Reviewed in short: New books from Jonathan Freedland, Kate Molleson, Linda Villarosa and Benjamin Wood
The Escape Artist by Freedland, Sound Within Sound by Molleson, Under the Skin by Villarosa and The Young Accomplice by…
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.
The rise and fall of Lex Greensill
How David Cameron’s favourite banker became the focus of a billion-dollar scandal.
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The limits of black and white thinking
Ibram X Kendi’s new book, How to Raise an Antiracist, is overly simplistic and dogmatic.
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The lying life of Emmanuel Carrère
In his new book, Yoga, the French literary star is fixated on truth – so why does he play fast…
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A timely check-up on the GP’s vital role in the community
Updating John Berger’s 1967 classic, A Fortunate Woman shares the devotion and anguish of a modern family doctor.
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The Great War’s miracle worker
How one surgeon’s pioneering treatment healed soldiers with the most disfiguring injuries of the First World War.
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Reviewed in short: New books from Christina Lamb, Sinclair McKay, Roger Mosey and Sheena Patel
The Prince Rupert Hotel for the Homeless by Lamb, Berlin by McKay, 20 Things That Would Make the News Better…
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The book Pete Doherty didn’t write
This “memoir” is essentially a transcript of hours of rambling interviews. Even the Libertines frontman himself thinks it’s “completely shocking”.
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Bringing the dead back to life
The world of South Africa’s /Xam Bushmen blended vision and reality, human and animal – until it was brutally destroyed.
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Wittgenstein at war
The philosopher’s First World War notebooks reveal a soul in torment, but was fighting on the front line really the…
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Processing Wirecard’s €2bn scandal
Dan McCrum’s Money Men tells the story of audacious financial fraud hiding in plain sight.
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Reviewed in short: New books from Bella Lack, Helen Benedict and Eyad Awwadawnan, Simone de Beauvoir and Simon Jenkins
The Children of the Anthropocene by Lack, Map of Hope and Sorrow by Benedict and Awwadawnan, The Inseparables by de…
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How animal senses reveal hidden worlds
Ed Yong’s fascinating new book on the complex behaviours of creatures uncovers a universe of unfathomable beauty.
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The purpose of sex
Lillian Fishman’s bold and searching debut novel, Acts of Service, questions the meaning of desire and introduces a major new…
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The banality of Vladimir Putin
A new biography of the Russian president details the extraordinary rise of an unremarkable man who learned how to exercise…
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How TS Eliot found happiness
Withdrawn and prejudiced, the poet is hard to warm to – but Robert Crawford’s new biography shows how Eliot’s second…
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Reviewed in short: New books from Sophie Pavelle, Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor, Ana Kinsella and Gerald Murnane
Forget Me Not by Pavelle, The Silver Waterfall by Simms and McGregor, Look Here by Kinsella and Last Letter to…
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The Death of Consensus: the recurring nightmares of British politics
From strikes to Brexit, a new book by the BBC producer Phil Tinline explores how the UK has been shaped…
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Reviewed in short: New books from Victor Sebestyen, Susan Jonusas, Howard Jacobson and Keiran Goddard
Budapest by Sebestyen, Hell’s Half Acre by Jonusas, Mother’s Boy by Jacobson and Hourglass by Goddard.
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Geoff Dyer and the art of slacking off
The author’s workshy alter-egos made his books a delight. Now in sober late middle age, has the ultimate skiver lost…
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