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 voice in fiction.
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Johanna Thomas-Corr
Johanna Thomas-Corr is a contributing writer to the New Statesman.
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Men watch porn at work to shame female colleagues. I know because it happened to me
The Tory MP who viewed pornography in the House of Commons reminded me of the abusive and sexist workplace…
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Julian Barnes’s baffling new novel attempts to imagine a world without Christianity
The ghost of a more interesting narrative hovers over Elizabeth Finch, which is a novel not of ideas but…
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The marriage delusion
A new memoir describes it as “a slowly unfolding apocalypse”. Why are we so reluctant to reimagine matrimony?
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Will Smith vs Chris Rock shows toxic masculinity always has the last word
It’s possible to defend a woman without resorting to an attention-seeking “protection” narrative.
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Mansplaining Carrie Johnson
Michael Ashcroft’s heavy-breathing biography of Mrs Boris Johnson is deeply revealing – of its author and his tribe of…
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How we fell out of love with work
From the virtual office to the “Great Resignation”, the pandemic has transformed our attitudes to making a living.
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Sheila Heti’s dream-world
Pure Colour, Heti’s risk-taking, reality-bending new novel about a father and daughter, is a thing of frustration and wonder.
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Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob: an epic that sinks under the weight of facts
The Nobel winner’s novel about a religious cult in 18th-century eastern Europe suffers from an addiction to digression and…
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