The Penguin Book of Oulipo review – writing, a user’s manual
Lovers of word games and literary puzzles will relish this indispensable anthology celebrating Perec, Calvino and many others
Giraffes Can’t Dance review – swing of the jungle
An adaptation of Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees’s bestseller loses some of the grace of the picturebook despite a moonlit acrobatic ending
Arthur Pita: Ten Sorry Tales review – six feet under and surreally shipwrecked
Pita’s adaptation of Mick Jackson’s children’s book mixes mime, acting, song and dance to pleasingly twisted effect
The best children’s books of 2019 for all ages
From mental health to the climate crisis, children’s books are tackling the hot topics of our age. Here, Fiona Noble looks back on the year and, below, our pick of 2019 in each age group
A Game of Birds and Wolves by Simon Parkin review – the ‘secret game that won the war’
An engaging tale of how an unsung group from the Women’s Royal Naval Service helped to defeat the U-boats
97,196 Words by Emmanuel Carrère review – essays from a French superstar writer
These pieces from the celebrated author of Limonov cover everything from true crime and reportage to celebrity interviews and sex columns
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming by László Krasznahorkai review – mesmerisingly strange
This blackly absurd satire of provincial Hungarian life is maddening, compelling – and very funny
The Ocean at the End of the Lane review – Neil Gaiman adaptation is all action
Gaiman’s novel turns into a dynamic and quirky stage spectacular, though at the expense of the more nuanced relationships
The Bikes of Wrath review – cyclists take the dustbowl migrants’ road
Five friends with limited experience in the saddle ride 2,600 miles across the US in an endearingly honest documentary
The Scoundrel Harry Larkyns by Rebecca Gowers review – murder by Edward Muybridge
The colourful life of a 19th-century ne’er-do-well, whose murderer – the famous photographer Muybridge – walked free
Don’t Look at Me Like That by Diana Athill review – a reissued gem
In the only novel by the acclaimed memoirist, first published in 1967, a young woman comes of age in 1950s England
The Far Right Today by Cas Mudde review – an alarming new mainstream
India, the US, Brazil ... a study of the journey of far-right populists from the fringes to the heart of the world’s democracies
Ian McKellen by Garry O’Connor review – from Richard III to Gandalf
A fascinating biographical study of a stellar acting career – including the secrets that lie behind it
Fatherhood by Caleb Klaces review – lyrical, unsettling debut
‘Life and language split open’: there is beauty as well as humour in a poet’s portrait of the disruptions of parenthood
Exquisite Cadavers by Meena Kandasamy review – writing in the margins
A short, spiky novella about identity and belonging plays with the boundaries between ‘truth’ and ‘fiction’