Endland by Tim Etchells review – once upon a time on England’s sink estates

Funny and fantastical, this collection of urban fables turns a broken mirror on broken Britain

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante review – a rebel rich girl comes of age

Italians who queued up into the night for the reclusive writer’s new tale of painful adolescence won’t be disappointed

Bowie’s Books; Why Bowie Matters reviews – the literary life of Ziggy Stardust

John O’Connell’s analysis of the musician’s 100 essential books is witty and enlightening

Genius and Anxiety by Norman Lebrecht review – 100 years of Jewish brilliance

From Mendelssohn to Marx, Kafka to Bernstein … a spirited account that explores how Jews changed the world

Two Souls by Henry McDonald review – coming of age in the Troubles

Growing up in 1970s Belfast means the thrill of punk and first love as well as the threat of violence

Reef Life by Callum Roberts review – miraculous and threatened

‘Thunderclaps of wonder’ ... a moving memoir by a marine biologist who has spent decades exploring coral reefs, many of which are now imperilled

The Divers’ Game by Jesse Ball review – a parable of violence

Ball’s dystopian world in which citizens are allowed to kill refugees with impunity is a critique on our past and present

The Scent of Buenos Aires by Hebe Uhart review – Argentinian short stories

These small masterpieces can capture a character’s essence with a revealing thought or gesture

Black Lives 1900 review – WEB Du Bois at the Paris exposition

A sumptuous book on a striking exhibit that showed the progress of African Americans since slavery

Sudden Traveller by Sarah Hall review – a step back from the edge

Hall is an exceptional writer who can expose the animal in us all, yet some of her new stories are surprisingly soothing

Frozen II review – a charming return but the thaw’s setting in

Beloved heroine Elsa has a great new song as she heads into the enchanted forest in this funny, likable but underpowered sequel. Is it time to let her go?

The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza review – a fairytale quest

One of the greatest contemporary Mexican authors weaves a suspenseful fable around a search for a lost couple in the woods

James Baldwin: Living in Fire by Bill V Mullen review – a smart, concise introduction

A brisk account of the African American writer’s insights on race, class and sexuality, which are more relevant than ever

Travels with a Writing Brush edited by Meredith McKinney review – the joy of Japanese travel writing

Spanning more than 1,000 years, this is a remarkable work filled with wonderful vignettes of Japanese life and sensibility

The Supernova Era by Cixin Liu review – a world without adults

Only the young survive in this fascinating thought experiment by the author of The Three-Body Problem