Long reads The new science of psychedelics Once dismissed as a hippie indulgence, drugs such as LSD are now at the front line of research into depression and anxiety. Could psychedelics actually make… By Tim Martin
Books Gangster jazz: Nathaniel Rich’s King Zeno is a hugely readable high-class period thriller By Tim Martin
Culture My Favorite Thing is Monsters: a racing certainty for the best comic of the year By Tim Martin
Books Ned Beauman’s Madness Is Better Than Defeat brings jungle fever to a story of cinema By Tim Martin
The Good Lieutenant is a haunting novel by a former war reporter Whitney Terrell's third novel is a powerful, and sometimes heartbreaking, war story. By Tim Martin
How board games became a billion-dollar business A new generation of tabletop games escaped the family table – and fuelled a global industry. By Tim Martin
The Heavenly Table is daft, gruesome, offensive – and loads of fun to read The fictional world of Donald Ray Pollock’s new novel is compellingly brutal. At times, though, it feels as if it… By Tim Martin
The Pier Falls is a skilful short story collection – and the glummest book I’ve read in years There's no doubting Mark Haddon's talent, but if his stories are sympathetic, there's not much pity in them. By Tim Martin
A biography of a 19th-century Bengali mystic, complete with haikus – and emoticons The Cauliflower® could only have been written by Nicola Barker's bitingly intelligent mind. How else could such a zany novel… By Tim Martin
The strange work of French pulp writer Serge Brussolo is finally available in English The Deep Sea Diver’s Syndrome is the first of Brussolo's novels to be translated – and, happily, it's also one of… By Tim Martin
Gold Fame Citrus is a “cli-fi” novel – the dystopia of choice in the era of climate change Claire Vaye Watkins's new novel imagines California after an ecological disaster. But what does it say about our interest… By Tim Martin
Video games will shape how we understand the world Gaming is frequently touted as an escape from the world - but it can also be a guide to… By Tim Martin