mon 29/09/2025

book reviews and features

Kazuo Ishiguro: Klara and the Sun review - what makes us human?

India Lewis

Unsettling, unremitting and psychologically stark, Klara and the Sun has all the hallmarks of a...

Read more...

Katherine Angel: Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again review – the complexities of consent

Lydia Bunt

Katherine Angel borrows the title of her latest book, Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again, from an essay by Foucault. The phrase parodies the supposed...

Read more...

Frances Larson: Undreamed Shores review - journeys without maps

Boyd Tonkin

Beatrice Blackwood had lived in a clifftop village between surf and jungle on Bougainville Island, part of the Solomon archipelago in the South Pacific. She hunted, fished and grew crops with...

Read more...

Joseph Andras: Tomorrow They Won't Dare to Murder Us review - injustice and tenderness in the Algerian War

Daniel Lewis

Joseph Andras wastes no time. “Not a proud and forthright rain, no. A stingy rain. Mean. Playing dirty.” This is how his debut novel kicks off, and it’s a fitting start for his retelling of the...

Read more...

Karla Suárez: Havana Year Zero review - maths, phones and mysteries in down-at-heel Cuba

Boyd Tonkin

Havana, 1993. Far away, the fall of the Soviet empire has suddenly stripped Fidel Castro’s Cuba of subsidy and...

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Amina Cain on her first novel and her eternal fascination with suggestion

Jessica Payn

Amina Cain is a writer of near-naked spaces and roomy characters. Her debut collection of short fiction, I...

Read more...

Jackie Kay: Bessie Smith review – vivid writing about the Empress of the Blues

Sebastian Scotney

Blues singer Bessie Smith (1894-...

Read more...

Patricia Lockwood: No One is Talking About This review - first novel goes beyond the internet

Markie Robson-Scott

This is a novel, says Patricia Lockwood in her Twitter feed, about being very inside the...

Read more...

CLR James: Minty Alley review - love and betrayal in the barrack-yard

James Dowsett

CLR James came to London from Trinidad in 1932, clutching the manuscript of his first and only novel. He soon found work, writing about cricket for the Manchester Guardian, as well as a...

Read more...

Tabitha Lasley: Sea State review - a one-woman odyssey through UK oil

Daniel Lewis

Straight off the bat, Tabitha Lasley’s soon-to-be ex-boss points out the fatal flaw in her life-changing project. Jettisoning her job at a women’s magazine, a long-term boyfriend, a cramped London...

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... ...
The Hack, ITV review - plodding anatomy of twin UK scandals

The latest instalment of the ITV drama department’s attempts at trial by television is another anatomy of a scandal, but with little of...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - The Mo...

“It's a Happening Thing,” January 1967’s debut single from...

Goldscheider, Brother Tree Sound, Kings Place review - music...

Last night’s concert at Kings Place was a programme of...

The Billionaire Inside Your Head, Hampstead Theatre review -...

What would it be like to be driven by OCD urges into idolising Elon Musk and aspiring to be one of his tribe of tech bros? In his debut...

theartsdesk Q&A: composer Donghoon Shin on his new conce...

Donghoon Shin has a taste for the esoteric – a love of labyrinths, literary puzzles, and contradictory aspects of the self. One of his favourite...

Doja Cat's 'Vie' starts well but soon tails o...

Doja Cat is a fascinating one-off. She’s a rap-centric...

Lacrima, Barbican review - riveting, lucid examination of th...

So often the focus – in the coverage of a royal wedding – is the story of the woman wearing the bridal dress. While every...

Joanna Pocock: Greyhound review - on the road again

Joanna Pocock’s second full-length book, Greyhound, tells the story of a single journey made and remade. In 2006, after the death of her...

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