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A Hero Born by Jin Yong review – the gripping world of kung fu chivalry

The martial arts epic Legends of the Condor Heroes is the magnum opus of China’s most widely read living writer. The first book has finally been translated into English, and it’s a joy

Johnson’s Brexit Dictionary by Harry Eyres and George Myerson review – a satirical A to Z

What would the great lexicographer Samuel Johnson have made of Britain’s ‘deep and special partnership’ with the EU? A squib of a lexicon offers a feeble answer

Brother by David Chariandy review – a family on the edge of disaster

This is an exquisite Canadian novel about growing up in a poor immigrant neighbourhood of danger and futile dreams

The Killing Season; The Army and the Indonesian Genocide reviews – the truth about one of the 20th century’s worst massacres

Two books crush Indonesian state accounts of 1960s anti-leftist massacres, implicate the US and UK and revise how we define genocide

Peter Rabbit review – in a hole with James Corden’s unfunny bunny

This attempt to turn Beatrix Potter’s creation into a sassy, low-grade British Bugs – voiced by Corden – is cynical and tiresome

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff review – smartly subversive pulp horror

Secret societies, ghosts and Ku Klux Klan killers … racists are the monsters in this Lovecraft homage with a conscience

Frankenstein review – Manchester chiller is both terrifying and touching

Nimbly blending gothic horror and moral parable, this adaptation is skilfully stitched together by April De Angelis and Matthew Xia

Dreams Must Explain Themselves by Ursula K Le Guin review – writing and the feminist fellowship

The SF and fantasy novelist worked on a selection of her non-fiction during her last year. Its subjects include motherhood, abortion and the menopause

Sal by Mick Kitson review – deft, witty portrait of runaway sisters

This skilled debut follows two children as they escape from abuse and disappear into the Scottish wilderness

Behemoth by Joshua B Freeman review – how factories changed the world

Ranging from 18th-century Derbyshire to 21st-century China, this study has a memorable fact or an intriguing thought on every page

The British Mosque: An Architectural and Social History by Shahed Saleem – review

The architect and academic’s thoughtful survey explains why mosque builders in Britain generally stick to the tried and tested

Picture books for children reviews – strong mums and brave spirits

Naughty kittens light up Cressida Cowell’s latest, while another twist on the Rebel Girls formula is full of spark

Upstate by James Wood – review

The hero of James Wood’s midlife novel spends too much time with his implausibly well-organised thoughts

Raw: My Journey Into the Wu-Tang review – poignant, insightful memoir

Lamont ‘U-God’ Hawkins is suing his fellow rappers for millions – now he gives his side of a hip-hop saga

The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand by Geoff Dyer review – supremo of the 60s sidewalk

A series of discursive essays, inspired by 100 Winogrand images, make for a playful and astute tribute to a hugely influential street photographer

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  • From Peepo! to Middlemarch: 25 books to read before you turn 25
  • ‘I got everything I dreamed of – when I had no ability to handle it’: Lena Dunham on toxic fame, broken friendships and her ‘lost decade’
  • The Guardian view on dystopias for our times: the American nightmare
  • Brian Rotman obituary
  • Critics assemble! Here’s my list of the greatest superhero movies of all time
  • The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup
  • Go Gentle by Maria Semple review – a joyfully clever New York romcom
  • Circle of Wonders by Kathryn Heyman review – solace and healing in an acid-etched portrait of a dysfunctional family
  • Helen DeWitt turns down $175k Windham-Campbell prize over promotional requirements
  • Overnight by Dan Richards audiobook review – an immersive journey into the night worker’s world
  • The Housemaid author Freida McFadden reveals her true identity
  • Gillian Anderson and Cara Delevingne to hit Cannes as auteur heavyweights dominate festival lineup
  • The Beginning Comes After the End by Rebecca Solnit review – a manual for coping with change
  • You Are the Führer’s Unrequited Love by Jean-Noël Orengo review – Hitler, Speer and beyond
  • British novelist Gwendoline Riley wins $175k Windham-Campbell prize
  • Rebecca Hall obituary
  • The Writer and the Traitor by Robert Verkaik review – the strange case of Graham Greene and Kim Philby
  • Two for two? Stella prize winner Evelyn Araluen nominated again for second poetry collection
  • My Lover, the Rabbi by Wayne Koestenbaum review – as fierce and strange as anything you’ll read this year
  • Stand By Me review – Rob Reiner’s nostalgic look at friendship and the loss of innocence still grips tight
  • The Black Death by Thomas Asbridge review – a medieval horror story
  • Modern heroes and a ravaged Earth: reboot of 1950s space comic Dan Dare has liftoff
  • ‘For leftist Jews, the Bund is a model’: the radical history behind one of Europe’s biggest socialist movements
  • Upward Bound by Woody Brown review – extraordinary debut from a non-speaking autistic author
  • London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe review – a compulsive tale of money, lies and avoidable tragedy
  • The Stranger review – lustrously beautiful and superbly realised modern take on the Camus classic
  • The Hair of the Pigeon by Mohammed Massoud Morsi review – an epic tale of a refugee’s journey
  • Into the Wreck by Susannah Dickey review – an immersive exploration of grief
  • Jan Morris by Sara Wheeler review – masterly account of a flawed figure
  • How to use procrastination to your advantage

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