book reviews and features
Phoebe Power: Book of Days review - the clack of walking poles, the clink of scallop shell
Tuesday, 26 July 2022
The word “shrine” somersaults me back to the path of the Camino de Santiago. I have lost count of the faces that smiled up from photos positioned in the hollow of trees, some with little plastic... Read more... |
Jessie Burton: The House of Fortune review - a muted, sensitive sequel
Tuesday, 05 July 2022
A sequel is always a hard thing to write, especially if the book that precedes it is a bestseller, adapted for television and read by more than a million people. Yet Jessie Burton’s The House... Read more... |
Katya Adaui: Here Be Icebergs review - odd relations
Friday, 01 July 2022
The title of Katya Adaui’s debut collection in English is taken from one of the 12 short stories it contains: an... Read more... |
Stanislav Aseyev: In Isolation - Dispatches from Occupied Donbas review - journeys through space and time in Ukraine
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
Stanislav Aseyev is a Ukrainian writer who came in from the cold. Until the spring of 2014, he was an aspiring... Read more... |
Mieko Kawakami: All the Lovers in the Night review - the raw relatability of loneliness
Saturday, 25 June 2022
Mieko Kawakami is the champion of the loner. Since achieving immense success in the UK with her translated works, she has become an indie fiction icon for her modern, visceral depictions of... Read more... |
Philip Ball: The Book of Minds review - thinking about the box
Friday, 17 June 2022
Years ago, one of the leading mathematicians in the country tried to explain to me what his real work was like. When he was on the case, he said, he could be doing a range of other things – having... Read more... |
10 Questions for art historian and fiction writer Chloë Ashby
Saturday, 11 June 2022
“Is she at a pivotal point in her life but unable to pivot…?” Eve, the young heroine of Chloë Ashby’s dazzling debut... Read more... |
Kim Hye-jin: Concerning My Daughter review - room for complication
Friday, 27 May 2022
In this best-selling Korean novella, recently translated into English by Jamie Chang, Kim Hye-jin offers us the perspective of a Korean... Read more... |
Alyn Shipton: On Jazz - A Personal Journey - digging jazz deeply and musically
Monday, 23 May 2022
“I suppose you’re going to ask all the usual questions...?” When Keith Jarrett was interviewed by Alyn... Read more... |
Joanna Walsh: Girl Online - A User Manual review - how 'beatifoul' it is to be online
Wednesday, 11 May 2022
Scrolling to the top of my Twitter DMs, most of which are from close friends or acquaintances, I notice the message request section flash “1”. It’s a signal I usually ignore, having learnt from... Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today
Donohoe, Roscoe, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - two great...
A little piece of musical history was made last night at Manchester Chamber Concerts Society’s season-opening concert. Two of the greatest...
Here comes the flood: Bob Dylan's 1974 Live Recordings
Lighters at the ready, because here comes the flood. Drawn from 16-track tape, 1/4in reels and lo-fi sound board cassettes that are now a half...
Wang, Lapwood, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - grace and pow...
It takes stiff competition to outshine Yuja Wang, who last night at the Barbican complemented her spangled silver sheath with a disconcerting pair...
My Favourite Cake review - woman, love, and freedom
The taxi cab has become a recurring motif in modern Iranian cinema, perhaps because it approximates to a kind of dissident bubble within the...
Beethoven Sonata Cycle 1, Boris Giltburg, Wigmore Hall revie...
A happy, lucid and bright pianist, a forbidding Everest among piano sonatas: would Boris Giltburg follow a bewitching, ceaselessly engaging first...
The Band Back Together, Arcola Theatre review - three is a d...
We meet Joe first at the keys, singing a pretty good song, but we can hear the pain in the voice – but is that...
Music Reissues Weekly: Sean Buckley & The Breadcrumbs
Although Dagenham’s Sean Buckley & The Breadcrumbs are less than a footnote in the story of beat boom-era Britain, appearances on archive...
The Critic review - beware the acid-tipped pen
The setting is the lively 1930s London theatre world, but any sense that The Critic will be a lighthearted thriller should soon be...
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers, National Gallery review - pass...
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers includes many of his best known pictures and, amazingly, it is the first exhibition the...