book reviews and features
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld: The Discomfort of Evening review - lovelessness, loneliness, bodies and their limits
Sunday, 03 May 2020
“I was ten and stopped taking off my coat.” This bare beginning marks the opening of Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s startling and lyrical novel, translated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison: an... Read more... |
Alex George: The Paris Hours review - captivating yet frustrating
Sunday, 03 May 2020
A century on, the années folles of Paris between the wars do not cease to excite readers and writers of all varieties. Alex George’s latest... Read more... |
Catherine Belton: Putin’s People review - an instant classic
Sunday, 26 April 2020
In October 1991, Russian prosecutors gained access to the Communist Party Central Committee’s headquarters in Moscow’s Old Square. The offices had been sealed after President Boris Yeltsin ordered... Read more... |
Elizabeth Kay: Seven Lies review - can big-money debut match the hype?
Sunday, 19 April 2020
Seven Lies is the debut novel of Elizabeth Kay, who under another name works as a commissioning editor... Read more... |
Don Winslow: Broken review - a staggering crash course in the possibilities of crime
Sunday, 19 April 2020
One of the masters of both mystery and thriller, Don Winslow’s latest volume is a reading bonanza: a collection of six crime-focused short novels (‘novellas’ feels too fancy for a writer so... Read more... |
Garth Greenwell: Cleanness review - pornography and high art
Sunday, 19 April 2020
Both Cleanness and Garth Greenwell’s award-winning first novel, What Belongs to You, are set in Bulgaria, with a gay American teacher as the anonymous first-person narrator (... Read more... |
Helen McCarthy: Double Lives - A History of Working Motherhood review – doing it for themselves
Sunday, 19 April 2020
Want to enact mass social change? Make it about children. About their health, their prosperity, their future. Make it about men; their security, their wellbeing. Make it about society. What... Read more... |
Hilary Mantel: The Mirror & the Light review - magnificence must have an end
Sunday, 12 April 2020
Praise be to quarantine days for the chance to savour this, the crowning glory of the Wolf Hall trilogy - if not with the supernatural vigilance and attentiveness of Thomas Cromwell... Read more... |
Olivia Laing: Funny Weather review - essays on art, framed as antidote
Sunday, 12 April 2020
Olivia Laing’s non-fiction has become well-known for the way it moves by means of allusive shifts, hybridity, and pooling ideas, making a roaming, discursive inspection of one broad primary... Read more... |
Souvankham Thammavongsa: How to Pronounce Knife review - neat finishes with loose ends
Sunday, 12 April 2020
There’s a sort of enduring mystery about short stories. They rarely have the reassuring arithmetic of poetry or – with apologies to Murakami – novelistic sweep of longer fiction. They don’t... Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
latest in today
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Music Reissues Weekly: Hawkwind - X In Search Of Space, Dore...
One of last year’s major joys was the box set version of Hawkwind's Space Ritual, an 11-disc extravaganza which made the great live album...
Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre review - comic ener...
It is not just Twelfth Night, it’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will in The Folio,...
Blu-ray: Hitchcock - The Beginning
There's a tension in Alfred Hitchcock’s early films between misogyny and condemnation of...
Albums of the Year 2024: Samara Joy - Portrait
From placing first in the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Jazz Competition in 2019 to being a triple Grammy winner, Samara Joy’s rise has been...
Nutcracker, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - Tchai...
No new production of a beloved old ballet can please everyone, and there is none more beloved, or more frequently produced, than ...
You Me Bum Bum Train, secret location review - a joyful mult...
This feels like the theatrical equivalent of being in a centrifuge – a wild, spinning ride...
The Tempest, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane review - Sigourney We...
Shakespeare must have relished the opportunities brought by the indoor...
Albums of the Year 2024: Mercury Rev - Born Horses
Born Horses remains as inscrutable as it was when it was issued in the summer. While it is about the search for enlightenment through...