book reviews and features
Matthew Sweet: Operation Chaos review - paranoia and insanity in the Cold War
Sunday, 11 March 2018
In 2017 the documentary series The Vietnam War told the story, from soup to nuts, of America’s misadventure in south-east Asia. It now seems the comprehensive... Read more... |
'In order to write my book I had to kill Jane Austen'
Sunday, 11 March 2018
My heroine would not have appeared in a Jane Austen novel. Brilliant, arch and incisive though Austen... Read more... |
Stephen Walsh's Debussy - A Painter in Sound - extract
Monday, 05 March 2018
All this time La Mer had been brewing. It was almost a year since Debussy had written to Colonne... Read more... |
Lisa Halliday: Asymmetry review - unconventional and brilliant
Sunday, 04 March 2018
Lisa Halliday’s striking debut novel consists of three parts. The first follows the blooming relationship between Alice and Ezra (... Read more... |
Rhidian Brook on The Killing of Butterfly Joe
Thursday, 01 March 2018
When I was 23 I had a job selling butterflies in glass cases in America. I worked for a guy who, as well as... Read more... |
Ursula K Le Guin - Dreams Must Explain Themselves review - enraging and enlightening
Sunday, 25 February 2018
Essay collections are happily mainstream now, from Zadie Smith to Oliver Sacks, with more and more bits and bobs coming from unexpected quarters. These patchwork quilts from remarkable writers can... Read more... |
John Tusa: 'the arts must make a noise' - interview
Thursday, 22 February 2018
In our era of 24/7 news, downloadable from anywhere in the world at the touch of an app, it's hard to... Read more... |
Mick Herron: London Rules review - hypnotically fascinating, absolutely contemporary
Sunday, 18 February 2018
London Rules – explicitly cover your arse – is the fifth in the most remarkable and mesmerising series of ... Read more... |
Roma Agrawal: Built review - solid love
Sunday, 11 February 2018
"I've been known to stroke concrete," writes self-professed geek Roma Agrawal – and from the very beginning of her memoir-cum-introduction... Read more... |
Joe Dunthorne: The Adulterants review - a richly illuminating comedy of disappointment
Sunday, 04 February 2018
Joe Dunthorne's debut novel Submarine (2008) burrowed plausibly inside the head of a teenager... Read more... |
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