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…
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.
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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How the world turned global
Jonathan Sperber’s The Age of Interconnection surveys the second half of the 20th century but fails to explain the ideas…
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Nietzsche, narwhals and the burden of consciousness
Justin Gregg’s witty exploration of animal intelligence is a useful guide – but there is more to human life than…
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The Year of the Cat: feline fellowship and the meaning of life
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s memoir of adopting a kitten doubles as a study of anxiety, parenthood and purpose.
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From General Electric to the gender health gap: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring the new poetry collection by Hannah Sullivan and Hotel Milano by Tim Parks.
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The New Statesman’s best books of 2022
Our choice of the year’s essential fiction and non-fiction.
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The meaning of Tyson Fury
He survived addiction and a suicide attempt to return to victory in the ring. Now the philosopher-fighter considers the “void”…
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Our fatal addiction to narrative
Once, stories helped us make sense of reality, argues Peter Brooks – now they have devoured it.
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The best poetry books of 2022
Five exceptional collections published this year.
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The rise and fall of the British music press
In their glory days magazines such as NME and Melody Maker defined youth culture – but the quality of the…
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The false promise of grammar schools
In his new book, A Revolution Betrayed, Peter Hitchens overstates the merits of selection in state education.
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The wonder of children’s art
A new book of pictures and drawings is an attempt to help adults recall what the world looks like to…
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From Marguerite Duras to Anthony Seldon: recent titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Bandit Country by James Conor Patterson and Looking To Sea by Lily Le Brun.
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Why Rome had no culture wars
The clash between Caesar and Cato offers lessons for today, but also reveals the gulf between modern and classical thought.
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Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries are a delusional piece of self-aggrandising fan fiction
In these retrospectively constructed “entries”, Hancock casts himself as the hero of both the Covid crisis and his love life.…
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