book reviews and features
José Eduardo Agualusa: The Society of Reluctant Dreamers review - vivid visions towards a free Angola
Sunday, 01 September 2019
Reality follows dreams in José Eduardo Agualusa’s latest experiment in quixotic political fable. The book opens with journalist Daniel Benchimol waking at the Rainbow Hotel in Angola’s capital,... Read more... |
Selina Todd: Tastes of Honey review – Salford dreams of freedom
Sunday, 25 August 2019
In the late 1950s, a photo technician from Salford suddenly became “the most famous teenager in Britain”. Shelagh Delaney was 19 when she sent the script of A Taste of Honey to the... Read more... |
Karl Marlantes: Deep River review - growing pains of a nation of immigrants
Sunday, 25 August 2019
Karl Marlantes’s Deep River is an all-American novel. And why should it not be? Marlantes is an all-American... Read more... |
Niall Griffiths: Broken Ghost review - Welsh visions of hope and loss
Sunday, 18 August 2019
The trend-hopping taste-makers who run British literary publishing have lately decided that “working-class” writing merits a small dole of their precious time and cash. To assess how long this... Read more... |
Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World ed. Zahra Hankir review – journalism from the front lines
Sunday, 11 August 2019
Many of the women in this pioneering collection of essays have faced unimaginable hardship in their pursuit of... Read more... |
The Collection: Nina Leger trans. Laura Francis - daring, direct and richly imagined
Sunday, 11 August 2019
Jeanne – employment, age and appearance unknown, motives unknowable – is building a collection of penises. In street after street, she feigns dizziness; on the inevitable approach of a man eager... Read more... |
Rachel DeLoache Williams: My Friend Anna review - a fraudster for the Instagram age?
Tuesday, 06 August 2019
Of all the ventures that super-fraudster Anna Delvey might have chosen as bait for her victims, an exclusive... Read more... |
Martin Hägglund: This Life - Why Mortality Makes Us Free review - profound book to be read slowly
Sunday, 04 August 2019
Swedish-born multi-lingual academic Martin Hägglund lives in New York and teaches philosophy and comparative literature at Yale. His new book, This Life, is a substantial examination of secular... Read more... |
Vic Marks: Original Spin review - trouble in Taunton
Sunday, 21 July 2019
In cricket, timing is everything. Played a fraction early and that silky cover drive finds a batsman out to lunch as... Read more... |
Gina Apostol: Insurrecto review – a treacherous archipelago of stories
Sunday, 14 July 2019
As in other countries born out of 19th-century uprisings against imperial power, the literary roots of the Philippines run deep. Executed by the Spanish in 1896, the novelist, poet and physician... Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
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The Day of the Jackal, Sky Atlantic review - Frederick Forsy...
Fred Zinnemann’s 1973 film The Day of the Jackal was successful thanks to its lean, almost documentary-like treatment of its story of a...
Kolesnikov, Hallé, Elts, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review...
Pavel Kolesnikov returned to the Hallé last night with a bobby-dazzler of a concerto. He’s a laid-back dude in appearance, with no tie, flapping...
L’Addition, BAC review - top billing for physical comedy duo
Can experimental theatre survive the decades? This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Forced Entertainment theatre company, whose mission is...
The Problem With People review - local zero
A quarter of an hour into The Problem With People, there’s a 15-second clip of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero – and it’s the best...
Album: Garfunkel & Garfunkel: Father and Son
A father and son union – the first joint collaboration by Garfunkel père et fils. Art Junior it seems has already released two solo...
Tucker Zimmerman, The Lexington, London review - undersung o...
Tucker Zimmerman is singing a number called “Don’t Go Crazy (Go in Peace)”. At 83, he performs sitting down. Surrounded by support band Iji, who...
Album: Primal Scream - Come Ahead
In many ways, Primal Scream have had a strikingly similar career path to the Rolling Stones – despite them forming some 20 years after Mick and...