book reviews and features
Tomasz Jedrowski: Swimming in the Dark review – of hypocrisy, both personal and systemic
Sunday, 02 February 2020
Conjuring up nostalgia for a past readers never had is, perhaps, the litmus test for any good coming-of-age story. Writers have the hard task of making the general particular – because growing up... Read more... |
Albert Costa: The Bilingual Brain review – double-talking heads and what they tell us
Sunday, 26 January 2020
Those of us who have to toil and sweat with other languages often feel a twinge of envy when we meet truly bilingual folk. That ability to switch codes, seemingly without any fuss, must confer so... Read more... |
Clemens Meyer: Dark Satellites review - eccentric orbits
Sunday, 26 January 2020
In Clemens Meyer’s new collection of short stories Dark Satellites (translated from German by Kate... Read more... |
Ilya Kaminsky: Deaf Republic - silence as 'a soul's noise'
Sunday, 19 January 2020
"The deaf don’t believe in silence. Silence is the invention of the hearing." This is one of two author’s "Notes" to Ilya Kaminsky’s latest... Read more... |
Jeet Thayil: Low – grief’s seedy distractions
Sunday, 19 January 2020
Like many writers, Jeet Thayil is a bit of an outsider. And, if his track record is anything to go by, he has been happy to keep it that way. The poet,... Read more... |
Deborah Orr: Motherwell review - memoir, but so much more
Saturday, 18 January 2020
Published in the year following Orr’s death at the age of 57, Motherwell is an analysis of the author’s ... Read more... |
Francine Toon: Pine review – trauma and terror in the Highlands
Sunday, 12 January 2020
Supernatural and Gothic stories have always haunted the misty borderlands between high and popular culture. The finest manage to hover between page-turning genre tales and what counts as... Read more... |
Nathalie Léger: Exposition review – mysteries, rumours and facts
Sunday, 12 January 2020
Nathalie Léger’s superbly original Exposition is a biographical novel meditating on the nature of ... Read more... |
Rosamund Lupton: Three Hours review - gripping thriller with a Macbeth twist
Saturday, 04 January 2020
This is not a drill. Lock down, evacuation. An active school shooter is on the loose, actually more than one: two or three men in balaclavas with automatic shotguns. But this isn’t a high school... Read more... |
Best of 2019: Books
Tuesday, 31 December 2019
In a year that saw some notable highs (Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic) and some stonking lows (... 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?
latest in today
Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire review - dirty de...
What with the likes of Sexy Beast, Layer Cake, The Hatton Garden Job and the oeuvre of Guy Ritchie, the...
Fawlty Towers: The Play, Apollo Theatre review - lightning s...
There are many definitions of bravery, and taking on the challenge of embodying John Cleese as Basil Fawlty in Cleese’s own stage...
Dunedin Consort, Mulroy, Wigmore Hall review - songs of love...
The sixteen voices of the Dunedin Consort raided the large store of music inspired by the Song of Songs and the sonnets of Petrarch in a sensual...
People, Places and Things, Trafalgar Theatre review - a scin...
It’s unusual for a play to be revived with its original director and star, let alone a decade after they premiered the piece. But here we are,...
Withnail and I, Birmingham Rep review - Bruce Robinson’s 198...
Let’s put our cards firmly on the table here. I am a big fan of Bruce Robinson’s cinematic masterpiece about two out-of-work actors who live in...
Jack Doherty, Soho Theatre review - warm and witty childhood...
For fans of a certain age the name Jack Docherty will always be associated with a very good run of chat shows on Channel 5; he was also the star...
Album: Jack Savoretti - Miss Italia
It’s a long way to the middle. Jack Savoretti has worked hard to get there. He’s grafted. His first album, 2007’s Between the Minds,...
Two Tickets to Greece review - the highs and lows of a holid...
Two women were best friends at school but they haven’t...
Hoard review - not any old rubbish
A visually dazzling, fiercely acted psychological drama with a manic comic edge, Hoard channels an 18-year-old South Londoner’s quest to...
Hidden Door 10th Birthday Party, St James Quarter, Edinburgh...
It’s hard to imagine that The Arches – a string of stylish glass-fronted units in prime city centre location, housing boutique bars,...