In brief by Hephzibah Anderson

The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone Alex McCarthy Doubleday, £12.99, pp176

After local beauty Rosalind Bone, 16, disappears, it’s rumoured that she’s been lured away from the Welsh valleys by London’s glamour. Her plain sister, Mary, never leaves Cwmcysgod, and decades later, a hidden photo of Rosalind fascinates Mary’s teenage daughter. Over the course of a summer, arson and a murder will reveal the truth . Bold storytelling and a cast that includes an octogenarian drug dealer propel an atmospheric novella.

God Is an Octopus: Loss, Love and a Calling to Nature Ben Goldsmith

Bloomsbury Wildlife, £20, pp256

In 2019, Ben Goldsmith was playing cricket when he received a phone call that “broke” the world he knew. His 15-year-old daughter, Iris, had overturned and died while driving a vehicle on his farm. She had shared his love of nature, and as he moves through shock and anger, consulting other grieving parents and dabbling in Buddhism, it’s this that consoles him. He’s since rewilded his land, making this harrowing, searching memoir a tribute not just to a lost child but also to nature’s regenerative power.

His Name Is George Floyd Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa Penguin, £12.99, pp544 (paperback)

In the weeks following his murder, George Floyd became a symbol of much that is wrong in the US and abroad. But what of the man himself? In this year’s nonfiction Pulitzer prize winner, two acclaimed reporters bring painstaking rigour to bear on their quest to know him, speaking to his family, friends and teachers, and detailing the events that shaped his experience. In illuminating Floyd’s life, this landmark biography underscores the meaning of his death.

To order The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone for £11.43, God Is an Octopus for £17.60 or His Name Is George Floyd for £11.43 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 020-3176 3837