Stalin and the Fate of Europe by Norman M Naimark review – the postwar struggle for power

Was Soviet dominance ruthlessly extended in Europe after the second world war? Or were Stalin’s policies made on the hoof?

In Love With George Eliot by Kathy O’Shaughnessy review – an ardent homage

What really happened on George Eliot’s honeymoon? The novelist enters where biographers fear to tread

Genius and Ink by Virginia Woolf review – essays on ‘how to read’

How did the young critic Virginia Woolf become the famous novelist? This book provides an answer

Trump and his Generals review: a White House of foreign policy horrors

Peter Bergen delivers the shameful goods on North Korea and the death of Jamal Khashoggi – and yet could have been harsher

The best recent crime novels – review roundup

Silver by Chris Hammer, A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh, Beyond Recall by Gerald Seymour, The Christmas Egg by Mary Kelly and The Lammisters by Declan Burke

New Model Island by Alex Niven review – an answer to London’s power?

A Newcastle writer is spurred by a birth and a death to consider regionalism and a radical future for England

The Tempest by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill – it’s been a blast

The last instalment in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series is dense, dizzying and satisfying

The Box of Delights review – an exquisite Christmas cabaret

2Faced Dance put on a reality-busting promenade performance featuring parkour, slapstick and a sit-down dinner

A Radical Romance by Alison Light review – a wonderful memoir

Light’s rich account of her marriage to the historian Raphael Samuel offers insights into radical London and a progressive way of living

Pippi Longstocking review – Lindgren’s rule-breaker is a delight

Astrid Lindgren’s nine-year-old rebel is suitably anarchic and altruistic in a festive musical show that leaves you chuckling

The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung review – women’s struggle for space in science

A young mathematician fights her corner in postwar Michigan, in a feminist call to arms that delights in scholarship

The Case for the Green New Deal by Ann Pettifor; On Fire by Naomi Klein – review

Two excellent, inspiring calls for a new politics as the only solution to our climate catastrophe

The Buried by Peter Hessler review – life, death and revolution in Egypt

This remarkable example of ‘slow journalism’ links the pharaohs with Egypt’s Arab spring

March of the Lemmings by Stewart Lee review – making Brexit funny

Entertainment and abusive despair ... the comedian and columnist dissects his own work in this merciless look at the past three years

Every Fire You Tend by Sema Kaygusuz review – Turkey’s violent legacy

The author’s first novel to be translated into English uses stories from the vast sweep of history to address the silence of massacre and trauma