Books in the Media

Here are the latest Books in the Media newsletters for my followers to peruse:

Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review 11th March 2019 Praise to the max for Porter's Lanny Good morning, Max Porter's Lanny (Faber) has attracted a cascade of glowing reviews and a near-perfect star rating on Books in the Media. Alexandra Harris' five-star review in the Guardian described it as "a fable, a collage, a dramatic chorus, a joyously stirred cauldron of words", while Tim Smith-Laing in the Daily Telegraph couldn't stop at one reading, saying, "Having swallowed it in a single sitting—which culminated in this hardened cynic crying—I immediately returned to the beginning and started it again." Many reviewers compared it to Porter's debut, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, with Smith-Laing enthusing, "It is the familiar gifts of Porter's lyricism, wit, and emotional acuity, undimmed from Grief, that make Lanny such a wonderful little book," and Peter Kemp in the Sunday Times stating that Lanny, a "remarkable feat of literary virtuosity", stays "close to the pattern of its predecessor".  Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (Chatto & Windus) fired up the critics, with Christina Patterson in the Sunday Times describing it as "devastating" and "a rallying cry to fight back", adding, "Invisible Women should propel women into action. It should also be compulsory reading for men." Eliane Glaser in the Guardian praised the author's phlegmatic prose, stating, "[Criado Perez] simply wields data like a laser, slicing cleanly through the fog of unconscious and unthinking preferences."  Armand D'Angour's Socrates in Love (Bloomsbury) speared reviewers' hearts—Paul Cartledge in the Literary Review described it as "a terrific read", and Nakul Krishna in the Daily Telegraph commended the "easy elegance and authority" of the prose. James Black in the Daily Mail said it served as "a welcome corrective to the dry, systematic tendencies in modern philosophy". By Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week Lanny Max Porter (Author) 4.22 out of 5 | 13 reviews "this novel is a remarkable feat of literary virtuosity" The Sunday Times "As I say, there may be some people — fans of Jonathan Livingston Seagull spring to mind — who’ll consider Lanny enchanting and full of insight" The Times "This eminently readable follow-up to ‘Grief is the Thing with Feathers’ shifts magically between continuous and lineated prose" Financial Times "...at once strange and moving." The Spectator Read all reviews Latest Reviews Hiking with Nietzche John Kaag TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "a fantastically well-written and engaging primer on Nietsche’s life and work" The Scotsman Slow Motion Ghosts Jeff Noon 4.40 out of 5 | 3 reviews "the book still has a distinctive and appealing flavour." The Daily Telegraph The Man Who Was Saturday Patrick Bishop 4.33 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Masterly on military matters, sympathetic, psychologically acute and alert to irony," The Sunday Telegraph Mother: An Unconventional History Sarah Knott 3.89 out of 5 | 4 reviews "A pioneering look at motherhood from Sarah Knott" The Observer A Fabulous Creation David Hepworth TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "[a] hugely entertaining study of the LP’s golden age" The Sunday Times A Short History of Brexit Kevin O'Rourke 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "The joy of a good history book is that it changes how you view the present" The Guardian Memories of the Future Siri Hustvedt 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Layers of memory and self, real and imagined, reveal deep patterns in this complex novel" The Guardian Midnight in Chernobyl Adam Higginbotham 3.88 out of 5 | 5 reviews "Adam Higginbotham uses all of the techniques of the top-notch longform journalist to full effect. " The Guardian Joe Quinn's Poltergeist David Almond, Dave McKean TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "each page is a work of art" The Sunday Times Best Reviewed The Border 4.62 out of 5 | 6 reviews "It is as multi-stranded as a novel by Victor Hugo" The Daily Telegraph The Capital Robert Menasse, Jamie Bulloch 4.40 out of 5 | 3 reviews "a first-class read" The Guardian Who Killed My Father Edouard Louis 4.29 out of 5 | 4 reviews "remarkable delicacy and understanding" The Guardian Socrates in Love Armand D'Angour 4.20 out of 5 | 3 reviews "All this is done in a prose of easy elegance and authority. " The Daily Telegraph The Wych Elm Tana French 4.00 out of 5 | 7 reviews "you’re left in a near-constant state of befuddlement about what French... is trying to achieve" New Statesman The Map of Knowledge Violet Moller 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Violet Moller explains how the big, bold ideas of Euclid, Galen and Ptolemy captivated medieval Europe and the Islamic world" The Spectator In the Full Light of the Sun Clare Clark 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Clare Clark’s sixth work of historical fiction, (is) as compelling as it is expansive" The Guardian The Unwinding of the Miracle Julie Yip-Williams 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "heartbreaking and necessary" The Guardian Fade to Grey John Lincoln 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "This is not to be missed." Daily Mail Most Reviewed Black Leopard, Red Wolf Marlon James 3.79 out of 5 | 18 reviews "with this daring work, James has expanded the scope of the contemporary novel" Literary Review Becoming Michelle Obama 4.31 out of 5 | 17 reviews "Becoming is refined and forthright, gracefully written and at times laugh-out-loud funny" The New York Times Normal People Sally Rooney 4.53 out of 5 | 15 reviews "Rooney’s style is pure poetry, sparse and heartbreaking, and writing this three months after I finished it I find my chest still aches" Evening Standard Late in the Day Tessa Hadley 4.49 out of 5 | 15 reviews "(A) Deft look at the entanglement of four friends" Irish Independent Milkman Anna Burns 4.45 out of 5 | 14 reviews "a high-voltage stream of unhinged, raconteur lyricism" Daily Mail Vietnam An Epic Tragedy Sir Max Hastings 4.41 out of 5 | 14 reviews "monumental... he deserves enormous credit" The New York Times © 2019 Bookseller Media Ltd.

Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review 11th February 2019 Critics click like on Facebook tell-all Good morning  Hopefully Mark Zuckerberg doesn't subscribe to the Books in the Media newsletter—Robert McNamee's Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe (HarperCollins) has been hailed as "a hugely damaging book" for the social media giant. In the Sunday Times, Bryan Appleyard declared, "Apart from Jaron Lanier's work, it is the best anti-Big Tech book I've come across," and Hannah Kuchler in the Financial Times praised it as "an excellent account of the story so far".  Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give (Walker) is one of Books in the Media's best-ever rated titles, and her second book On the Come Up seems to be following in its predecessor's footsteps. In the Guardian, Patrice Lawrence described it as "a celebration of African American cultural achievement in music, TV and film" and "a gift to readers who don't usually see their lives represented in this way". The Times' Alex O'Connell said the title's 448 pages "fly along with the agility of one of Bri's freestyles".  Niklas Natt och Dag's The Wolf and the Watchman (Hodder & Stoughton) clawed into the reviewers' good books, with the Sunday Times' Nick Rennison describing it as "a remakable debut novel" and Declan Burke in the Irish Times praising it as "vividly written" and "a superbly detailed historical mystery".  By Kiera O'Brien, Charts Editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week Zucked Roger McNamee 3.92 out of 5 | 4 reviews "he knows enough about Facebook and its contexts to get to the heart of what its presence in our lives means for the world" The Guardian "a candid and highly entertaining explanation of how and why a man who spent decades picking tech winners and cheering his industry on has been carried to the shore of social activism" The New York Times "very readable and hugely damaging" The Sunday Times "an excellent account of the story so far" Financial Times Read all reviews Latest Reviews The Lost Properties of Love Sophie Ratcliffe 3.44 out of 5 | 5 reviews "I loved the honesty of this book and the way Ratcliffe reminds us that the most intimate details of our lives can all come to light at any time" The Daily Telegraph In Search of Isaiah Berlin Henry Hardy TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "a fascinating example of a small genre" The Spectator Eric Hobsbawn: A Life in History Sir Richard J. Evans 3.49 out of 5 | 9 reviews "An authoritative biography of the great historian focuses on the forces that shaped his worldview" The Guardian Blood Maggie Gee 3.57 out of 5 | 4 reviews "Gee’s macabre comedy-thriller is interwoven with references to a Brexit-broken Britain and laugh-out-loud passages" The Sunday Times Good Reasons for Bad Feelings Randolph M. Nesse 3.17 out of 5 | 3 reviews "a useful contribution" The Sunday Times A Mouthful of Birds Samanta Schweblin 3.60 out of 5 | 3 reviews "intensely imagined uncanny territory in which everyday normality is violently ruptured in ways that infiltrate your subconscious." The Sunday Telegraph The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz Jeremy Dronfield 4.43 out of 5 | 3 reviews "a miraculous story" The Times Optic Nerve Maria Gainza, Thomas Bunstead 4.57 out of 5 | 3 reviews "quietly revelatory" The Sunday Times The Wych Elm Tana French TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "French offers a masterclass in unreliability" The Sunday Times Best Reviewed The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 5.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "This is a shocking and imaginative story of slavery and suffering" Evening Standard Kolymsky Heights Lionel Davidson 5.