Sally Rooney is a great political writer – her new novel is proof
Intermezzo, the Irish writer’s fourth novel, is a sensual and sad millennial tale. But there’s more to her world view than many people admit
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Intermezzo, the Irish writer’s fourth novel, is a sensual and sad millennial tale. But there’s more to her world view than many people admit
John Nichol’s The Unknown Warrior tells the fascinating history of the grave, while never portraying it as a fix-all for grievers
The veteran spy Wilfred Dunderdale battled the Bolsheviks and took Josephine Baker to bed, as Tim Spicer’s A Suspicion of Spies reveals
Diarmaid MacCulloch’s Lower than the Angels offers a compelling and encyclopedic survey of how Christianity makes sense of sexual desire
From El Greco to Picasso, Martin Gayford’s How Painting Happens offers us an encyclopedic journey through art history
The Empusium, Olga Tokarczuk’s retelling of The Magic Mountain, may not be as compelling as her earlier works – but the prose is beautiful
Saul Friedländer’s Diary of a Crisis takes welcome aim at Western anti-Semitism, but not all his analysis befits a scholar of his prestige
Tell Me Everything, the American writer’s subtle 10th novel, sees Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge and Bob Burgess cross paths in Maine
In his study Some Men in London, Peter Parker portrays a post-war era of police entrapment, lurid scandals and a battle for public opinion
Think Again sees the much-loved trio from Wilson’s series Girls reaching middle age – but the novel isn’t convincing on any level
Street-Level Superstar, a mesmerising biography of indie singer Lawrence Hayward, asks just when artists should throw in the towel
Entitlement, by Rumaan Alam, centres on a young woman and a billionaire giving away his fortune, but its moral framework is far too obvious
In Cassino ’44, a work of meticulous research and fine detail, James Holland tracks the Allies on their gruelling march towards Rome
With his new novel, Annihilation, the enfant terrible of French letters adds to his usual moral questioning a rich vein of tenderness
Evenfall, a very modern fantasy by the TV presenter and comedian, sees a young boy and his best friends reckon bravely with destiny
On Leadership, by Labour’s longest-serving PM, mixes centrist bromides, weird analogies and kind words for Genghis Khan. Take note, Sir Keir
Joanne Bourne’s Flint tells the nigh-mystical story of a stone that has, with quiet majesty, borne witness to all human history
In Nexus, a history of networks, Yuval Noah Harari whisks us from Neanderthals to Neuralink. It may verge on arrogant, but it works
During the Blitz, Pamela Harriman seduced powerful men and stole their secrets. Sonia Purnell’s biography seeks to rehabilitate her image
In Eavan Boland’s posthumous collection Citizen Poet, essays on nationhood, history and language fizz with life and energy