Emmanuel Carrère betrays his parents
The French novelist and screenwriter’s new book is an unsparing yet seductive portrait of his parents
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Discover the latest non-fiction books and must-reads with the New Statesman’s expert reviews. Including biographies, music books, political writing and more.
What is to blame for the Middle East?
Beneath the violence and instability that afflict the region lies not religion but a loss of sovereignty
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The invention of Russian
Troublesome Words: A Cultural History of Russian explores the language’s gruesome history
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My cellmate, the Nazi
A Polish resistance officer shared a jail cell with the Nazi who liquidated Warsaw’s ghetto – and memorised every word…
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What Japanese society owes to its samurai-wielding thugs
Despite their falling numbers we ought not to count the yakuza out just yet
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No sex please, we’re classicists
This study of the sex lives of women in antiquity offers dildos and kink but nothing in the way of…
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The Big Security future
A new book considers a technological “age of security”
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Inside the Nord Stream conspiracy
Who really blew up the pipeline – and why did they do it?
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What if the communist project had succeeded?
Running through Paul Mason’s chronicle of communism lurks a regret that things didn’t turn out better
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Our island stories
Philip Hensher’s survey of the British novel is generous, appreciative – and highly opinionated
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Silicon Valley is coming for our democracy
Jill Lepore’s new book paints a vision of American government corrupted by the forces of automation, surveillance and control
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Eric Hobsbawm, the man who knew almost everything
The historian’s range was incomparable. But one question eluded him: why did communism fail?
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Robert Service’s very Russian coup
A new book details the sultry last days of the USSR
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Love on the front line
War correspondent Sally Hayden’s new collection of dispatches is horrifying and tender
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Is David Thomson still watching?
After a lifetime of critiquing film, Thomson seems instead haunted by “white spaces”
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The con man of anthropology
Even when the anthropologist Carlos Castaneda was exposed as a charlatan and cult leader, the credulous still followed him
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Ignoring sex differences harms us all
The tendency to ignore sex variations harms men and women both – and damages scientific credibility
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America’s original biggest loser
The abuse suffered 250 years ago by Thomas Hutchinson for upholding the law has echoes in US governance today
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Around the world in 18 summer reads
The New Statesman recommends our favourite beach reads
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Why the Islamic Republic of Iran endures
The brutal theocracy maintained from Tehran came to power on the back of decades of misrule
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