The Lockhart Plot by Jonathan Schneer review – the British government v Lenin
The rollicking story of how a maverick British envoy to the Bolshevik regime assisted in a couner-revolutionary plot to bring down Lenin
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree review – magic realism in Iran
After the 1979 Islamic revolution, a bereaved family seek solace in the ancient forests of northern Iran, in Shokoofeh Azar’s International Booker-shortlisted novel
A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason review – rich pleasures
From the street fighter set up for a fall to a balloonist who encounters a hole in the sky, these short stories offer the nutrition of a novel at a tenth of the length
War for Eternity by Benjamin R Teitelbaum review – starstruck by Steve Bannon?
A US scholar speaks to global far-right figures and argues that they are linked by an obscure philosophy, traditionalism
Mr Atkinson’s Rum Contract by Richard Atkinson review – ‘genealogy is addictive’
A ‘time-travelling commuter’ researches his ancestors, and unearths a fascinating 18th-century tale, which centres on a renowned slave holder, and a family feud
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett review – a twin’s struggle to ‘pass’ for white
The author of The Mothers brings fresh sensitivity to the subject of African Americans ‘passing’ in this engrossing novel
What Is the Grass by Mark Doty review – Walt Whitman and me
From visions of a shadowy spirit to memories of love and loss … a contemporary US poet pays tribute to the persistent presence of Whitman
The Seduction by Joanna Briscoe review – therapist v family
In this macabre fairground ride of a novel, an analyst becomes an interloper
The Mystery of Charles Dickens by AN Wilson review – a great writer’s dark side
Was Dickens’s fiction shaped by the nastiness he never consciously acknowledged? A sprightly retelling of a well-known narrative
Fiction for older children reviews – monster quests and inner challenges
Young heroes and heroines battle adversity in the shape of undersea beasts, homophobes and fitting in at time-travel school
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli review – between-the-lines horror
An atrocity by Israeli troops begins a sophisticated, oblique novel about empathy and the urge to right wrongs
Come Again by Robert Webb review – uplifting sliding-doors sci-fi
The comedian’s debut novel takes a familiar what-if scenario and invests it with heart and nostalgia
Circles and Squares by Caroline Maclean review – Hampstead’s brave and brilliant souls
Anecdotes take precedence over insight in this biography of the 30s modernists who dreamed of creating a new way of life
In brief: Walking the Great North Line; All Our Broken Idols; The Farm – review
A marvellous tour of British landmarks, an archaeological mystery and a dystopian satire about a ‘gestation retreat’
Double Lives review – the mother of all battles for equality
Helen McCarthy’s landmark history of the lives of working mothers highlights the discrimination that remains to this day