book reviews and features
Wayne Holloway-Smith: Love Minus Love review – powerfully excavating the tormented poet's psycheSunday, 06 September 2020
Roughly two years since “... Read more... |
Selva Almada: Dead Girls review – the stark proximity of women to violenceSunday, 06 September 2020
Selva Almada’s newly translated work has a stark title in both English and the original Spanish: Dead Girls, or Chicas Muertas. That apparent bluntness belies the hybrid... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: author Katharina VolckmerSunday, 30 August 2020
Katharina Volckmer’s début novel The Appointment follows one woman as she vents her frustrations, confusions and regrets to her doctor during a lengthy appointment in London. Ranging... Read more... |
A. Naji Bakti: Between Beirut and the Moon review - a seriously comical coming of ageSunday, 30 August 2020
What stands between Beirut and the moon? Between Lebanon’s capital and the limitless possibility beyond? It is a question as complex and immense as the nation itself. In the wake of the... Read more... |
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai: The Mountains Sing review - a lyrical account of Việt Nam’s brutal pastSunday, 30 August 2020
“The challenges of the Vietnamese people throughout history are as tall as the tallest mountains. If you stand too close, you won’t be able to see their peaks. Once you step away from the currents... Read more... |
CD: Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith - PeradamSaturday, 29 August 2020
"The gateway to the invisible must be visible." So intones Patti Smith on the third and final journey in sound with Stephan Crasneanscki and Simone Merli, AKA Soundwalk Collective, musical... Read more... |
Elena Ferrante: The Lying Life of Adults review - a universal Neapolitan adolescenceSunday, 23 August 2020
The protagonist is a Neapolitan teenage girl; the settings move between the upper and lower parts, from the Vomero... Read more... |
Helen Macdonald: Vesper Flights review - nature lovingly described, nearly lostSunday, 23 August 2020
Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald’s first book following her incredibly successful memoir H is for Hawk in 2014, is an excellent collection of short pieces focused on the... Read more... |
Zalika Reid-Benta: Frying Plantain review - tales of growing up young, black and female in TorontoSunday, 16 August 2020
It is as unsurprising as it is vital that a spotlight has been thrown on writing by people of colour this year. It is unsurprising, too – looking at bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic... Read more... |
Nick Hayes: The Book of Trespass review – a leap over England's wallsSunday, 16 August 2020
Since snobbery and deference have a big part to play in Nick Hayes’s exhilarating book, let’s start with the obligatory name-drop. I have lunched – twice, in different country piles, and most... Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
As he approaches his 70th birthday, Masaaki Suzuki has not just travelled into pastures new but proved himself thoroughly at home in them. The...
Small scale shows, nurtured in offbeat places, are becoming all the rage in the...
In 1903, Wassily Kandinsky painted a figure in a blue cloak galloping across a landscape on a white horse. Several years later the name of the...
On Friday evening, dance veterans Orbital touched down in Birmingham to celebrate two of the most significant and acclaimed albums in...
An appearance on Taskmaster and the publication of her acclaimed memoir Strong Female Character have helped propel Fern Brady...
The Lemon Twigs aren’t shy about telegraphing their inspirations. A Dream is all we Know, their swift follow-up to last May’s ...
Four years embracing pandemic, genocide and rapid environmental degradation predicted by Wagner’s grand myth have passed before the Southbank Br...
Edinburgh’s Rezillos were booked to play Middlesbrough’s Rock Garden on Wednesday 14 September 1977. “I Can’t Stand my Baby,” their debut single,...
The last of the old maestros is standing tall. Marco...
Cricket has always been a lens through which to examine the legacy of the British Empire. In the 1930s, the infamous Bodyline series saw the new...