Picture books of the year
Love, the glory days of music portraits, and 1970s stock car racing: the best photography publications of 2022.
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.
What cells tell us about life
Siddharta Mukherjee’s new study of how cells work reveals the complexities of the human body – and the science that…
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Books of the year 2022
New Statesman writers and guests choose their favourite reading of the year.
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Britain’s empire of science
How the Victorians bequeathed us their ideology of technoscientific progress.
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How David Milch reinvented TV drama
The memoir of the American creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood is a rich story of drink, drugs and creative…
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From Lisa Nandy to An Yu: recent books reviewed in short
Also featuring a biography of Peter Beard and White Torture by Narges Mohammadi.
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The Light We Carry: Michelle Obama’s self-help slogans
In converting her life story into self-empowering bromides, the former first lady has exposed the limits of her politics.
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The instant political histories that nobody needs
Hasty biographies of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson by Westminster journalists show the perils of rushing to judge the recent…
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Death by PowerPoint: the global influence of McKinsey
A new book connects the consultancy firm to a series of social and economic crises. But how culpable is a…
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What politicians get wrong about war
From Kosovo to Ukraine, Lawrence Freedman’s book Command explores the catastrophes that occur when state and military strategy collide.
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What our homes reveal about ourselves
Living Rooms explores what domestic spaces say about class and belonging, from chintz to cleanfluencers.
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How political failures led to the Grenfell Tower fire
Peter Apps’s book, Show Me the Bodies, forensically uncovers the truth about the disaster that killed 72 people in 2017.
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Mary Lou McDonald: behind the respectable face of Sinn Féin
A new biography charts the rapid political rise – and moral compromises – of Sinn Féin’s leader.
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PJ Harvey on superstition, dialect and poetry
At a live Q&A with Frank Skinner, the musician shared her knowledge of Dorset folklore and read from her new…
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The tragedy of English football
The miracle of 1966 aside, Paul Hayward’s “biography” of England’s national team is a story of sorry failure.
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Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose: in the shadow of Elena Ferrante
This under-powered story of a morbid teenage friendship in rural France cannot avoid comparisons to the Neapolitan Quartet.
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Sara Baume: “I’m attracted to artists who find new ways to tread the same ground”
The author of the Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted Seven Steeples on the pandemic, the death of her father and the role of…
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Jonathan Coe’s Bournville: Britannia chained
The novelist’s piercing satire charts 75 years of British history, ending with a righteously angry attack on the inhumanity of…
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The dark side of DNA editing
Genetic engineering can lead to great medical advances but, as Matthew Cobb’s new book shows, it also brings alarming ethical…
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Richard Reeves: “We have to rescript masculinity”
The author and former adviser to Nick Clegg reflects on the crisis facing boys and men today.
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