More from Books
Deep mysteries: Twist, by Colum McCann, reviewed
An enigmatic captain tasked with repairing undersea communication cables disappears, and it’s up to his shipmate to discover why
Why, at 75, does Graydon Carter still feel the need to impress?
The humblebrag and name-dropping read more like a Craig Brown pastiche than the reminiscences of one of America’s most celebrated magazine editors
A meditation on the beauty of carbon
In fact carbon proves just a peg for a series of essays on the oneness of life, with references to ‘ancient teachings’ , ‘other ways of knowing’ and Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies
A novel in disguise: Theory & Practice, by Michelle de Kretser, reviewed
De Kretser’s witty, innovative take on the immigrant’s predicament tries ingeniously to persuade us that we are not reading fiction but documentary truth
Bringing modernism to the masses in 20th-century Britain
Owen Hatherley examines the contribution of refugees from central Europe to the film industry, publishing and public art, especially architecture and town planning
Escape into fantasy: Stories of Ireland, by Brian Friel, reviewed
Friel’s tightly knit rural communities like to cling to illusions, whether it’s belief in sunken gold in the bay or in the continual prosperity of impoverished gentry
The story of Noah’s flood will never go out of fashion
Most cultures have a universal flood myth, and the idea of a cataclysmic climate event brought on by human wickedness is always bound to resonate
Across the universe – John and Paul are in each other’s songs forever
The Lennon-McCartney collaboration was one of genius from the start – and even in later years their songs continued to speak to one another, says Ian Leslie
Fight or flight?: 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen, reviewed
Residents of a sedate apartment block in Brussels react in very different ways to the Nazi invasion of Belgium in 1940
Why are we routinely buying disgusting bread in Britain?
Tasteless, adulterated, mass-produced pap bears no resemblance to an independent baker’s slow-fermented loaves, full of flavour, texture and nutrients
The danger of becoming a ‘professional survivor’
Though extraordinarily lucky to have escaped massacre in Rwanda in 1994, all Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse now seems to focus on is finding photographic evidence of her rescue
The sickness at the heart of boxing
After 30 years as a boxing correspondent, Donald McRae has seen enough, angered by the lies, dope, inadequate safety protocols and lure of Saudi sponsorship
Who will care for the carers themselves?
Caroline Elton describes the problems of looking after her profoundly autistic brother, and admits to childhood feelings of fear, guilt and resentment
The agony of making music at Auschwitz
Anne Sebba explores the ethical questions that haunted members of the female orchestra obliged to play marching music to hurry fellow inmates to and from forced labour
A picture of jealous rivalry: Madame Matisse, by Sophie Haydock, reviewed
Henri Matisse’s wife and longstanding model was understandably enraged when the artist, in later life, preferred his much younger Russian mistress as a sitter
The importance of honouring the enemy war dead
Local communities who tend the graves of enemy casualties of the two world wars do more for reconciliation than most politicians and diplomats, says Tim Grady
Controlling AI is the great challenge of our age
The genie is only half out of the bottle, says Richard Susskind, but we should be in a state of high alert – and anyone who thinks otherwise is ‘plain daft’
The adventures of the indomitable Dorothy Mills
The society rebel with a fondness for cross-dressing travelled widely in Africa, South America and the Middle East, dying in 1959, aged 70, with bags packed for the next expedition
The vagaries of laboratory experiments
With much research threatened by flawed methods and misconduct, will AI bring unprecedented scientific progress or merely increase the unreliability problem?
The unfairytale life of two European princesses
Wounded by their husbands’ infidelity and shattered by the deaths of their only sons, Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France defied court protocol in a bid for independence
The soldier poet: Viva Byron!, by Hugh Thomson, reviewed
What would have happened had Lord Byron fought for Simon Bolivar in Latin America, rather than dying of fever in Missolonghi, campaigning for Greek independence?
The mystery of the missing man: Green Ink, by Stephen May, reviewed
Things look bad for the former socialist MP Victor Grayson after he threatens to expose David Lloyd George’s cash for honours scandal in 1920
The comfort of curling up with a violent thriller
When post-natal depression descends, Lucy Mangan describes reaching for Lee Child, finding catharsis in his no-nonsense villain-bashing
Survival of the cruellest in 16th-century Constantinople
It was kill or be killed for the Ottoman sultan’s heirs in a bizarre succession ritual involving the ruthless culling of close relatives
The world’s most exotic languages are vanishing in a puff of smoke
Among the many ‘rare tongues’ explored by Lorna Gibb is the use of smoke signals by native north Americans, the oldest form of long-distance communication
