A reckoning for Silicon Valley
Malcolm Harris’s new book shows how Californian capitalism has thrived by exploiting an unequal world. But could the “Palo Alto…
ByBook reviews
Read all the latest book reviews from the New Statesman and discover the best novels, non-fiction, essays and biographies. If you’re looking for something more specific, explore our sections dedicated to politics books and history books.
The blurred ethics of memoir
Blake Morrison’s account of sibling tragedy passes its moral questions on to the reader.
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Pamela Anderson’s fantasy life
In her memoir Love, Pamela the model and actress reveals that despite the trauma and abuse she still sees her…
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Victory City: Salman Rushdie’s story factory
Rushdie’s new novel, completed before his attack, is a fable that displays his overweening faith in narrative.
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From Cariad Lloyd to Ayòbámi Adébáyò: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Tomorrow Perhaps the Future by Sarah Watling and Away From Beloved Lover by Dee Peyok.
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The myth of England’s “fair play” fetish
In sport and politics, the English boast that they always play by the rules – but history tells a different…
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Ghosts of the Cultural Revolution
Tania Branigan’s Red Memory shows how Xi Jinping’s China is erasing the violence and tyranny of Mao’s purges from history.
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What does Rick Rubin actually do?
The star producer’s supremely vague manual on creativity does nothing to explain his craft.
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Robert Kaplan’s tragic realism
Haunted by his misguided support for the Iraq War, the American writer turned to tragedy to understand the delusions of…
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How a bestselling novel reveals French sympathy for Putin
The Wizard of the Kremlin has provoked fierce debate in France, where support for Russia lingers on both the right…
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The narcissism of anti-racist therapy
Race experts are pushing flimsy solutions to real problems.
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From Don Paterson to Brigitte Reimann: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Pegasus by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud and Sensational by Ashley Ward.
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The myth of America’s love affair with guns
In Bloodbath Nation Paul Auster says fixing the firearms crisis requires deep cultural change. What it really needs is political…
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How Nan Shepherd shaped modern nature writing
Snubbed by its first readers, her visionary book The Living Mountain went on to inspire a new literature of landscape.
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What Norman Mailer can teach us
It is right to condemn the writer’s violent chauvinism – but a literature that has lost the power to challenge is…
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From Edward Stourton to the Wife of Bath: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Bad Bridget by Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick and Sold Out by James Rickards.
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From Tom Crewe to Caro Giles: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring A Writer’s Diary by Toby Litt and a study of conducting by Alice Farnham.
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Bret Easton Ellis’s death wish
The Shards, the author’s first novel in 13 years, is an Eighties-set autofiction thriller that plays on our cultural addiction…
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Prince Harry’s Spare is a deeply uncomfortable read
Throughout the book’s 400 pages runs a single theme: the need for closure after a lifetime of repressed trauma.
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The secret lives of Katherine Mansfield
A century after the writer’s death, a new biography shows how she withstood colonial prejudice and terminal illness to produce…
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