sun 31/08/2025

book reviews and features

Fitzcarraldo Editions wins Republic of Consciousness Prize

Jessica Payn

South London-based publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions has once more been awarded the Republic of Consciousness Prize,...

Read more...

Sam Bourne: To Kill a Man review – the woman who fought back

Marina Vaizey

Assassinate the President! Obliterate history by torching libraries and murdering historians! Crazy leaders and fake news are just a few of the subjects tackled by political journalist and...

Read more...

Nathalie Léger: The White Dress review – masterfully introverted

Charlie Stone

Nathalie Léger’s The White Dress brings personal and public tragedy together in a narrative as absorbingly melancholic as its subject is shocking. The story described by Léger’s narrator...

Read more...

Samuel Beckett: Dream of Fair to Middling Women review – the literary titan laid bare

Daniel Baksi

That any writer “struggling to make ends meet” would apply themselves to the making of Dream of Fair to Middling Women is something of a complexity. Written in ...

Read more...

Brendan Cleary, Great Eastern, Brighton review – last orders

Nick Hasted

St. Patrick’s Day, and socialising itself, has been all but cancelled. But...

Read more...

Christopher Booker: Groupthink review – an uncritical history of political correctness

Daniel Baksi

“Groupthink”, according to Christopher Booker, is “one of the most valuable guides to collective human behaviour we have ever been given.” But what is it exactly? It begins Booker’s final,...

Read more...

Emma Glass: Rest and Be Thankful review – fiction from the paediatric front-line

Boyd Tonkin

How do you prevent a sick baby in a high-care cubicle, his frail chest swamped in secretions, from drowning in his own “loose mucus”? Remove a suction catheter from its wrapping and insert it...

Read more...

Mieko Kawakami: Breasts and Eggs review - a book of two halves

India Lewis

Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs is a true novel of two halves and is (excuse the pun) a bit of a curate’s egg. Kawakami’s bio at the beginning of the text explains that the novel was...

Read more...

Hilary Fannin: The Weight of Love review – unravelling knotty lives

Lauren Brown

The relationship between Joe, Robin and Ruth is far from your average love triangle. On the face of it, Robin loves Ruth, but after introducing her to his charismatic friend Joe – an artist and...

Read more...

Rebecca Solnit: Recollections of My Non-Existence review - feminism, hope and the great American West

India Lewis

Rebecca Solnit’s autobiography, Recollections of My Non-Existence, is just as you might expect it to be – tangential, changeable, deeply feminist, and imbued with a sense of hope that...

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 £49,000 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

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
BBC Proms: Moore, LSO, Bancroft review - the freshness of mo...

11am concerts do take some getting used to. The BBC Proms season has no fewer than...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Outer Limits - Just One More Chan...

The Outer Limits were from Leeds. Active over 1965 to 1968, the...

Willis-Sørensen, Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, Wilson, Cadoga...

This week Vladimir Putin tried to murder my hosts in Ukraine. He failed. In more hopeful days, I spoke at a seminar organised by the British...

Interview, Riverside Studios review - old media vs new in sp...

The cult film that director Theo van Gogh left behind when he was killed in 2004, Interview, has already been remade twice;...

theartsdesk Radio Show 37 - Pete Lawrence of the Big Chill d...

This edition of Peter Culshaw’s peripatetic...

Album: Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend

Following the success of 2024’s flirtatious Short n’ Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter has fully committed to her pin-up popstar status with ...

theartsdesk Q&A: Suranne Jones on 'Hostage', p...

If she decided to run for election, Suranne Jones would probably stand a good chance of winning. The Chadderton-born actress and...

Little Trouble Girls review - masterful debut breathes new l...

Taking its title from a Sonic Youth track whose lyrics describe someone who seems good on the outside but is bad inside, this debut...

Young Mothers review - the Dardennes explore teenage motherh...

“Not even an animal would do what she did.” Jessica (Babette Verbeek) is speaking about her biological mother, who abandoned her when she was a...

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters