The best books of the week

Can Britain be mended?; the women who shaped the American dream; Albania and Serbia — two histories of Balkan neighbours; refrigeration’s chilling impact on global food supply systems; a thriller-like account of the US military getting up-to-date with tech; a kidnapping in a wealthy Long Island milieu; short stories with a fresh take on life’s Kafkaesque absurdity — plus Adam LeBor’s round-up of the best spy and war thrillers

Can Britain be mended?
As the new government faces an economy, society and political system in despair, there is no shortage of prescriptions to put things right
When Women Ran Fifth Avenue — the queens of 20th-century US retail
A story of gender, consumerism and the female pioneers who defied the patriarchy and helped shape the American dream
Serbia and Albania: precarious states in a volatile neighbourhood
Two impressive new histories about the Balkan neighbours show how the traumas of the past have left deep traces in the present
Frostbite — a chilling look at food’s frozen empire
Nicola Twilley explores how refrigeration turned the global food supply system into an unsustainable ‘cryosphere’
Unit X — what Silicon Valley taught the American military
Raj M Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff’s thriller-like book reveals how the Pentagon came up to technological speed
Long Island Compromise — rich, stylish, moving and funny
A wealthy family’s life is upturned by a kidnapping in Taffy Brodesser-Ackner’s fine follow-up to ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’

The best books of the week

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