The New Statesman’s best books of 2021
The year's essential reading in 20 titles.
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.
Reviewed in short: New books by Ai Weiwei, Elizabeth Strout, Colm Tóibín and Harvey Whitehouse
1,000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by Ai, Oh William! by Strout, The Magician by Tóibín and The Ritual Animal…
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Our favourite children’s books
From The Jungle Book to Z for Zachariah, New Statesman writers remember the children's books that shaped us
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Reviewed in short: New books by Jan Morris, Siri Hustvedt, Mark Bould and Salley Vickers
Allegorizings by Morris, Mothers, Fathers and Others by Hustvedt, The Anthropocene Unconscious by Bould, and The Gardener by Vickers.
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Reviewed in short: New books by Ann Patchett, Olivia Yallop, Duncan Weldon and Phil Burton-Cartledge
These Precious Days by Patchett, Break the Internet by Yallop, Muddling Through by Weldon and Falling Down by Burton-Cartledge.
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Reviewed in short: New books from Charlotte Higgins, Jan Grue, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, and Jonn Elledge
Greek Myths by Higgins, I Live a Life Like Yours by Grue, The Library by Pettegree and der Weduwen and…
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In My Body, Emily Ratajkowski asks difficult questions about beauty and capitalism. Does she have any answers?
The supermodel sets herself against the patriarchal norms that crush women, but fails to see how she upholds them.
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Reviewed in short: New books by Simon Heffer, Lucy Burns, Warren Ellis and Helen Oyeyemi
Henry “Chips” Channon, The Diaries by Heffer, Larger than an Orange by Burns, Nina Simone's Gum by Ellis and Peaces…
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How fear makes us human
The late David Graeber’s history of early human societies presents civilisation as a descent from anarchy into servility. But was…
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Peter Thiel: Big Tech’s dark prophet
How the billionaire entrepreneur and libertarian grasped the fundamental truth of capitalism.
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John le Carré’s aimless final novel
Silverview is a disappointing coda to his Cold War masterpieces.
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How to win the virtue game
The morality contests of the online world and our relentless pursuit of status.
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Ludwig Wittgenstein: a mind on fire
A century after its publication, the philosopher’s Tractatus remains as radical as ever.
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In her new novel, Sally Rooney looks her critics in the eye
Beautiful World, Where Are You despairs at the shallowness of fiction – and then embraces it.
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The best books about the Covid-19 pandemic
From modern science to literary classics, the New Statesman rounds up ten of the best pandemic reads.
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The dark side of our age of fitness
What is the link between neoliberalism and working out?
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Paul Kagame: the hidden dictator
How Paul Kagame’s Rwandan regime wooed the global elite.
ByEdward St Aubyn’s Double Blind is a clumsy critique of modern science
The novel veers between jet-setting farce and musings on recent issues of Current Biology.
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Sport and the English identity
From fox hunters to football hooligans, sport is England’s way of showing what it thinks it is.
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Why Goodreads is bad for books
After years of complaints from users, Goodreads' reign over the world of book talk might be coming to an end.
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