From the war in Ukraine to the life of Roger Deakin: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Anna Metcalfe’s Chrysalis and Octavia Bright’s This Ragged Grace.
ByNon-fiction
Discover the latest non-fiction books and must-reads with the New Statesman’s expert reviews. Including biographies, music books, political writing and more.
Be more tree
We admire trees for their solitary strength, but it is their remarkable facility for collaboration and sharing that provides lessons…
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Soldiers in love
Men at War, Luke Turner’s tender account of servicemen’s transgressive private lives, transforms our understanding of the Second World War.
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The brutality of ballet
Alice Robb’s Don’t Think Dear reveals how the elite world of dance exerts a terrible physical and mental toll.
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Is a feminist marriage possible?
A new history takes in everything from ancient Roman weddings to Don’t Tell the Bride to ask: can we redefine…
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From Amy Key to Tom Clark: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Eve by Claire Horn and A Stranger in Your Own City by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad.
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George Eliot’s marriage plot
In her work, the novelist developed a radical philosophy of relationships. In her life, she put it into practice.
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Where are all the good books on sex?
Polly Barton’s “oral history” of porn shows the myopia of cultural criticism drawn from personal experience. We desperately need a…
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Now that I have cancer, how should I live?
Once a death sentence, my diagnosis has proved a weird limbo of scattered treatment and blurred identities.
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The new politics of time
How should we spend our hours in the age of burnout? Arguably not by reading Jenny Odell’s frustrating new book,…
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Adam Gopnik’s pursuit of the perfect sentence
The New Yorker journalist’s latest book, The Real Work, sheds light on a career spent obsessively attempting to master the…
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Nigel Biggar’s whitewashing of empire
The historian is right that Britain’s colonial legacy is morally complex. So why is his defence of it so simplistic?
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The best non-fiction books for 2023
From politics and Big Tech to history and identity, the essential books for the year ahead.
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Why we need the Women’s Prize for Non-fiction
We might be tempted to see prizes for women as less necessary with each passing year – but non-fiction is…
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The blurred ethics of memoir
Blake Morrison’s account of sibling tragedy passes its moral questions on to the reader.
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From Cariad Lloyd to Ayòbámi Adébáyò: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Tomorrow Perhaps the Future by Sarah Watling and Away From Beloved Lover by Dee Peyok.
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The myth of England’s “fair play” fetish
In sport and politics, the English boast that they always play by the rules – but history tells a different…
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Ghosts of the Cultural Revolution
Tania Branigan’s Red Memory shows how Xi Jinping’s China is erasing the violence and tyranny of Mao’s purges from history.
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What does Rick Rubin actually do?
The star producer’s supremely vague manual on creativity does nothing to explain his craft.
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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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