Elif Batuman and the art of a real life
In Either/Or, Batuman’s sequel to The Idiot, the protagonist is bewildered by the mundane and fixated on the profound.
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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.
Burning the bastards out
The destruction of country houses in the Irish revolution can be seen as the last stage of a long Land…
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How the super-rich live
Wandering through the haunts favoured by London’s wealthiest residents reveals the gilded side of the capital hiding in plain sight.
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A creed for the anthropocene
Staving off climate change will entail not only a technological revolution but transforming our relations with the natural world.
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The psychoactive plants that change our consciousness
It is fascinating to learn how three plant-derived drugs – caffeine, opium and mescaline – can shape society.
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Nora Ephron and the art of self-narrative
The writer and film-maker poured her life into her journalism and romcoms. What can a new biography tell us that…
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The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: how Putin exploited a wartime myth
There are echoes of the invasion of Ukraine in the epic battle for Stalingrad, but this time Russia is on…
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Nietzsche before the breakdown
In the 1880s, the ailing philosopher prophesied the West’s violent decline – but not even he could prevent it.
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Reviewed in short: New books from Jonathan Freedland, Kate Molleson, Linda Villarosa and Benjamin Wood
The Escape Artist by Freedland, Sound Within Sound by Molleson, Under the Skin by Villarosa and The Young Accomplice by…
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The rise and fall of Lex Greensill
How David Cameron’s favourite banker became the focus of a billion-dollar scandal.
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The limits of black and white thinking
Ibram X Kendi’s new book, How to Raise an Antiracist, is overly simplistic and dogmatic.
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The lying life of Emmanuel Carrère
In his new book, Yoga, the French literary star is fixated on truth – so why does he play fast…
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A timely check-up on the GP’s vital role in the community
Updating John Berger’s 1967 classic, A Fortunate Woman shares the devotion and anguish of a modern family doctor.
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The Great War’s miracle worker
How one surgeon’s pioneering treatment healed soldiers with the most disfiguring injuries of the First World War.
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Reviewed in short: New books from Christina Lamb, Sinclair McKay, Roger Mosey and Sheena Patel
The Prince Rupert Hotel for the Homeless by Lamb, Berlin by McKay, 20 Things That Would Make the News Better…
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The book Pete Doherty didn’t write
This “memoir” is essentially a transcript of hours of rambling interviews. Even the Libertines frontman himself thinks it’s “completely shocking”.
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Bringing the dead back to life
The world of South Africa’s /Xam Bushmen blended vision and reality, human and animal – until it was brutally destroyed.
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Wittgenstein at war
The philosopher’s First World War notebooks reveal a soul in torment, but was fighting on the front line really the…
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Processing Wirecard’s €2bn scandal
Dan McCrum’s Money Men tells the story of audacious financial fraud hiding in plain sight.
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Reviewed in short: New books from Bella Lack, Helen Benedict and Eyad Awwadawnan, Simone de Beauvoir and Simon Jenkins
The Children of the Anthropocene by Lack, Map of Hope and Sorrow by Benedict and Awwadawnan, The Inseparables by de…
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