The Anniversary by Andrea Bajani review – meet the terrible parents
Therapy brings childhood trauma to light in this ambitious tale of family rupture – a smash hit in Italy that fails to live up to its hype
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup
Sublimation by Isabel J Kim; Last Day of a Prior Life by Andrés Barba; Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay; The Carrier by Ruth Newton; Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd
Transcendent by Laverne Cox review – success against the odds
The actor and activist tells the story of her brutal childhood in the deep south with eloquence and defiance
A Short History of Longans by Mirandi Riwoe review – a moving family portrait devoured in one sitting
Riwoe’s commanding new book traces a Chinese Australian family across four generations – all connected by one old longan tree
The Odyssey by Homer audiobook review – a truly fantastic journey
Anton Lesser brings poise and depth to this classic adaptation, conjuring monsters, heroes and Gods
Trouble Was by Charlotte Edwardes review – a sharp child’s-eye view of adult neglect
A young boy and his two siblings stay with their aunt in the West Country, in this haunting debut set over the long, hot summer of 1976
Service by Lauren Mooney review – a very modern ghost story
The chills are genuinely spooky in this haunted-house tale about contemporary precarity – a debut that speaks to our times
The Kiss by Katie Barclay review – on passion, power and puckering up
From Desiderius Erasmus to Luis Rubiales, a cultural history of this most intimate of gestures
We Are Not Machines by Sarah O’Connor review – can dignity at work survive the tech revolution?
A Financial Times journalist ponders the future of labour in world increasingly dominated by AI and automation
Country People by Daniel Mason review – a joyful follow-up to North Woods
This fantastical journey through family, folktales and a world beneath our feet is witty, uplifting and gorgeously written
Contrapposto by Dave Eggers review – this portrait of an artist falls flat
The story of a lifelong friendship between two art-world mavericks from the working-class midwest is disappointingly pious
The Land and Its People by David Sedaris review – crankiness and charm
Sedaris plays up the curmudgeonliness in a collection that still entertains
Seasonal Quartet: Ali Smith and New European Ensemble review – words and music connect
New pieces written in response to the novelist’s works by Kate Moore, Alice Yeung, Seung-Won Oh and Sara Zamboni made for ravishing harmonies and interplay in an unusual concert
The best recent poetry – review roundup
Cafés by Holly Pester; The Acrobat by Wisława Szymborska; Volvelle by Rachael Boast; Tree of Knowledge by Victoria Chang; Talk a Blue Streak by Lila Matsumoto
On the Mark by Florence Hazrat review – a fascinating history of punctuation
This lavishly researched book shows that dots and dashes are an essential component of style, whether you’re a medieval monk or Donald Trump