Michel Houellebecq’s mature ejaculation
In his new collection of poems, the novelist has become darker than ever
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 clever female baby boomer
Alison Light’s new memoir is the document of a self – and an era
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Nelio Biedermann is no wunderkind
He should have waited until he was 30 to publish Lazar
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How Charles Darwin humbled mankind
In his greatest work, published 150 years ago, Darwin destroyed our metaphysical status in an instant
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Jan-Werner Müller’s unfinished monument
Müller’s Street, Palace, Square feels full of unrealised potential
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Why the British do it worse
John Kampfner argues our self-defeating “hang-ups” stop us learning from our closest neighbours
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How the culture wars began
The Frankfurt School’s ideas have given rise to a conspiracy theory that “cultural Marxism” is destroying the West
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Stephen King is our Dickens
The American best-seller is the pre-eminent horror writer of our time
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How cricket bent its rules
The game’s history is full of instances of foul play
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Sylvia Townsend Warner’s obscure forces
Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes, published a century ago, is a powerful reverie on women’s interwar status
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Paging Prime Minister Farage
A semi-fictional account predicting how a future Reform government would unfold is thrilling – and chilling
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The highs and lows of London’s literary scene
Also: a dreamy new novel, and my relapse
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The real work of the working class
The history of the labour movement is less about class struggle than the fight for universal values
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How not to read JG Ballard
This new biography has done a great writer a disservice
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Elizabeth Strout’s easy answers
In her novels, trauma is never far away – but her new book lays it on thick
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Confessions of a bibliomaniac
As the book appears to be dying off, we might finally be learning to appreciate it
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I read Russell Brand’s unreadable new book, for my sins
The controversial star’s conversion is more cult-like than Christlike
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What we lose when a language dies
Sophia Smith Galer’s book is a rallying cry against linguistic extinction
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AI will dissolve civilisation as we know it
Demis Hassabis has dedicated himself to guiding machine intelligence for the betterment of humanity – but is it listening?
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Lena Dunham and the art monster
Her memoir Famesick shows the corrosive effect of living through one’s work
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