Annie Ernaux: the objective, unseen reporter of her times
Ernaux’s The Years draws not only on her own life but on her long “communal memory”.
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.
Unenlightened thinking: Steven Pinker’s embarrassing new book is a feeble sermon for rattled liberals
To think of this book as any kind of scholarly exercise is a category mistake. The purpose of Pinker’s laborious…
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The story of Adam and Eve: exploring the myth of the original sinners
Stephen Greenblatt’s book is a pellucid and absorbing account of the Biblical tale’s great significance.
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Man in the mirror-ball: Simon Armitage’s The Unaccompanied
With this mature, engaging and empathetic work, the poet softens the pain of passing years.
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What do animals think of humans?
Animals are our fellow travellers on this earth. It’s time we heard what they have to say.
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Myths and monstrosities of the Holocaust
Two histories of the Holocaust reveal the what we didn’t know about the concentration camps.
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Lewis Carroll: revelations about Alice and her wonderland
New studies by Edward Wakeling and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst uncover the story of one of literature’s most debated men.
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The Churchill Factor: “One man who made history” by another who just makes it up
Reading Johnson’s The Churchill Factor is like “being harangued for hours by Bertie Wooster” writes Richard J Evans.
BySins of the fathers
The Dark Box: a Secret History of Confession John Cornwell Profile Books, 288pp, £16.99 Nowadays the sacrament of confession occupies the…
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The lady was for turning: Margaret Thatcher’s Battle With the IRA by Thomas Hennessy
The extraordinary sequence of events now seems too far-fetched even for a British version of Homeland.
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The ghost at the atheist feast: was Nietzsche right about religion?
John Gray reviews “The Age of Nothing” by Peter Watson and “Culture and the Death of God” by Terry Eagleton.
ByMy Face for the World to See by Alfred Hayes and Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter: Purgative bouts of condemnation
Leo Robson reviews two new novels about the not-so-golden ages of Hollywood history.
By27 June 1969: It’s impossible to fault Seamus Heaney’s clean language and sensuous delight
In 1969, the poet Anthony Thwaite reviewed Seamus Heaney's collection Door into the Dark, alongside other newly-published works, under the…
By“Factual errors“ and “slipshod research“ – the Britannia Unchained Tories must try harder
Proper policy recommendations require hard graft, which is distinctly lacking in this book.
ByYour brain on pseudoscience: the rise of popular neurobollocks
The “neuroscience” shelves in bookshops are groaning. But are the works of authors such as Malcolm Gladwell and Jonah Lehrer…
BySarah Churchwell’s book of the year
Down the Rabbit Hole – Juan Pablo Villalobos
ByBooks of the year 2011: A S Byatt
There But For The – Ali Smith
ByThe Case for God: What Religion Means
At a swift glance, the title of Karen Armstrong’s new book (the subtitle is in very small print) might mislead…
ByNew books reviewed in short
Two new books reviewed in short.
ByEat yourself fitter
If we have a problem with our method of food production, science, not a reactionary retreat into the past, provides…
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