book reviews and features
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... |
Valerie Hansen: The Year 1000 review - the first globe-trotting age
Sunday, 12 April 2020
In 1018, the Princess of Chen – a member of the Liao dynasty that ruled northern China – was buried in a treasure-filled tomb in Inner Mongolia. Excavated in the 1980s, her grave contained luxury... Read more... |
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