The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce review – hits all the right notes
Joyce’s heart-warming fourth novel follows a band of shopkeepers in the 80s struggling to halt redevelopment plans
Picture books for children reviews – from old hats to new homes
Neil Gaiman’s pearl-eyed princess and a magical tale of moving house are among the best illustrated reads for kids this summer
Teenage fiction reviews – the hapless magician and lost souls in Hollywood
A stranger offers hope to a struggling spellcaster, love is in the air in the entertaining Freshers, and detention ends in death in a first-class mystery
Fiction for older children reviews – tales of the cities
London and New York both feature strongly in stories from both sides of the pond, while Room author Emma Donoghue makes her children’s fiction debut
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich review – ‘a monument to courage’
Soviet women recall their wartime lives in these epic first-person accounts, translated into English for the first time
The best books on Ghana: start your summer reading here
A literary tour of Ghana takes in the early disappointments of independence, a woman’s search for personal freedom, and the gradual evolution of democracy
The Tryst by Monique Roffey review – perfectly judged erotic fiction
Sex and mythology collide in a novel with insights into contemporary coupledom
Growth and Form by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson review – centenary of a Darwin-challenging classic
Honeycombs, snail shells, a tiger’s stripes … The celebrated study of how physical forces and mathematical laws affect natural selection has just been reissued
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong review – migration, America and Vietnam
Borders and identities blur in this hotly tipped collection from a young poet who moved to the US as a child
M by Henry Hemming review – the fascist spymaster of MI5
A superb book on the naturalist turned intelligence officer discloses new information on agents within far right and communist organisations
Hunger by Roxane Gay review – how the world treats fat people
A catalogue of horrors and public humiliations, Gay’s memoir responds to society’s condescension and disgust about her body size
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig review – provokes wonder and delight
A teacher’s rare genetic condition prevents him from ageing at the normal rate in the talented Haig’s clever time-hopping fantasy
Devil’s Bargain review: Steve Bannon and the making of President Joe Pesci
Donald Trump takes second billing – careful, Steve – in a propulsive tale of the Goodfellas election heist that stunned Republicans, America and the world
What the Ladybird Heard review – Julia Donaldson’s jolly farmers don’t skip a bleat
Wacky songs, animal sounds and upbeat performances abound in this charming stage version of the popular children’s picture book
Boundless by Jillian Tamaki review – picture-perfect short stories
This collection of graphic short stories, quirky and ephemeral though they seem at first, are indelible in the mind