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Davidson is one of those writers, like Raymond Chandler, who wrote proper literature that just also happened to be genre fiction" The Independent Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist Elizabeth Goldring 4.50 out of 5 | 3 reviews "richly detailed and illuminating" The Sunday Times Black Leopard, Red Wolf Marlon James 4.40 out of 5 | 3 reviews "A trilogy-opener has the difficult job of being a compelling novel in its own right while preparing for what will follow. Black Leopard, Red Wolf clears both bars with ease" A.V. Club Time to Go Guy Kennaway 4.20 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Time to Go fairly pulses with life — and, strangely, disarming humour" The Sunday Times The Wolf and the Watchman 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "remarkable debut novel" The Sunday Times Underground Will Hunt 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Parisian sewers, old gold mines and the Mole Man of Hackney in a thrilling celebration of the subterranean" The Guardian All Among The Barley Melissa Harrison 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "As an evocation of place and a lost way of life, Harrison’s novel is astonishing, as potent and irresistible as a magic spell" The Guardian To the Mountains Abdullah Anas, Tam Hussein 3.67 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Despite his partiality, Abdullah Anas offers some useful insights into al-Qaida’s roots" The Observer Most Reviewed Becoming Michelle Obama 4.31 out of 5 | 17 reviews "Becoming is refined and forthright, gracefully written and at times laugh-out-loud funny" The New York Times Normal People Sally Rooney 4.53 out of 5 | 15 reviews "Rooney’s style is pure poetry, sparse and heartbreaking, and writing this three months after I finished it I find my chest still aches" Evening Standard Milkman Anna Burns 4.45 out of 5 | 14 reviews "a high-voltage stream of unhinged, raconteur lyricism" Daily Mail Killing Commendatore Haruki Murakami 3.22 out of 5 | 14 reviews "The complex landscape that Murakami assembles in Killing Commendatore is a word portrait of the artist’s inner life." The New York Times The Wall John Lanchester 3.75 out of 5 | 13 reviews "beautifully unresolved" The Scotsman Lethal White Robert Galbraith 3.62 out of 5 | 13 reviews "As it turns out, the novel is slightly disappointing" The Daily Telegraph © 2019 Bookseller Media Ltd.

Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review 4th February 2019 Early bird critics flock to praise Hadley's Late in the Day Good morning Karen, Tessa Hadley's Late in the Day (Jonathan Cape) has attracted a cascade of glowing reviews, with Hadley's attention to detail particularly praised. Claire Harman in the Evening Standard wrote, "With a single flourish, she can make us interested in even the most peripheral characters, and their lives beyond the book." Rebecca Makkai of the New York Times agreed, stating that Hadley's "unflinching dissection of moments and states of consciousness" make comparisons to Virginia Woolf "irresistible", and Claire Lowdon of the Sunday Times was especially impressed by the "quietly bravura" opening section. Clare Hunter's Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle (Sceptre) had critical acclaim sewn up. The Bookseller's Caroline Sanderson was "enchanted" by this "powerful account of how marginalised peoples have used sewing to tell their neglected stories", and Christina Patterson in the Sunday Times described Hunter's "highly impressive" debut as "richly textured and moving". Former executive editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson, unsurprisingly receives five stars from the publication for Merchants of Truth (The Bodley Head), her account of the news revolution sweeping the world—but other newspapers agreed, with Heidi N Moore at the Guardian describing Abramson as "a woman with balls like iron cantaloupes" for daring to take on the powerful media companies, and the Financial Times' John Lloyd praised Abramson's "lucid" reporting and "insightful" commentary. By Kiera O'Brien, Charts Editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week Late in the Day Tessa Hadley 4.44 out of 5 | 4 reviews "Hadley is a cerebral and consciously artful writer" Evening Standard "Hadley manages to be old-fashioned and modernist and brilliantly postmodern all at once" The New York Times "The lives of