Books
The monumental failure that was Henry VIII
The much-vaunted Tudor dynasty would only last one further generation, with the royal treasury severely depleted and the nation more divided than ever
Looking for Katrin: Rory MacLean goes in search of his dead wife
In an attempt to find some meaning in his grief, the author explores how different faiths, philosophies or ‘timeless traditions’ embrace the afterlife
Were the French structuralists of the 1960s really as cool as they seemed?
With Althusser murdering his wife and Foucault dallying with prepubescent boys, some of the group seem simply to have abdicated personal responsibility
Journey of discovery: Beginning Middle End, by Valeria Luisella, reviewed
On a road trip to Sicily, a recent divorcee and her daughter make a new start of sorts, but one fringed by darkness both past and present
The Byzantine empire ends in an orgy of rape and slaughter
Massively outnumbered and abandoned by Christian Europe, Constantinople’s inhabitants finally succumbed to the Ottomans after a devastating 53-day siege
All aboard for Paisley: a trip round unloved Britain
Chris Moss sings the praises of many ‘improbable, bypassed’ towns, finding beauty in the unlikeliest places
Into the wild: Country People, by Daniel Mason, reviewed
A Californian family, newly arrived in Vermont, face the harsh realities of the countryside and deeply alarming neighbours
How the multi-billion-dollar wellness industry is putting us at risk
Lacking the safeguards of mainstream medicine, mass-produced vitamin pills and herbal remedies are routinely adulterated, while supplements to gain muscle mass may be laced with steroids
Whimsical defence mechanisms: Sail Away Land, by Ben Pester, reviewed
Facing nightmarish scenarios, Pester’s characters respond with twee, online-inflected stoicism intended to soften an unforgiving world
Why most scientists don’t want us to believe in life on Mars
All institutional incentives impel towards overcaution, says Steven Benner, so it’s safer to insist that there’s no life than to suggest there is and be proved wrong
A broken bond: Gaining Ground, by Joan Barfoot, reviewed
An absentee mother is tracked down to a remote Canadian cabin and held to account for abandoning her family many years earlier
The West has become its own worst enemy
America’s post-Cold War decision to share its technological innovations with the rest of the world has spectacularly backfired, says Steve Feldstein
A high seas adventure unlike any other
Erin J. Dolin tells the gripping story of what happened after an American whaler, the Mentor, was wrecked on a reef in the western Pacific in 1832
The good, the bad and the grotesque: the mind-blowing diversity of parasites
Maggots, fleas, lice and tapeworms are scarcely welcome companions, but we eliminate parasites at our peril, says the entomologist Dino J. Martins
Down memory lane: It Will Come Back to You, by Sigrid Nunez, reviewed
The past proves difficult both to remember or fully escape in a collection of stories, spanning decades, concerning the unreliability of narrative
Revelling in the music of words
Michael Cunningham helps us appreciate the ‘cello-like flow’ of clauses or the hiss of an ‘s’ in other contemporary authors’ works, while turning a critical eye on his own novels, too
‘A selfish, ignoble person’ – the dark side of the Nobel prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa
‘Why so many lies, so many deceptions, so much disloyalty?’ lamented his first wife, echoing the views of many others once close to the Peruvian novelist
Unlucky break: All In, by Claire Powell, reviewed
For an unhappily married couple on holiday with extended family the tensions just get worse
New York crime caper: Cool Machine, by Colson Whitehead, reviewed
The violent black demi-monde of the 1980s is thrillingly evoked in this gritty finale to Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy
Why spiders deserve our respect, not fear or disgust
Not only do the world’s arachnids eat up to 800 million tons of insects a year, but they are models of creativity that have captured the human imagination since antiquity
Adolescent anxieties: Schoolgirl, by Osamu Dazai, reviewed
In this collection’s titular story, the tormented Dazai, who committed suicide aged 38, transfers his own existential crises into the private thoughts of an unhappy Tokyo schoolgirl
When Mum went marching with the EDL
Nicola Wilding describes how her 60-year-old mother, prompted by the brutal murder of Lee Rigby, unexpectedly decided to join ranks with Tommy Robinson
Why Cicero’s life and times have never seemed more relevant
The philosopher and orator with extraordinary powers of persuasion spent his life making his ideals workable – among them being a harmonious state based on checks and balances
Will any lone fanatic soon be capable of bioterrorism?
Building such weapons still demands resources beyond an amateur, but the margin of safety is fast eroding, warns Annie Jacobsen
An alternative Paris: Château Rouge, by Amit Chaudhuri, reviewed
A writer, newly arrived in France on a visiting fellowship, is determined to explore the capital with fresh eyes
