Tailspin review: a treatise on US social decline that doesn’t blame Trump
Steven Brill’s analysis of inequality and social stasis is part humblebrag, part jeremiad aimed at the author’s fellow elites
The Town Hall Affair review – the day Germaine Greer took down Norman Mailer
The 1971 debate on feminism is deconstructed in an almost pitch-perfect Wooster Group production
Gaudeamus by Mircea Eliade review – an ode to the joys of student life
The Romanian-born author beautifully captures the buzz of being a university undergraduate in 1920s Bucharest
The Years by Annie Ernaux review – a masterpiece memoir of French life
A ‘slippery narrative’ that blends personal and public life by one of France’s most lauded writers receives its English translation
Girl, Balancing and Other Stories by Helen Dunmore review – her final work
This posthumous collection from the much-loved author, focusing on motherhood, war and women under threat, is an act of tender commemoration
The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan review – mermaids and mysteries on a Scottish island
Grief, sexual discovery and magic realism combine in a novel that seems to take place in half-light
Love Songs: The Hidden History by Ted Gioia review – a fascinating study of origins
The author traces the love song back to ancient fertility rites, and shows how our idealised notions of romance first emerged in the songs of slaves
The King and the Catholics by Antonia Fraser review – the emancipation 1829
Continuing on from the author’s seminal study of the Gunpowder Plot, this account of the fight for rights that led to Catholic emancipation in 1829 is erudite and tremendous fun
Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton review – slick identity thriller
A well-worn tale about an unequal friendship in contemporary New York forensically unpicks our relationship with phones
How Democracy Ends by David Runciman review – what Trump and Corbyn have in common
A wonderful, contrarian book captures Twitter-era politics and the danger of allowing democracy to be eroded from within
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner review – what it means to be poor and female in America
This unflinching and immersive portrait of prison life is a worthy follow-up to The Flamethrowers
The Inner Level review – how more equal societies reduce stress and improve wellbeing
The authors of the influential study The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, extend their exploration to individual health and happiness
History of Violence by Édouard Louis review – complex, subtle and shocking
This autobiographical novel by the author of the acclaimed The End of Eddy relates a rape and its traumatic aftermath
A Weekend in New York by Benjamin Markovits – review
A US tennis pro’s vexed home life forms the basis of this hugely enjoyable novel
The Stopping Places by Damian Le Bas review – an illuminating history of Travellers
A journey following the horse-drawn wagons of the author’s Gypsy ancestors is a restless quest for authenticity