Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz review – intimate, electric and defiant

The Mojave and Latinx poet, up for this year’s Forward prize, is on breathtaking form in this intellectually rigorous collection exploring love and identity

As You Were by Elaine Feeney review – a poet’s darkly comic fiction debut

This tragicomic tale of a thirtysomething mother with a terrible secret serves as a keen-eyed portrait of modern Ireland

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh review – whodunnit and other questions

The US author’s fascination with female outsiders offers diminishing returns in this postmodern mystery of a girl presumed dead

Shots in the Dark by David Kynaston review – Trump haunts a troubled sporting diary

The historian’s record of the 2016/17 non-league football season is a bit of an own goal

Real Life by Brandon Taylor review – a brilliant debut

This tale of a black research student and his ‘benign’ white colleagues crackles with the painful comedy of privilege and prejudice

In brief: Strange Flowers; The Shadow King; The System – review

An explosive Tipperary-set thriller, a Booker-longlisted tale of women at war in Ethiopia, and a fascinating ‘biography’ of the internet

The Flapper Queens by Trina Robbins review – a luscious curation

The jazz age is brought to vivid life in this showcase of six dazzling female cartoonists

Reaganland review: Rick Perlstein on Carter’s fall and the rise of the right

The finale of an epic history runs from 1976 to 1980 – four years of upheaval and change which seem distinctly familiar

Democracy for Sale by Peter Geoghegan review – the end of politics as we know it?

The openDemocracy journalist delves into the web of power, money and data manipulation that is bringing our electoral system to its knees

Stranger in the Shogun’s City by Amy Stanley review – a woman’s life in 19th-century Japan

Forget the tea ceremonies and geishas. This is a vivid examination of the life of an ordinary if much-married woman

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker; The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky; The Space Between the Worlds by Micaiah Johnson; The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez; and Seven Devils by Elizabeth May and Laura Lam

A Saint from Texas by Edmund White review – sex and spirituality

This novel about twin sisters shows how potent an influence religion has been on the imagination of the quintessential gay writer of our time

Magdalena by Wade Davis review – a journey down Colombia’s river of dreams

Dancing, blue turtles and disreputable backstreets ... a powerful writer journeys down Colombia’s great river

Pinocchio review – Matteo Garrone crafts a satisfyingly bizarre remake

Drawing on the original children’s story for his new live-action version, the Gomorrah director combines sentimentality and the grotesque in a unique way

Kokomo by Victoria Hannan review – anticipated debut lives up to the hype

Centred on the relationship of a mother and daughter, the shifting perspectives turn the story on its head, building fully-formed characters that will stay with you