The Zola Experience review – life follows art as stage relationship spills into real-life romance

When actor-director Anne Barbot embarks on an adaptation of a Zola novel with her neighbour, the gap between theatre and reality appears to collapse entirely

Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji by Keith Houston review

A deep dive into the surprising uses and linguistic shortfalls of the ubiquitous symbols

Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn review – an extraordinary debut

This brilliant short-story collection confronts the knotty truths of Northern Ireland’s bloody past

Butler by Salena Zito review – how Trump won America’s heartland

From the site of the failed assassination comes a sharp-eyed account of Trump’s political gains – and Democrats’ failings

To Rest Our Minds and Bodies by Harriet Armstrong review – a singular new voice

This blackly comic debut is an astute and funny examination of the pain and pleasure of first love

My Sister and Other Lovers by Esther Freud review – Hideous Kinky, the teenage years

A subtle, intriguing sequel revisits two girls as they grow into adults and question the impact of their unconventional upbringing

A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan review – an immersive but imperfect coming-of-age mystery

Subject of a fierce bidding war, this charming debut shows Trevelyan has an impressive knack for character, but is let down by a predictable plot

Street-Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence by Will Hodgkinson audiobook review – indie pop’s ultimate underdog

This warm, funny account of a mercurial talent gone to waste teems with love for its subject

Empire of the Elite by Michael M Grynbaum – inside the glittering world of Condé Nast

How the publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker redefined high culture

Larry: A New Biography of Lawrence Durrell by Michael Haag review – a Mediterranean life

This unfinished biography evokes Corfu and Alexandria – but leaves disturbing questions unanswered

Autocorrect by Etgar Keret review – endlessly inventive short stories

Alien spaceships, parallel worlds… the Israeli writer’s seventh collection is vast in reach, yet grounded in the bewildering absurdity of modern life

Shattered Lands by Sam Dalrymple review – the many partitions of southern Asia

A deeply researched history that examines colonial and post-colonial faultlines, from Aden to Myanmar

Murderland by Caroline Fraser review – what was behind the 1970s serial killer epidemic?

A compulsive new history suggests the crimes of Ted Bundy et al were – at least partly – down to the air they breathed

Fragile Minds by Bella Jackson review – a furious assault on NHS psychiatry

Mental health services are under undeniable strain, but this account by a former nurse fails to ring true

Flashlight by Susan Choi review – big, bold and surprising

Stretching from Indiana to North Korea, the US writer’s sixth novel is a study of absence, alienation and affection in a family rocked by tragedy