The Five by Hallie Rubenhold review – profoundly sad
This devastatingly scrupulous account of Jack the Ripper’s victims exposes the misogyny at the heart of the myth
Crime in Progress; A Warning; Inside Trump’s White House – review
The latest batch of books to praise and pillory Donald Trump fail to impress
Supreme Ambition review: Trump, Kavanaugh and the right’s big coup
Ruth Marcus’s well-sourced account reveals a conservative push to dismantle FDR’s legacy through the supreme court
Oor Wullie review – help ma boab, it’s a braw musical!
The Scottish comic-strip transfers to the stage in a witty show addressing cultural anxieties about belonging, driven by a rock, gospel and bhangra score
American Dialogue review: elegant history meets the Trump era
Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Adams teach us a lot but applying their lessons to our challenges seems a thankless task
My Brilliant Friend review – Elena Ferrante’s twisting tale of heroines for our age
Niamh Cusack and Catherine McCormack perform the central roles with magnetic force in this frenetically comic adaptation of Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet
That Reminds Me by Derek Owusu review – defies categorisation
A poem-memoir of a Ghanaian boy’s harrowing London childhood is moving and brave
Essays by Lydia Davis review – a woman of few words well chosen
Lydia Davis’s essays about writing and meaning are like her micro-stories: witty, playful and pared to the bare essentials
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe review – magical escape from the perils of war
Aslan is more substitute Churchill than surrogate Christ in Sally Cookson’s brilliantly inventive production of CS Lewis’s wartime fable
The Prince and the Pauper review – trading-places twins double the fun
Sisters Danielle and Nichole Bird create a dreamlike mirror image in a superbly staged production, alive with music, wit and spectacle
Me by Elton John review – a landmark in the memoir genre
The musician shares every detail of his life in his eye-popping autobiography
The Art of Rest by Claudia Hammond review – too stimulating by far…
Nature, mindfulness and walking the dog can all aid relaxation, but how did we get so restless to start with?
In brief: Mutual Admiration Society; The Cheffe; Impossible Owls – review
An anthem to world-changing women, a culinary rags-to-riches tale and journalism at its most soulful and immersive
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming by László Krasznahorkai review – fake news as comedy of errors
A work of dark wit and dizzying prose
Childhood/Youth/Dependency review – memoirs of art and addiction
Danish poet Tove Ditlevsen’s trilogy about her drug-ravaged life, published in English for the first time, is astonishing