What does Rick Rubin actually do?
The star producer’s supremely vague manual on creativity does nothing to explain his craft.
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.
Robert Kaplan’s tragic realism
Haunted by his misguided support for the Iraq War, the American writer turned to tragedy to understand the delusions of…
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How a bestselling novel reveals French sympathy for Putin
The Wizard of the Kremlin has provoked fierce debate in France, where support for Russia lingers on both the right…
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The narcissism of anti-racist therapy
Race experts are pushing flimsy solutions to real problems.
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From Don Paterson to Brigitte Reimann: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Pegasus by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud and Sensational by Ashley Ward.
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The myth of America’s love affair with guns
In Bloodbath Nation Paul Auster says fixing the firearms crisis requires deep cultural change. What it really needs is political…
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How Nan Shepherd shaped modern nature writing
Snubbed by its first readers, her visionary book The Living Mountain went on to inspire a new literature of landscape.
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What Norman Mailer can teach us
It is right to condemn the writer’s violent chauvinism – but a literature that has lost the power to challenge is…
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From Edward Stourton to the Wife of Bath: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Bad Bridget by Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick and Sold Out by James Rickards.
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From Tom Crewe to Caro Giles: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring A Writer’s Diary by Toby Litt and a study of conducting by Alice Farnham.
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Bret Easton Ellis’s death wish
The Shards, the author’s first novel in 13 years, is an Eighties-set autofiction thriller that plays on our cultural addiction…
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Prince Harry’s Spare is a deeply uncomfortable read
Throughout the book’s 400 pages runs a single theme: the need for closure after a lifetime of repressed trauma.
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The secret lives of Katherine Mansfield
A century after the writer’s death, a new biography shows how she withstood colonial prejudice and terminal illness to produce…
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How the world turned global
Jonathan Sperber’s The Age of Interconnection surveys the second half of the 20th century but fails to explain the ideas…
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Nietzsche, narwhals and the burden of consciousness
Justin Gregg’s witty exploration of animal intelligence is a useful guide – but there is more to human life than…
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The Year of the Cat: feline fellowship and the meaning of life
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s memoir of adopting a kitten doubles as a study of anxiety, parenthood and purpose.
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From General Electric to the gender health gap: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring the new poetry collection by Hannah Sullivan and Hotel Milano by Tim Parks.
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The New Statesman’s best books of 2022
Our choice of the year’s essential fiction and non-fiction.
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The meaning of Tyson Fury
He survived addiction and a suicide attempt to return to victory in the ring. Now the philosopher-fighter considers the “void”…
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Our fatal addiction to narrative
Once, stories helped us make sense of reality, argues Peter Brooks – now they have devoured it.
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