Our top book picks this week: a new take from South Africa on the murder mystery genre

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Fallen Glory

James Crawford, Old Street, November 3

The Tower of Babel, the Berlin Wall and Machu Picchu – iconic structures such as these can tell us a lot about the people who built them. Here, Crawford looks at 20 of these vanished constructions and examines what they can tell us about the future.

The Brothers Vonnegut

Ginger Strand,

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 17

It’s the 1950s. Future novelist Kurt Vonnegut becomes a PR man at General Electric, while his scientist brother, Bernard, works on cloud control at its “House of Magic” lab. Intriguing biography about science and literature.

The President and the Apprentice

Irwin F Gellman,

Yale University Press, November 26

Revisionist look at the relationship between US president Dwight Eisenhower and his vice president, Richard Nixon, one previously considered full of mutual disrespect. Must read for anyone interested in history.

All for Nothing

Walter Kempowski,

Granta Books,

November 5

Peter von Globig is 12 and is pretending he has a cough. He would rather play than join the Hitler Youth. Meanwhile, the rest of the family seal off their mansion and convince themselves there is no war. Devastating portrait of the last days of the Third Reich.

Cockfosters

Helen Simpson,

Jonathan Cape

November 5

Two old school friends travel on a train and reminisce about everything from ambition to ageing, to the patterns of repetition in life. The title is a stop on London’s Underground network and this understated but forceful short story collection opens a window into life from Moscow to Dubai.

Recipes for Love and Murder

Sally Andrew,

Canongate Books,

November 19

Chef-turned-agony aunt teams up with a young reporter to investigate a mysterious death. This murder mystery is set in the Klein Karoo region of South Africa, and while the tone of the book is frequently light, it does not hold back on the troubled and dark history of the country.