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Daniel Bell gives a wry and perceptive insider account of Chinese university life but is less than convincing in his support for authoritarianism
The exiled Russian author on how a career in geology led him to dig into his homeland’s hidden horrors for a new short-story collection
The Women’s Prize-shortlisted novelist reignites the cast of ‘Ordinary People’ in her luminous fourth novel
Little that we know is truly original or without influences, argues Martin Puchner in a survey of discovery, borrowing and revival
Jonathan Kennedy argues that germs have shaped our world more than humankind has — and it’s time we took notice
From anorexia to heart attacks: two books, by Hadley Freeman and Marieke Bigg, highlight how medicine fails to understand women and girls
A new selection of novellas by Rachel Ingalls, the rediscovered late author of cult classic ‘Mrs Caliban’
A bold generation of novelists, journalists and academics is demanding sweeping structural changes and access to resources, land and capital
Exiled Sergei Lebedev on Russia’s toxic past; an inflation warning for policymakers; how medicine fails women and girls; Diana Evans’s luminous novel about race and finding home; why germs have shaped our world; the case for cross-fertilisation of cultures; macabre novellas by Rachel Ingalls — plus Alex Clark’s round-up of audio books
Stephen D King’s timely book should be essential reading for economic policymakers everywhere
From a Margaret Atwood short-story collection to Max Porter’s ‘Shy’ and Cecile Pin’s debut novel ‘Wandering Souls’
Two compelling books analyse the precarious birth of South African democracy and the continuing struggle to overcome the legacy of division
Controversies over edits to some classic fiction raises a key question: do novels have to be authentic to matter?
A clutch of new books celebrates the most awesome rail architecture
The story of a troubled young man has its heart in the right place — but not much else
A compilation of Lore Segal’s snappy dialogue-driven fiction and Holocaust memoir is a poignant mix
The author is at his most free as he oscillates between writing about photography and the nature of his own allusions
In an absorbing book curated like a museum, Karl Schlögel immerses readers in fascinating details of life in the USSR
Oliver Soden’s captivating and idiosyncratic biography detects the darkness hiding beneath the playwright’s cleverness
An ambitious novel explores the tension between religious belief and the state in today’s China
Clare Carlisle’s new biography splendidly locates the novelist in her times
From learning to recognise the sources of ‘microstress’ to cultivating your networks for the long haul
Mike Martin’s illuminating account of warfare offers guidelines to achieve lasting peace
The latest TV version of ‘Great Expectations’ is fresh and frank but other authors cry out for adaptation
The novelist’s thrillers have often made fodder for films — now her own story is told in ‘Loving Highsmith’
Anna Grzymała-Busse’s fine book argues that the religious powers of the Middle Ages were fundamental in forging today’s secular institutions
A flawed history of the tricontinental diamond trade focuses on Amsterdam’s Jodenbuurt
A gripping selection includes cold war conspiracies and a dark turn for Scottish politics
The Korean-American author on her love for the Neue Galerie, Thom Browne and Kerrygold
The author and psychologist on writing, egoism and finding le mot juste
This farcical tale of freedom and ecstasy — told in fruity Polari slang — reads as if Jean Genet and Vladimir Nabokov had joined the writing team of the ‘Carry On’ films
The ambitious debut novel by Lydia Sandgren arrives in translation garlanded with praise and attention
Light and lively adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s novel is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser
Maggie O’Farrell’s retelling of the short life of Hamnet Shakespeare struck a chord when it was published in March 2020 — and now it’s coming to the RSC
A thought-provoking take on how US entrepreneurs have thrived due to the country’s vibrant — if sometimes ‘messy and difficult’ — democracy
A haunting account of the impact of western policies premised on sectarianism that engulfed the country after 2003
This keenly anticipated new novel — about the amorous ambitions of a TV sketch writer — is layered with witty social observation
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