Inside the erotic mind
Psychoanalyst Darian Leader’s study of the motivations behind sex and desire is irredeemably bonkers.
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.
Elon Musk’s death drive
The tech billionaire built a world that he could rule – then allowed it to destroy him.
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The Amazon guide to burnout
Kristi Coulter’s account of her 12-year career at the tech firm lays bare the toxic work culture of the 2010s.
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The post-language world
Tech visionaries may dream of a wordless future, but even Elon Musk cannot disrupt the communal power of speech.
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The techno-optimist fallacy
Robert Skidelsky is right to warn about the delusions of our tech overlords – but his critique of Silicon Valley…
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From Elton John to Wendy Cope: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Tremor by Teju Cole and A Woman I Know by Mary Haverstick.
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In search of the meaning of sport
A new book shows how sport has shaped British history and society – but cannot explain why it matters as…
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Books of the year 2023
New Statesman writers and guests choose their favourite reading of the year.
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The everyday economists guiding Rachel Reeves
The shadow chancellor’s history of women economists raises profound questions about the future of work.
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Bill Gates is bad for humanity
By “maximising” lives, the billionaire philanthropist is making ours worse.
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From Barbra Streisand to Michael Mann: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Peter Cowie’s biography of Ingmar Bergman and Stuffed by Pen Vogler.
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The lies we tell about Joan Didion
The late author may be the most misunderstood writer in the American canon.
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The madness of Burton and Taylor
Roger Lewis’s book about the lives of the married actors isn’t really a biography – it’s a fever dream.
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How women were left out of the story of evolution
A radical new history argues that human society was shaped not by hunter-gatherer skills but the bodies of our female…
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From Paul Auster to Kelly and Zach Weinersmith: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Reckoning by V and Eyeliner by Zahra Hankir.
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The horrors of the Upskirt Decade
In a new book on the vicious media misogyny of the Noughties, the recent past has never felt more remote.
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Who runs the show?
As the power in Hollywood has moved from film to TV, so has the much-mythologised alpha male auteur.
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The white heat of politics
Thirteen years of Tory rule, a season of scandal and Labour on the rise – the hectic Britain of 1963…
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From Nathalie Olah to Stephen Marche: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Alexandria by Islam Issa and The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada.
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Karl Ove Knausgaard’s thought experiment
The Norwegian novelist doesn’t just want to show his characters’ inner lives, he wants us to take leave of our…
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