How animal senses reveal hidden worlds
Ed Yong’s fascinating new book on the complex behaviours of creatures uncovers a universe of unfathomable beauty.
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 purpose of sex
Lillian Fishman’s bold and searching debut novel, Acts of Service, questions the meaning of desire and introduces a major new…
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The banality of Vladimir Putin
A new biography of the Russian president details the extraordinary rise of an unremarkable man who learned how to exercise…
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How TS Eliot found happiness
Withdrawn and prejudiced, the poet is hard to warm to – but Robert Crawford’s new biography shows how Eliot’s second…
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Reviewed in short: New books from Sophie Pavelle, Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor, Ana Kinsella and Gerald Murnane
Forget Me Not by Pavelle, The Silver Waterfall by Simms and McGregor, Look Here by Kinsella and Last Letter to…
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The Death of Consensus: the recurring nightmares of British politics
From strikes to Brexit, a new book by the BBC producer Phil Tinline explores how the UK has been shaped…
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Reviewed in short: New books from Victor Sebestyen, Susan Jonusas, Howard Jacobson and Keiran Goddard
Budapest by Sebestyen, Hell’s Half Acre by Jonusas, Mother’s Boy by Jacobson and Hourglass by Goddard.
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Geoff Dyer and the art of slacking off
The author’s workshy alter-egos made his books a delight. Now in sober late middle age, has the ultimate skiver lost…
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Out with the old: is neoliberalism really dying?
Despite our age of economic crisis, populism and pandemic, we may be living in the ruins of the neoliberal order…
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Bob Stanley’s pre-history of pop breathes life into a lost musical era
In Let’s Do It, the musician and journalist reveals how ragtime, jazz, blues and swing still shape today’s popular culture.
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Reviewed in Short: New books from Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Preti Taneja, Leo Damrosch and Hanna Bervoets
Shrimp to Whale by Pacheco Pardo, Aftermath by Taneja, Adventurer by Damrosch and We Had To Remove This Post by…
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Ottessa Moshfegh and the tedium of depravity
The American author’s new novel of medieval brutality aims for the Marquis de Sade but ends up closer to Shrek.
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What Antony Beevor gets wrong about Russia
The historian’s new book Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 fails to understand that brutality is powered by ideas.
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Reviewed in Short: New books by Rupal Patel and Jack Meaning, Melvyn Bragg, Laura Bates and Paddy Crewe
Can’t We Just Print More Money? by Patel and Meaning, Back in the Day by Bragg, Fix the System, Not…
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The secret world of Mick Herron
How the author of Slow Horses and Bad Actors became the foremost living spy novelist in the English language.
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Reflections of the elusive Jean Rhys
The novelist wrote four dark, slyly autobiographical novels – then vanished for 25 years. A new biography hopes to separate…
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Desperate Remedies: A new work charts the cruel and often gruesome history of mental health treatments
The sociologist Andrew Scull acknowledges that contemporary psychiatry is more rigorous – but is it more effective?
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Reviewed in short: New books from Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, Hannah White, Viola Davis and JL Heilbron
His Name is George Floyd by Samuels and Olorunnipa, Held in Contempt by White, Finding Me by Davis and The…
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How nostalgia fuels the culture wars
In her new book Rule, Nostalgia, Hannah Rose Woods explores how illusory and contested golden ages have haunted Britain since…
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From bullied to billionaire – the inevitable triumph of Elon Musk
In a new biography, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is portrayed as a troubled visionary who views success as a…
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