The best books of the week

The elusive nature of consciousness; a biography of Ramsay MacDonald that foreshadows Labour’s woes today; the repression behind China’s Maoist myths; the wartime letters of Kathleen Harriman; an allegory of the Ukraine war by exiled writer Maria Stepanova; Ann Packer’s novel of a choosing how to die; Barbara Wansbrough’s memoir of grief; Barry Forshaw’s pick of crime fiction — plus Nilanjana Roy on the joy of taking a novel on your travels