A teacher’s view of a schools system in crisis – and how we can fix it

A woman acquires supernatural abilities on Ibiza in this follow-up to The Midnight Library

An innovative biography that recognises the continuing influence of the American poet and activist

A master of the short story explores mortality and beyond, through these funny, boundlessly intelligent visions of the angel of death

The collective diary of 21 women, compiled using WhatsApp messages, is an intimate, courageous chronicle of life as it unfolds under Taliban rule

Memory and trauma go hand in hand in these two novels and a memoir by the late Israeli writer, who shows that hope can be worse than despair

The conclusion of a trilogy that began with Other Minds provides an exquisite account of intelligence across species

This is a beautifully observed portrait of five young men growing up on the edge of Dublin’s underworld

The film-maker’s memoir is a smart, funny, painfully honest account of a ‘loser’ finding success

This third volume brings a characteristic blend of brusque wisdom and piercing compassion to the stories of Cassandra and Clytemnestra

This compelling chronicle of post-Soviet Russia by the BBC’s former Moscow correspondent captures vividly the tyranny and dark comedy of the president’s rule

This memoir about being fathered by the 70s rock oddball and ‘pagan absurdist’ is an extraordinary tale of survival

Once again, the author of Cuddy develops a deep sense of place, for a story that takes joy in its characters and their passions

Even the best governments can’t bring about change in a broken system, according to this urgent plea for reform

A journalist travels across the US to unravel the secrets surrounding the life and death of his Ethiopian immigrant father

The voices of ordinary Indians take centre stage in this absorbing account of political transformation

A concise study of Tennessee Williams, John Cheever, Carson McCullers and James Baldwin, and how their sexuality informed their work, veers between lecture-hall lit crit and novelistic immediacy

A new novel from the author of The Exhibitionist is a family saga of rare insight, with another magnificently grotesque villain at its heart

A mother’s quest to understand why the murder of her two daughters was not taken more seriously

A fascination with words and symbols provides a unifying theme in this richly ambiguous collection of short stories