Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh review – the Trainspotting gang party on

Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud are back in this wildly farcical story of revenge, sentimentality and psychedelic drugs

The Overstory by Richard Powers review – the wisdom of trees

This tangled epic about diverse lives is rooted in environmental principles

Elisabeth’s Lists by Lulah Ellender review – a haunting family history

Lists from a lost world help the author put together a vivid study of the grandmother she never knew

Upstate by James Wood review – big questions, and bigger risks

The new novel from the literary critic engages with profound philosophical dilemmas through a story of family relationships and mental fragility

The Mind is Flat by Nick Chater review – we have no hidden depths

There is no subconscious, no ‘inner life’ that holds the secret of understanding ourselves, argues a behavioural psychologist. We improvise and can change

Two Sisters by Åsne Seierstad review – a journey to join Islamic State

The author of The Bookseller of Kabul tells the true story of two jihadi daughters and the father who travels to Syria to try to change their minds

The Executor by Blake Morrison review – a novel with poetic vision

This story of a posthumously published poetry collection explores the line between work and life, fiction and reality

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara review – in search of a serial killer

A fanatical quest to identify California’s 1970s Golden State Killer is told in gripping, grisly detail

Russian Roulette review: as Joe Biden said, ‘If this is true, it’s treason’

Michael Isikoff and David Corn lay bare the evidence that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have been striving to collaborate for years

Great Apes review – Will Self’s Swiftian satire puts chimps in charge

This inventive adaptation of the novel set in an ape-dominated world pokes fun at human assumptions of evolution

Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan – review

Hannah Sullivan’s debut collection of poems is intimate, experimental and rich in delicious description

Dead Men’s Trousers by Irvine Welsh – a last hurrah for Renton and company

The heroes of Trainspotting keep on giving – albeit in increasingly cartoonish form

The Friendly Ones by Philip Hensher review – home truths and horrors abroad

Family life in Sheffield meets the brutal history of Bangladesh in Philip Hensher’s finest novel yet

The Long ‘68 by Richard Vinen review – a year of living earnestly

This look back at the banner-waving of 1968 is too shallow in perspective and too deep in statistics

In brief: Morning; Elmet; The Long Forgotten – review

Allan Jenkins’s hymn to the early hours, Fiona Mozley’s fascinating Booker contender, and an ambitious mystery