Reassessing Jerzy Kosinski
Why did the Being There writer’s life come to resemble a fairground rollercoaster?
Books
Thursday
The life and legacy of Mavis Gallant, an American in Paris
The author skewered the pretensions of would-be intellectual travelers
This month in culture: December 2024
What to watch this December
Monday
Bored of the rings: ‘wokery’ takes on Tolkien
The chief sin of Amazon’s The Rings of Power is that it is often simply dull
The powerful, brutal story of Polish resistance fighter Elżbieta Zawacka
In Agent Zo , Clare Mulley has written a thrilling, consistently tense page-turner
How music can be weaponized
Rebel Sounds is an uplifting compendium of hidden histories of those who have produced, performed and distributed music in times of war
The Position of Spoons is flawed but fascinating
Deborah Levy’s latest book is a sketch of the author in motion
Why Shakespeare remains the great playwright
Rhodri Lewis’s book offers so many fresh insights and well-turned phrases that I had to buy a new notebook to fit them all in
The real Kennedy men
Maureen Callahan challenges us to ask whether our American heroes are really who we think they are
This month in culture: November 2024
What to watch this November
Saturday
Catherine Nixey’s Heresy is a joy to read
Nixey takes us on a tour across the early centuries of Christianity
Thursday
Michael Richards’s memoir is heavier on introspection than laughs
Entrances and Exits shows the Seinfeld actor’s clever, energetic, dissatisfied, self-critical mind at work
Charles Baxter’s Blood Test is a necessary novel
The novel’s central conceit serves as a sharp satire of our data-driven, algorithmic age
Will Self’s impressive paean to his mother’s frustrating life in the US
In Elaine , Self has shown that understanding is possible, across generations and across time
Back to the birth of the Greenwich Village music scene
David Browne’s latest book pivots around 1961
This month in culture: October 2024
Our staff picks what to watch out for this October
Monday
The chameleonic life of Claire Clairmont
Lesley McDowell restores Lord Byron’s young lover and Mary Shelley’s step-sister to thrilling, palpitating life
Thursday
Nick Lloyd takes you through the horrors of the Eastern Front
The book’s primary focus on military detail and power-brokering is both a strength and weakness
Monday
Twenty years on from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Since its publication in September 2004, Susanna Clarke’s novel has sold millions of copies worldwide
Giles Milton retells the story of the Grand Alliance as a cinematic thriller
In the hands of a less skilled writer, The Stalin Affair could easily have been rather dull