In Italy, everything is a family affair
The story of a troubled family reflects the political and social tensions of modern Italy
ByFiction reviews
Discover the best contemporary literature with the New Statesman’s expert reviews. From debut novels to short stories and literary veterans, get inspired here.
How good is Colson Whitehead?
He’s got the film adaptations, two Pulitzers and support from the Obamas – but he’s not yet mastered his craft
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The fables and failures of Édouard Louis
Édouard Louis has become famous for mining his troubled family for material. Is he still as candid as before?
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George Forster: Enlightenment iconoclast
Andrea Wulf returns to the world of 18th-century intellectual adventurers, with a life of the naturalist George Forster
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Ann Patchett’s broken families
In Patchett’s world, even the well-adjusted have hidden tales to tell
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England is in a state
Amanda Craig’s new novel offers a snapshot of a society reeling from insecurity and division
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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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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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Ben Lerner has taken autofiction somewhere new
The American novelist’s new book is not truly about ego, or technology, but a more elusive and universal theme
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The fabrications of Albert Speer
The Nazi architect wrote his own self-exculpatory story – but what about his crimes?
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John Lanchester’s personal venom
John Lanchester’s new novel offers a darkly funny vision of bitter London professionals
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Colm Tóibín’s sounds of silence
In his latest collection of stories, Tóibín endows his characters with plenty of feelings but fewer words
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O Father, where art thou?
Literature still looks to the clergy for answers
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Brandon Taylor’s rebellious representations
Minor Black Figures novel depicts a black aesthete struggling to defy the fraught expectations of the art world
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The dark shadow of Palestinian exile
Hannah Lillith Assadi’s latest novel, Paradiso 17, draws on her father’s displacement
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Asako Yuzuki’s acquired taste
Butter author Asako Yuzuki’s latest novel offers clues about what is behind the vogue for Japanese fiction
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Time-travelling angels in the Blitz
Francis Spufford’s new novel Nonesuch combines WW2 and wizards
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James Meek’s broken Britain
The LRB essayist’s new novel draws from his reporting on a dysfunctional nation
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Dirty realism goes supernatural
The writer’s new novel Vigil suffers from its ambition
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