The New Statesman’s best books of 2022
Our choice of the year’s essential fiction and non-fiction.
ByBook reviews
Read all the latest book reviews from the New Statesman and discover the best novels, non-fiction, essays and biographies. If you’re looking for something more specific, explore our sections dedicated to politics books and history books.
The rise and fall of the British music press
In their glory days magazines such as NME and Melody Maker defined youth culture – but the quality of the…
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The wonder of children’s art
A new book of pictures and drawings is an attempt to help adults recall what the world looks like to…
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From Marguerite Duras to Anthony Seldon: recent titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Bandit Country by James Conor Patterson and Looking To Sea by Lily Le Brun.
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Why Rome had no culture wars
The clash between Caesar and Cato offers lessons for today, but also reveals the gulf between modern and classical thought.
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Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries are a delusional piece of self-aggrandising fan fiction
In these retrospectively constructed “entries”, Hancock casts himself as the hero of both the Covid crisis and his love life.…
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Picture books of the year
Love, the glory days of music portraits, and 1970s stock car racing: the best photography publications of 2022.
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What cells tell us about life
Siddharta Mukherjee’s new study of how cells work reveals the complexities of the human body – and the science that…
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