Fatherland – Sandra Hüller reckons with Germany’s ghosts in Thomas Mann biopic Paweł Pawlikowski’s elegant, austere portrait of the exiled author’s return to Germany is anchored by a quietly commanding turn by the actor playing his daughter ✍️ @wendyide bit.ly/4yxpPuo

Mothers of Kherson – a brave, blistering opera for Ukraine’s stolen children In Warsaw, the world premiere of an urgent new opera about Russia’s unlawful wartime abductions gets a 20-minute standing ovation ✍️ @FionaMaddocks bit.ly/4sjuP4B

The riddle of JRR Tolkien Conservative and radical, civilised and wild – the great fantasy novelist was a living conundrum. In The King Under the Mountain, DJ Taylor seeks to unpick his legend ✍️ @TanyaGold1 bit.ly/4sjuKxP

Tove Jansson, from Moominvalley to Middle-earth Billed as ‘the children’s book of the century’ in 1962, the Moomins creator’s illustrated version of The Hobbit is finally reaching English readers ✍️ Daisy Lynch bit.ly/4zQswZq

The shaming of Britain’s slavery profiteers The historian William A Pettigrew spent five years identifying the merchants, investors and adventurers who grew rich from the barbaric transatlantic slave trade ✍️ Ian Thomson bit.ly/4zJXL8d

Jacqueline Rose: ‘Like Freud, I am a godless Jew’ The philosopher on misunderstood women, the problem with empathy, and the challenge of honouring her late sister ✍️ Lily Isaacs bit.ly/4seEzx3

Pawel Pawlikowski: ‘Britain doesn’t change. It’s a country of slow erosion’ The Oscar-winning director talks about rediscovering his Polish heritage, his parents’ suicides, and the true story behind his Cannes-winning film Fatherland ✍️ Andrew Anthony bit.ly/3U4n4ms

On Fudge, Michael Kiwanuka answers to no one but himself Delayed due to ill health, the artist’s fifth album sees him break free from superstar producers to deliver an album of pure artistic instinct ✍️ @kittyempire666 bit.ly/4BAS5zp

Dua Lipa’s ultimate reading list The London Literature Festival curator and her guest authors, including Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith and Malorie Blackman, on the books they recommend more than any others bit.ly/4s8JbER

How to find a Syrian executioner Posing as a sympathetic academic, Annsar Shahhoud convinced a suspected perpetrator of a massacre of civilians in Damascus to confess to being involved ✍️ @chloehadj bit.ly/4dKncOv

Frank Cottrell-Boyce: The ‘childhood lottery’ is stealing futures. How do we fix it? Quickly ✍️ Frank Cottrell-Boyce bit.ly/4jwZzNc

Elif Shafak’s love letter to Flaubert In One Brief Moment All Eternity looks to the Madame Bovary author for lessons in how to live ✍️ Fiona Sampson bit.ly/4sejK4w

What to read to understand Jamaica Three books that explore subcultures and sexuality in the Caribbean island community ✍️ Liv Little bit.ly/4yTrV8V

Intan Paramaditha’s suicide-bomber sister act Night of a Thousand Hells blends the boisterous and the brutal as two women make sense of their younger sibling’s terrorist atrocity ✍️ John Self bit.ly/4yvbdMq

The Devils uncensored: inside Mark Kermode’s mission to restore Ken Russell’s heretical masterpiece ✍️ Maya Sall bit.ly/47kIxdT

How to find a Syrian executioner Posing as a sympathetic academic, Annsar Shahhoud convinced a suspected perpetrator of a massacre of civilians in Damascus to confess to being involved ✍️ Chloe Hadjimatheou bit.ly/4dKncOv

Wendy Ide’s pick of other films: Forgotten Island, NAZA, Street Fighter, Case 137 A gloriously anarchic paean to female friendship is one of the best animated films of the year ✍️ Wendy Ide bit.ly/4k09gUm

Survival of the kippers L Robson & Sons, a traditional smokehouse in Northumberland, has seen the oily fish fall in and out of fashion for 120 years ✍️ Jack Burke bit.ly/4yYs774

Inside London’s wartime spy tunnels A subterranean labyrinth once frequented by James Bond creator Ian Fleming is being developed as a tourist attraction ✍️ Stephen Smith bit.ly/4ipulX4

Pagan poetry Could a high priest in tiny horns and a teal overcoat help us invoke the triple moon goddess? ✍️ Maya Sall bit.ly/4i3a5t7