The towering ambition of city skyscrapers; women writers’ stories of marital breakdown; a teacher’s eye-view of China; what the medieval crusades were really about; behind the booming wellness sector; an epic time-spanning novel by Elif Shafak; new fiction from Donal Ryan and Paddy Crewe; James Lovegrove’s pick of sci-fi titles — plus our obituary of Edna O’Brien
From ancient Nineveh to Victorian London to the present day — the author’s restless novel flows across epochs and continents
An engrossing and timely book, with some fantastically weird anecdotes, about how the wellness movement took root in the 1970s
A clutch of new memoirs and novels draws on female authors’ lived experience of marital discord
Peter Hessler used his time in Sichuan as a teacher to build a more subtle understanding of a changing country
Alexandra Posadzki on the drama of a Canadian telecoms empire fractured by infighting — and a pocket-dial
An entertaining account of the role that invisible gases have played in the modern world, from neon illuminations to carbon dioxide’s role in global warming
Ann Powers’ portrait of the singer-songwriter is both personal and poetic, and brings a wealth of fresh insight
Mathijs Deen’s affectionate study of Europe’s second-longest river has the measure of a geographic and cultural force
With the French capital poised for the Olympics, two new books seek to expose the social challenges that have long existed at the margins of the city
The ‘City on Fire’ author returns with a full-blown tale of a troubled teen and her equally troubled father
From the bustle to the corset and the thong, under garments reveal a lot about society and ourselves
Chinese-British novelist Xiaolu Guo chooses East Sussex to explore themes of migration and memory
Robert Blackwill and Richard Fontaine give an authoritative, if bureaucratic, take on American foreign policy’s slow pivot to the east
Two very different but compelling books explain how the complex international supply chain works and affects the things we actually care about
A radical approach to the international economy; empowering local governance; and lessons from Poland and Vietnam
Medical historian Beth Linker provides a timely account of 20th-century America’s obsession with good posture
Catherine Fletcher’s history of the road-building prowess of the Romans
Part memoir, part science, part history, the Tasmanian novelist’s latest book rejoices in resisting definition
A story of gender, consumerism and the female pioneers who defied the patriarchy and helped shape the American dream
Raj M Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff’s thriller-like book reveals how the Pentagon came up to technological speed
Two impressive new histories about the Balkan neighbours show how the traumas of the past have left deep traces in the present
Paolo Zannoni’s history of how today’s monetary system evolved
Nicola Twilley explores how refrigeration turned the global food supply system into an unsustainable ‘cryosphere’
A family history that exposes China’s authoritarian regime and an era of repression
