One Aladdin Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson review – freewheeling reflections on life, art and AI
One Thousand and One Nights is the framing device for the author’s pithy and thought provoking takes on everything from eugenics to trouser suits
The Secret Santa Project review – festive romcom tries for the Love Actually style multiple story strands
Set in a London council office, this clunky Christmas comedy interweaves a handful of storylines but musters only a brief flicker of cosy charm
Vaim by Jon Fosse review – the Nobel laureate performs a strange miracle
In the Norwegian master’s latest example of ‘mystical realism’, one man makes a dreamlike, hypnotic voyage through life
100 Meters review – mesmerising anime of young athletes in search of physical and spiritual high
Dazzling rotoscoped running sequences make up for a lack of narrative subtlety in Kenji Iwaisawa’s film
Bread of Angels: A Memoir, by Patti Smith review – a wild ride with the poet of punk
Smith’s incantatory voice shines through in this surprisingly revelatory follow up to Just Kids and M Train
The Mushroom Tapes review – Erin Patterson through the eyes of Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein
This account of what the three authors observed during Patterson’s triple murder trial does resemble a podcast transcript at times, but it is extremely readable
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup
There Is no Antimemetics Division by qntm; The Merge by Grace Walker; Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel; Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin; The Strength of the Few by James Islington
In Love With Love by Ella Risbridger review – a sexy celebration of romantic fiction
From Pride and Prejudice to Fifty Shades, a writer’s paean to the literature of desire
The Transformations by Andrew Pippos review – a tender study of an ordinary man doing his best
Pippos brings a quieter drama to his second novel, about a subeditor who has a midlife shakeup in the dying world of print journalism
Train Dreams review – Joel Edgerton superb in Malickian story of trees, grief and railroads
A logger clears a path for change in this sunset-hour-tastic adaptation by Clint Bentley – clearly a director of considerable power and feeling
Dear England: Lessons in Leadership by Gareth Southgate review – an exercise in passive-aggressive self-justification
The former England coach could’ve written a great book – instead he’s produced an AI-style word-sludge of generic leadership chat
Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen review – a hypnotic tale of the sea cow’s extinction
This hit debut from Finland is intensely readable, but could have delved more deeply into the links between human progress and environmental destruction
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling audiobook review – an all-star outing
Cush Jumbo, Hugh Laurie and Matthew Macfadyen bring extra twinkle to Rowling’s magical tale
Other People’s Fun by Harriet Lane review – darkly comic tale of envy and revenge in the Insta age
The worlds of the haves and the have-nots clash, in a toxic friendship between two women brought together by a school reunion
Wings by Paul McCartney review – a brilliant story of post-Beatles revival
A compelling oral history traces the rise one of the most successful bands of the 70s from the ashes of a creative breakup