrapin appearing out of thin air ... in her best book since The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, the author tackles the strange case of a 1930s poltergeist

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre review – housewife, mother and communist spy

The captivating story of the secret agent who travelled the world with kids in tow, fooled MI5 and passed atomic secrets to the USSR

Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah review – living through colonialism

This compelling novel focuses on those enduring German rule in East Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century

The Meaning of Mariah Carey review – fascinating memoir by a misunderstood star

This is not the gossipy, celebrity reminiscence many might expect – but the chart-topping singer is captivating on race, wealth and her own ‘extraness’

Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz review – fearless, sinuous and breathtaking

Natalie Diaz’s second collection plunges the reader into Native American culture and bold takes on sexual love

Dirt by Bill Buford review – unstinting and endlessly curious

Buford returns to his love affair with cooking in this engaging, if garrulous, account of working in a top Lyon restaurant

Not the Booker: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell – a moving portrayal of grief

An imaginatively daring portrait of the loss of Shakespeare’s son is intensely felt, but at times rather preposterous

Help Yourself by Curtis Sittenfeld review – in a league of her own

The author of Rodham explores women’s efforts to acquire self-knowledge in this compact but compelling collection

The Labours of Love; The Courage to Care; The Care Manifesto review – our compassion crisis in focus

Madeleine Bunting and Christie Watson bring personal experience to bear on heartbreaking studies of the UK’s ailing care system

In brief: The Harpy; The Bookseller’s Tale; Make It Scream, Make It Burn – review

A mother’s rage at her husband’s infidelity, a historical study of bibliophilia, and essays on empathy and ethics

Indelicacy by Amina Cain review – a room of her own

Amina Cain’s enigmatic debut novel follows a female writer’s path from the constraints of home and marriage to creative freedom

Diary of an MP’s Wife by Sasha Swire review – candid account of a Tory clique

These acerbic political diaries illuminate the snobbery at the heart of the incestuous Cameron government

Disloyal: A Memoir by Michael Cohen review – disgraced Trump lawyer’s kiss and tell

An account of a decade at the president’s side