Abdulrazak Gurnah’s lessons in humanity
Theft, the Nobel Prize winner’s new novel, is full of wisdom and free of judgement.
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 Yoko Ono problem
As David Sheff’s new biography reveals, decades of suspicion aimed at the provocative artist, musician and widow have obscured her…
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The cyclical history of abortion rights
The past has been marked by periods of acceptance and intolerance of women’s bodily autonomy. Can it offer lessons for…
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Why you can’t trust economists
Dispassionate discussions of financial markets are often political statements in disguise.
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In Twist, Colum McCann examines what connects us
His thrilling new novel traces the mysterious cables stretching across our ocean beds.
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The Beatles’ brilliant friendship
The Paul McCartney-John Lennon bond is a great story of boys and men, class and fame, love and jealousy
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Kazuo Ishiguro’s everyday dystopia
Never Let Me Go was once dismissed by critics for its “dear-diary” prose, but 20 years later the novelist’s masterwork…
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Pilgrims of a lost Palestine
In Forgotten, writers Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson explore the careless treatment and outright destruction of Palestinians’ most precious memorials…
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From Becky Barnicoat to Nick Trend: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring The Library of Ancient Wisdom by Selena Wisnom and Holy Places: How Pilgrimage Changed the World by Kathryn…
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How not to build a nation
Britain and the US lack the political will and legal means to innovate.
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Inside the media circus
Natasha Brown’s Universality is a wincing satire of journalism, publishing and cancel culture.
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Our overdiagnosis epidemic
How a marked rise in the treatment of certain conditions – physical and mental – is harming, not protecting, public…
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From Helen Rappaport to Simon Barnes: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring The Golden Throne: The Curse of a King by Christopher de Bellaigue and Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp.
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Dante’s divine autofiction
How the Italian poet’s search for self-knowledge changed the course of literature.
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The two deaths of Brianna Ghey
In her powerful memoir Under A Pink Sky, Esther Ghey writes her daughter was being killed by social media long…
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From Gabriel Weston to Richard Overy: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring I Don’t Like Your Tie by Marc Moss-Jones and Kevin Core and The Naked Eye by Yoko Tawada.
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Curtis Sittenfeld’s ordinary lives
The stories in her zeitgeisty collection Show Don’t Tell are dated by their cultural references, but their astute observations are…
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Art and the ruins of the left
Can painting alter the course of our politics?
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Why we’re stuck in Ancient Rome
The enduring resonance of the Roman empire is often remarked upon – but rarely understood.
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Where to find meaning
As Christianity in Britain declines, two new books ask: what should we believe in now?
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