Stephen King is our Dickens
The American best-seller is the pre-eminent horror writer of our time
ByBook reviews
Read all the latest book reviews from the New Statesman and discover the best novels, non-fiction, essays and biographies. If you’re looking for something more specific, explore our sections dedicated to politics books and history books.
How cricket bent its rules
The game’s history is full of instances of foul play
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Sylvia Townsend Warner’s obscure forces
Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes, published a century ago, is a powerful reverie on women’s interwar status
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Paging Prime Minister Farage
A semi-fictional account predicting how a future Reform government would unfold is thrilling – and chilling
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The highs and lows of London’s literary scene
Also: a dreamy new novel, and my relapse
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The real work of the working class
The history of the labour movement is less about class struggle than the fight for universal values
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How not to read JG Ballard
This new biography has done a great writer a disservice
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Elizabeth Strout’s easy answers
In her novels, trauma is never far away – but her new book lays it on thick
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Confessions of a bibliomaniac
As the book appears to be dying off, we might finally be learning to appreciate it
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I read Russell Brand’s unreadable new book, for my sins
The controversial star’s conversion is more cult-like than Christlike
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What we lose when a language dies
Sophia Smith Galer’s book is a rallying cry against linguistic extinction
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AI will dissolve civilisation as we know it
Demis Hassabis has dedicated himself to guiding machine intelligence for the betterment of humanity – but is it listening?
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Lena Dunham and the art monster
Her memoir Famesick shows the corrosive effect of living through one’s work
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The fabrications of Albert Speer
The Nazi architect wrote his own self-exculpatory story – but what about his crimes?
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Private equity’s hostile takeover of Britain
Hettie O’Brien’s The Asset Class reveals how a morally dubious business financing model swallowed the public sector
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Franz Kafka’s ten apostles
The Mitteleuropean writer owes much of his fame to the gifted translators who took his words out of German and…
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John Lanchester’s personal venom
John Lanchester’s new novel offers a darkly funny vision of bitter London professionals
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Kathleen Stock, born-again conservative
The philosopher’s new book on assisted dying is part of a developing critique of moral libertarianism
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Jan Morris’s defiant life
The transgender travel writer was both temperamentally conservative and deeply unconventional
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Gwendoline Riley is haunted by herself
The author’s new novel, Palm House, lacks her usual virtuosity
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