book reviews and features
Sema Kaygusuz: Every Fire You Tend review – an education in grief
Sunday, 15 December 2019
In March 1937, the government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk instigated what it called a “disciplinary campaign” against the Zaza-speaking Alevi Kurds in the Dersim region of eastern... Read more... |
Elizabeth Strout: Olive, Again review - compassion, honesty and community
Sunday, 01 December 2019
Elizabeth Strout is fond of plain titles. Much as her stories are interested in subtlety – the quiet complications and contradictions of ordinary life – her books advertise themselves by means of... Read more... |
Ho Sok Fong: Lake Like A Mirror review - an intoxicating collection
Sunday, 01 December 2019
“Truth was further from safety than two islands at opposite ends of the earth,” proclaims the narrator of ‘Lake Like A Mirror’, the titular short... Read more... |
John Grisham: The Guardians review - nail-bitingly good
Sunday, 24 November 2019
Some two million Americans are currently in prison in America. A disproportionate number are black and nearly 200,... Read more... |
Robert Service: Kremlin Winter review – behind Putin's masks
Sunday, 24 November 2019
When U.S. president George W. Bush looked into the eyes of Vladimir Putin he famously “saw his soul”. In his latest meditation on modern... Read more... |
Ted Gioia: Music: A Subversive History review – an informative, giddying ride
Sunday, 17 November 2019
People who derive comfort from Classic FM’s strapline that European classical music is “The World's Greatest Music" are going to have a major problem with this book. American music historian... Read more... |
Book extract: Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
Friday, 15 November 2019
Between 1991 to 2012, Belorussian journalist and oral historian Svetlana Alexievich travelled the countries that constituted the former... Read more... |
Book extract: Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
Between 1991 to 2012, Belorussian journalist and oral historian Svetlana Alexievich travelled the countries that constituted the former... Read more... |
Book extract: Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
Monday, 11 November 2019
Between 1991 to 2012, Belorussian journalist and oral historian Svetlana Alexievich travelled the countries that constituted the former... Read more... |
Caroline Moorehead: A House in the Mountains review – the women's war against Fascism
Sunday, 10 November 2019
In September 1944, a heavily pregnant Resistance activist in the north of German-occupied Italy was arrested on a visit to Milan. Lisetta Giua, a law student and fiancée of the Jewish anti-Fascist... 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.
It followed some...
Songhoy Blues, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham review – West A...
No-one needs to be living in Trump’s USA to be aware that governments never feel that it’s in their interest to prioritise great art and music...
Album: Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH
Turnstile’s NEVER ENOUGH is a vibrant, shape-shifting album that proves the Baltimore-based band is fully committed to evolution. Since...
Fiddler on the Roof, Barbican review - lean, muscular delive...
It’s always a risk when a production changes venue. In the curious alchemy of live performance, no-one can be sure whether a shift in surroundings...
In Praise of Love, Orange Tree Theatre review - subdued prod...
Terence Rattigan's rehabilitation – some...
Album: Little Simz - Lotus
Little Simz clearly believes in meeting situations head on. Her sixth full-length album kicks off, in every sense of the phrase, with “Thief”:...
Letters from Max, Hampstead Theatre review - inventively sta...
In 2012, the award-winning American writer Sarah Ruhl met a Yale playwriting student who became a special part of her life. Out of...
Bradford City of Culture 2025 review - new magic conjured fr...
Botanical forms, lurid and bright, now tower above a footpath on a moor otherwise famed for darkness and frankly terrible weather....
Album: Death In Vegas - Death Mask
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away called the late 1990s,...
La Straniera, Chelsea Opera Group, Barlow, Cadogan Hall revi...
Chelsea Opera Group has made its own luck in winning the devotion of two great bel canto exponents: Nelly Miricioiu between 1998 and 2010...