Review

Winnie M Li’s novel brought back painful memories of sibling resentment and hurt

Mr Bates vs The Post Office touched a nerve among the public with its revelation of the suffering of ordinary people who lost everything. ITV’s new drama lacks suitably likeable victims

Mick Herron’s spy thriller series and Will Smith’s magnificent adaptation have become pitch-perfect accompaniments to the shabbiness and disillusionment of Britain today

Jonathan Buckley’s female protagonist only exists to validate the male characters around her. She’s utterly unbelievable

In What We Can Know, our greatest living novelist sees the UK slip beneath the waves – and looks for light in a drowned world

Major Tom may be gone, but the new David Bowie Centre at V&A East displays the extraordinary treasures he left behind

The wartime artist who lampooned Hitler gets his first exhibition

The uncanny art of Jane and Louise Wilson uncovers the future hidden inside surveillance footage, irradiated film and ancient wood

Four generations of women inhabit a landscape of wolves, fascists and devils in the Catalan writer’s haunting novel

A book that collects the dreams of Germans – Jews and gentiles alike – during the 1930s

A new exhibition charts humanity’s long, losing battle – there’s either too much or too little, and it’s always in the wrong place

Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice is a masterfully savage comedy of murder and capitalist ruin

The film-making pair have already won the Palme d’Or twice – can they win a third?

Aronofsky can miss the mark when he over-conceptualises. But this very entertaining gangland caper is infectious

Norway’s new wave is winning awards and acclaim. But will funding problems kill off the boom just as audiences take notice?

Benjamin Markovits’s Booker-longlisted The Rest of Our Lives wants us to cheer on a tedious man’s journey of self-discovery. I loathed every moment

A crime writer’s memoir goes from New Jersey to Venice via Iran and LA – and features an apology to her most famous character

A new film captures the awkward, brittle reality of late-life male companionship

New York in the 1980s was riven by disharmony, corruption and excess. Jonathan Mahler’s new book explains how the city forged a would-be dictator

The German philanthropist spent big on daring art and a stunning gallery – then waited for the world to catch up

A selection of New World writers and editors choose the books they can’t stop recommending

In back rooms, tiny pubs and even horse boxes, lesser-known standup comedians keep the eccentric spirit of the Edinburgh Fringe alive

Tension is simmering as the two countries celebrate their independence days this week. Four books explore how their relationship curdled into conflict

A mad, mournful documentary about brothers on the edge stunned the Czech Republic’s biggest film festival. Then real life caught up

The artist who recreates photographs as monumental charcoal pictures is at his best among the world’s trouble spots

The painter didn’t have much time for art, or sex or his home town. But don’t let that fool you

Petra Volpe’s extraordinary movie powerfully dramatises the human consequences of the crises facing nursing today

The sari is given a radical reimagining in a bold Birmingham exhibition

The Aboriginal artist’s vibrant works celebrate ancestral land, culture and a deep connection to nature

Keeley Hawes’s The Assassin is part of a rash of film and TV about professional killers. When and how did they become aspirational?

The best Marvel offering since Avengers: Endgame (2019), the film works by embracing the technicolour Americana of the comic strip original

In Suzie Miller’s latest legal drama, the Hollywood favourite plays a judge and mother facing her worst nightmare