Venus as a Bear by Vahni Capildeo review – direct, intimate and funny
From Björk to beasts … impressive cross-cultural investigations into the natural world
This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay – review
Frank and funny, this is a moving tribute to the people who keep the NHS going
You Think It, I’ll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld – perfect miniature portraits
From a presidential candidate to a one-night stand, tales of pickled resentment and familiar, bitchy characters told in deadpan American prose
Kudos by Rachel Cusk – a daringly truthful trilogy concludes
Faye, the artful listening presence in Outline and Transit, is back – but this time there’s a self-consciousness to the narrative voice
The End of the French Intellectual by Shlomo Sand review – from Judeophobia to Islamophobia
The quality of French intellectual life has plummeted, argues an author who targets such recent media stars as Michel Houellebecq and Alain Finkielkraut
Mary and the Witch’s Flower review – charming Japanese children’s adventure
A little girl takes a magical broomstick ride to a school for witches in this appealing animation from the director of When Marnie Was There
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
Star of the North by DB John, What We Did by Christobel Kent, Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough, Nightfall Berlin by Jack Grimwood, The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve, Wrong Way Home by Isabelle Grey
Curlew Moon by Mary Colwell review – a pilgrimage for the wading bird
An account of a walk of 500 miles from the west of Ireland to the east coast of England to raise awareness of the bird’s endangered status
Ponti by Sharlene Teo review – a vivid coming-of-age debut
Mother-daughter rifts, teenage angst and cult movies … this novel of many stories runs from the late 1960s into the near future and captures the accumulating pressures of life in Singapore
West by Carys Davies review – stunning debut novel from a short-story writer
Not a word is wasted in this tale of American exploration that holds tragedy and comedy in delicate balance
Breath review – profound Tim Winton adaptation swirls with soul and beauty
Simon Baker’s directorial debut is poetic without being pretentious, capturing the natural beauty of the WA coast and the complexity of coming of age
Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes review – foul-mouthed satire of modern France
Shortlisted for the Man Booker International prize, this withering examination of France’s political polarisation is achingly hip
How to Rule the World by Tibor Fischer review – satire and spleen
Although this monologue from a disaffected TV documentary maker is fast, furious and brutal, there is a sense of desperation to it
Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing – review
John Boughton traces the vexed history of social housing in this timely, persuasive study
The Drunken Sailor by Nick Hayes review – intense beauty
A wondrous visual narrative based on the translation of a seafaring poem by a teenage Arthur Rimbaud