The New Statesman’s 20 best books of 2023
Our choice of the year’s essential fiction and non-fiction.
By
Books
Latest in
Books
The best children’s books for Christmas 2023
There’s fantasy, folklore and friendship in the best new books for young readers.
By
On being the writer in the family
Writers exploit and rebel against their parents – but can never escape them.
By
What video games taught me
A collection of essays on gaming confirms the rich complexity of an art form that remains widely misunderstood.
By
Notes on trying
For readers and writers, novels require enormous effort. Why do we persist in seeking meaning in their pages?
By
Lexicon of loss
The history of the elegy reveals how the poetry of grief has the power to trouble, console and unite.
By
Writing for children is hard, and they need good books more than ever
Children are ravenously hungry for ideas. We writers have a duty to provide them.
By
The visions of Werner Herzog
In creating wild and strange new worlds, the German film-maker reveals the truth of our own.
By