More from Books
A satirical masterpiece: Blinding, by Mircea Cartarescu, reviewed
Bucharest is transformed into a phantasmic playground in this surreal take on Romania’s horrific recent history
Who will rule the Arctic?
When it comes to icebreakers, the US pales by comparison with Russia in the growing struggle for control of polar shipping routes and mineral resources
Time for a reckoning: Vigil, by George Saunders, reviewed
A mega-rich oil magnate is offered a last-minute opportunity for repentance in this Christmas Carol for our times, targeting corporate greed and consumerism
A flying visit: Palaver, by Bryan Washington, reviewed
A mother travels impulsively from Texas to Tokyo to spend time with her estranged son when she hears an unfamiliar catch in his voice over the phone
What triggered punk rock’s swastika fetish?
The Nazi tropes adopted by 1970s pop stars reflected mindless defiance rather than political extremism – but they have more worrying echoes today
An intellectual farce: Rapture of the Deep, by Robert Irwin, reviewed
Quantum physics, time travel, chaos theory and religious speculation all find a place in this ideas-rich romp about a lonely scientist studying ‘nitrogen narcosis’
How ‘bad’ does a mother have to be to lose custody of her children?
In a bitter dispute in the family court, Lara Feigel is informed that her ‘wilful’ insistence on writing books is a clear indication that she is not putting her children first
The serious business of games: Seven, by Joanna Kavenna, reviewed
A young philosopher goes in search of the curator of the Society of Lost Things and the once world-famous game of Seven whose rules no one seems to know
A young Englishwoman is caught up in the Russian Revolution
Rhoda Power’s first-hand account of the Tsar’s abdication and the coming of the Bolsheviks was first published in 1919 and has never really been surpassed
Bookshop blues: Service, by John Tottenham, reviewed
An aspiring novelist working the evening shift in an LA bookstore is forced to listen to endless chat about works he knows in his heart to be terrible – or, worse, fears might be good
The madness of Prince Rogers Nelson
The pop star’s extensive entourage were expected to be on call 24/7, responding to his every whim while turning a blind eye to the French farce of his love life
From riches to rags: The Effingers, by Gabriele Tergit, reviewed
Beginning in 1878, this family saga charts the success of two Jewish brothers in Berlin before the coming of the Nazis threatens not only their livelihoods but their lives
What is it about Bob Dylan that sends writers mad?
Though a witness to many seminal Dylan moments, Ron Rosenbaum has produced what feels like a long voice-note after the pub, full of bluster, conspiracy and giddy conjecture
Does running 42 Lakeland fells in less than 24 hours really bring ‘serenity’?
The Keswick hotelier Bob Graham achieved this in 1932 – and nowadays running improbable distances is considered almost normal, as well as an important factor in mental wellbeing
The scourge of plagiarism reaches crisis point
Since the launch of Chat GPT 3.5 in November 2022, the whole basis of how we assess work, especially in schools, universities and publishing, has had the rug pulled from under it
The anxious gaiety of Britain’s interwar years
With the gradual extension of the franchise, a more egalitarian society flocked to theatres, music halls and holiday camps in a desperate bid to leave the trauma of war behind
The scandal of California’s stolen water
Ever since the building of the 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct, begun in 1905, diversion of water by unscrupulous conglomerates has left swathes of the Golden State a toxic desert
Coming of age in Melbourne: Landscape with Landscape, by Gerald Murnane, reviewed
The protagonists of these six linked stories are much like the young Murnane himself, dreaming of becoming a writer and escaping to the wilds of Australia
Odd man out: The Burning Origin, by Daniele Mencarelli, reviewed
An ambitious designer based in Milan returns home to Rome on a visit and finds himself torn between nostalgia for childhood and disgust for his underachieving friends
The many shades of Pink Floyd
Founded 60 years ago, the multi-million-selling rock band has had five incarnations to date, with members dying, resigning or suing each other in a series of blistering law suits
After the party: One of Us, by Elizabeth Day, reviewed
In a sequel to Day’s 2017 novel The Party, the art historian Martin Gilbert dreams of revenge on his former friend Ben Fitzmaurice, now a dazzling Tory politician with a dark secret
The glorious ventilation shafts hiding in plain sight
Victorians took pleasure in artfully disguising these essential life-saving structures – and contemporary architects continue the tradition to equally spectacular effect
The adventures of an improbable rock journalist
Cameron Crowe started writing for Rolling Stone aged just 15. But both as reporter and later as filmmaker, his innate decency made him decidedly ‘uncool’
Global fish stocks have been perilous for decades – so why is still so little being done?
Dredgers continue to destroy the seabed, illegal fishing vessels routinely encroach on no-take zones and governments persist in granting unsustainable catch quotas to their national fleets
Will we ever stop predicting the end of civilisation?
Mark Cocker 24 January 2026 9:00 am
A self-destructive dynamism is at work in the West, argues the latest prophet of doom, Paul Kingsnorth, as we dethrone the old gods and install the new ones – of power, self and money