book reviews and features
Tana French: The Wych Elm review - a lucky man and his downfall
Sunday, 17 February 2019
A Tana French crime novel is never just a thriller. Probably more acclaimed in the USA than the UK (she gets rave reviews in the New Yorker and the New York Times) French always... Read more... |
Jill Abramson: Merchants of Truth review - news in the age of digital disruption
Sunday, 10 February 2019
It’s more than a little ironic when journalists who grew up in the upstart world of digital media, with all its mash-ups, plagiarism and (yes) theft, accuse a print journalist with a distinguished... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Robert MacFarlane's Spell Songs
Wednesday, 06 February 2019
With books including Mountains of the Mind, The Wild Places, The Old Ways and Landmarks, Robert MacFarlane has established himself as one of the... Read more... |
Chloe Aridjis: Sea Monsters review - a teenage bestiary
Sunday, 03 February 2019
We've all been there. The disappointing fling. The gently shattered illusions. The abortive holiday eliding languor and boredom. Teenage ennui. Revels peopled by runaways. Talking animals. Talking... Read more... |
Kristen Roupenian: You Know You Want This review - twisted tales
Sunday, 27 January 2019
A one-night stand between a female college student, Margot, whose part-time job is selling snacks at the cinema, and thirtyish Robert, a customer, goes pathetically awry. It was disappointing,... Read more... |
Michael Peppiatt: The Existential Englishman review - we'll always have Paris
Sunday, 27 January 2019
In this memoir, subtitled “Paris Among the Artists”, Michael Peppiatt presents his 1960s self as an absorbed,... Read more... |
Magda Szabó: Katalin Street review - love after life
Sunday, 13 January 2019
This is a love story and a ghost story. The year is 1934 and the Held family have moved from the countryside to an elegant house on... Read more... |
John Lanchester: The Wall review - dystopia cut adrift
Sunday, 06 January 2019
John Lanchester’s fifth novel begins with a kind of coded warning to the reader – and, perhaps, to the author too. Freezing conditions plague life on the defensive wall – or “National Coastal... Read more... |
Best of 2018: Books
Monday, 31 December 2018
Reasons to be cheerful? A fortissimo blast of anguish and foreboding currently sounds from both those end-of-year round-ups that look back over the past twelve months, and the doomy previews that... Read more... |
Timothy Day: I Saw Eternity the Other Night review - heavenly harmony, earthly discord
Sunday, 30 December 2018
In 1955, Sylvia Plath attended the Advent Carol Service at King’s College in Cambridge. Like countless other visitors, listeners and viewers before and since, she was entranced by “the tall chapel... Read more... |
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It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
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Jane Austen Wrecked My Life review - persuading us that the...
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The King of Pangea, King's Head Theatre review - grief...
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Album: Sam Binga - Sam Binga Presents Club Orthodontics
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Yoshitomo Nara, Hayward Gallery review - sickeningly cute ki...
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Hespèrion XXI, Savall, QEH review - an evening filled with l...
For the first encore of the evening, it was not just the audience but the whole ensemble of Hespèrion XXI that was mesmerised as its leader,...
Album: Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts - Talkin' to...
When Neil Young releases a new album, you can be reasonably sure that you’ll get either a disc of melancholy singer-songwriter fare or a set of...