sat 25/10/2025

book reviews and features

Thomas J Campanella: Brooklyn - The Once and Future City review - out of Manhattan's shadow

Liz Thomson

For visitors to New York, it’s all about Manhattan, its 23 square miles of skyscraper-encrusted granite...

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Great Women Artists review - the book we have been waiting for

Sarah Kent

Every now and then a book comes out that can change lives. If a survey like this had appeared when I was a student at the Slade, the struggle to make headway as a female artist would have seemed...

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Book extract: Insurrecto by Gina Apostol

theartsdesk

She has more armed guards than she has luggage. She has a sense of purpose even Magsalin admires. She rides along the coast toward a historic place and, by simply stepping on its soil, she will...

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Book extract: Insurrecto by Gina Apostol

theartsdesk

She had clutched the envelope given by the shy messenger, but she had never opened it.

The Intended.

True. The message from the director was for her.

A joke between...

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Book extract: Insurrecto by Gina Apostol

theartsdesk

At first, what puts Magsalin off at the pastry shop is Chiara’s voice. It is nasal, and her monotone, a bored flatness, even in the most interesting parts, keeps Magsalin, or the pastry shop...

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Zadie Smith: Grand Union review – a roller coaster collection

Sarah Collins

“Adorable cock, nothing too dramatic, suitable for many situations,” remarks Monica on the penis of her university boyfriend. She is the candid protagonist of ‘Sentimental Education’, the second...

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Joanna Cannon: Breaking and Mending review - can you feel too much?

Marina Vaizey

Joanna Cannon was a wild card. She left school at 15 with one O-level and after various jobs, including working as a barmaid, she was given a place at...

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Ben Lerner: The Topeka School review - lessons to be learned

Stephanie Sy-Quia

The Topeka School begins with a female listener getting bored of hearing her boyfriend talk. Which did not bode well, as the perspective’s was the boyfriend, and I am a...

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William Feaver: The Lives of Lucian Freud: Youth 1922-1968 review - a testament of friendship

Florence Hallett

Lucian Freud was never an entirely willing subject, but his remark to William Feaver that his...

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Al Alvarez: 'If I drop dead this minute, I’ve had a ter­rific time'

Jasper Rees

We like to think of ourselves as a nation of eccentrics, but some take their patriotic duties more seriously than others. Al Alvarez –...

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