four friends unravel after a tragic event in this drama of sober richness" Financial Times "A fine-grained novel of friendship from a quiet writer lauded by fellow authors" The Sunday Times Read all reviews Latest Reviews Eric Hobsbawn: A Life in History Sir Richard J. Evans 3.00 out of 5 | 5 reviews "One longs to learn from this biography why Hobsbawm is viewed as so influential; one waits in vain" The Daily Telegraph When All is Said Anne Griffin 3.56 out of 5 | 5 reviews "this could be one of the big book hits of 2019" Red How to Lose a Country Ece Temelkuran TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "A journalist in exile offers a bleak warning" The Times The Border Diarmaid Ferriter 4.29 out of 5 | 3 reviews "The border between North and South has plagued Britain and Ireland from 1921 to today" The Sunday Times Engines of Privilege David Kynaston, Francis Green 2.67 out of 5 | 6 reviews "A passionate attack on private schools has plans to make society more equal" The Sunday Times The Familiars Stacey Halls TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "strong throughout" Irish Times Dramatic Exchanges Daniel Rosenthal 4.75 out of 5 | 5 reviews "the best book on the performing arts to have been published in years" Daily Mail You Know You Want This Kristen Roupenian 3.08 out of 5 | 9 reviews "an enjoyable set of stories, often executed with flair" The Observer Where Reasons End Yiyun Li TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "a heart-rending farewell to a child" The Sunday Times Best Reviewed Katalin Street Magda Szabo, Len Rix 5.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Katalin Street’s effect on me was so extraordinary that at first I couldn’t decide what was most extraordinary about it" The Daily Telegraph Golden Child Claire Adam 4.50 out of 5 | 6 reviews "Intelligently and subtly written, Adams’s novel tackles themes which will have global appeal, breaking the hearts of parents the world over." The Scotsman Late in the Day Tessa Hadley 4.44 out of 5 | 4 reviews "A fine-grained novel of friendship from a quiet writer lauded by fellow authors" The Sunday Times Border Districts Gerald Murnane 4.43 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Murnane’s books are expeditions that encompass a territory unlike any other" New Statesman Merchants of Truth Jill Abramson 4.30 out of 5 | 4 reviews "A study of the disruption of journalism reveals how traditional lines are being crossed" Financial Times Little Bird Flies Karen McCombie 4.25 out of 5 | 3 reviews "a supremely digestible writer" The Daily Telegraph For the Good Times David Keenan 4.06 out of 5 | 8 reviews "a powerful novel" The Guardian Another Planet Tracey Thorn 4.00 out of 5 | 7 reviews "careful self-questioning and pervasive likability" The Guardian Around the World in 80 Trains Monisha Rajesh 4.00 out of 5 | 4 reviews "a triumphant ode to long distance train travel" The Daily Telegraph Genre Spotlight: Science & Technology The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff 3.82 out of 5 | 4 reviews "may prove to be the first definitive account of the economic – and thus social and political – condition of our age" The Guardian The Goodness Paradox Richard Wrangham 3.17 out of 5 | 3 reviews "offers some useful, science-based reminders about the human animal" The Sunday Times The Globotics Upheaval Richard Baldwin 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "an engaging and informative book" The Times The Royal Society Adrian Tinniswood TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "it is hard not to take pride, by the end, in the eccentric and inspiring story of a great British institution" The Daily Telegraph Brief Answers to the Big Questions Stephen Hawking 3.95 out of 5 | 6 reviews "Hawking's colleagues, friends and family, labouring out of deep respect for him, have produced a splendid book." Irish Independent Future Politics Jamie Susskind (Barrister, Littleton Chambers) 4.00 out of 5 | 5 reviews "The tone of this book is as refreshing as the originality of insight." Irish Times © 2019 Bookseller Media Ltd.

Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review 31 January 2019 Around the World in 80 Trains is on the right track Good afternoon Karen, The reviewers have tunnel vision when it comes to Monisha Rajesh's Around the World in 80 Trains (Bloomsbury). The travel memoir, which takes Rajesh from London Paddington to Russia, North Korea, Canada and beyond, was said to be "delightful" by Christian Wolmer in the Spectator, who added, "Rajesh [...] is not only blessed with an elegant style, but is witty and ever ready with a bit of self-deprecation," and Michael Binyon in the Times agreed, stating, "What makes the book is her wit, astute observations and willingness to try everything." Leila Slimani's Adèle (Faber & Faber) also attracted plaudits, with Louisa McGillicuddy of the Sunday Times comparing it favourably with the author's previously-released title, Lullaby. "It may not have the same shock factor," she wrote, "but this quieter novel looks at loneliness, shame and the search for independence in a way that is just as thrilling." Molly Young in the New York Times describes the eponymous Adèle as "an everyday iconoclast," with Boyd Tonkin of the Financial Times praising Slimani's "unsparingly lucid prose". Kristen Roupenian's short story Cat Person famously went viral in late 2017, dividing social media in its portrayal of modern relationships, and her first collection You Know You Want This seems to have achieved the same effect. Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman wrote that the author "bites unsparingly into the dark chambers of the human heart," and Lauren Holmes in the New York Times declared her "out-of-this-world brilliant"; yet the Times' Johanna Thomas-Corr felt the stories were "all spice and no flavour" while Peter Kemp in the Sunday Times declared the collection "gruesomely macabre". By Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller The Costa Book of the Year 2018 The Cut Out Girl Bart van Es 4.67 out of 5 | 5 reviews "a moving account of wartime survival" The Guardian "This is a necessary book — painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting" The Times "Alongside its disquieting inquiry into the pathways to moral bankruptcy" Financial Times "Van Es has created a masterpiece of history and memoir" Evening Standard Read all reviews Latest Reviews Eric Hobsbawn: A Life in History Sir Richard J. Evans 3.33 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Evans is powerfully convincing and invincibly fair in all that he writes" The Spectator Around the World in 80 Trains Monisha Rajesh 4.00 out of 5 | 4 reviews "a triumphant ode to long distance train travel" The Daily Telegraph Merchants of Truth Jill Abramson 4.38 out of 5 | 3 reviews "she is someone who knows where most of the bodies are buried and is prepared to draw the reader a detailed map" The Guardian Adele Leila Slimani 3.73 out of 5 | 4 reviews "Adèle is a tough read, but a bracing one; little concerned with reader-pleasing narrative treats, but provocatively enigmatic" The Guardian Salt On Your Tongue: Women and the Sea Charlotte Runcie 4.00 out of 5 | 5 reviews "a seductive, estuarine merging of personal memoir and scholarly reportage" The Daily Telegraph The Existential Englishman Michael Peppiatt 3.30 out of 5 | 6 reviews "to judge by the swirl of parties, interviews, and chance encounters that fill this memoir, he is a gifted and indefatigable conversationalist." The Sunday Telegraph The Great Wide Open Douglas Kennedy 3.60 out of 5 | 3 reviews "a page-turner, with a relentless pace" The Times Once Upon a River Diane Setterfield 3.61 out of 5 | 6 reviews "Once Upon a River is a hearty paean to the Thames and the people who live on or near it" The Guardian Anti-Semitism: Here and Now Deborah E. Lipstadt TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "Lipstadt’s clearly crafted answers all make complete sense" The Sunday Times Best Reviewed The Library Book Susan Orlean 4.86 out of 5 | 3 reviews "It is an account that every bibliophile will need to read with a handkerchief." The Scotsman Golden Child Claire Adam 4.50 out of 5 | 6 reviews "Intelligently and subtly written, Adams’s novel tackles themes which will have global appeal, breaking the hearts of parents the world over." The Scotsman Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens 4.29 out of 5 | 3 reviews "compelling character, plotting and landscape description" The Guardian For the Good Times David Keenan 4.21 out of 5 | 7 reviews "...less a sobering reminder of Irish history than a queasily enjoyable coming-of-age yarn" Esquire Out of the Woods Luke Turner 4.00 out of 5 | 5 reviews "engaging" The Observer Duped Abby Ellin 3.89 out of 5 | 3 reviews "sparkling, hilarious, ruthlessly honest East-Coast-American prose" Daily Mail Godsend John Wray 3.89 out of 5 | 4 reviews "(a) fascinating and frustrating novel" The Guardian Mr Five Per Cent Jonathan Conlin 3.79 out of 5 | 7 reviews "You could hardly come up with a more promising prospect for a biography, nor a more suitable subject for Jonathan Conlin. " The Daily Telegraph The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff 3.75 out of 5 | 3 reviews "the most thorough take down of Big Tech I have read" The Sunday Times Featured Genre: Crime & Mystery Fiction The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Stuart Turton 4.33 out of 5 | 6 reviews "an exuberant mash-up of an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery and time-travelling, body-swap science fiction" The Sunday Times Once Upon a River Diane Setterfield 3.61 out of 5 | 6 reviews "Once Upon a River is a hearty paean to the Thames and the people who live on or near it" The Guardian My Sister, the Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite 3.38 out of 5 | 8 reviews "superb wit and assurance" The Times Freefall Jessica Barry 0.00 out of 5 | 2 reviews "A scintillating thriller that breathes life into every word" The Independent A Treachery of Spies Manda Scott 4.71 out of 5 | 3 reviews "engrossing and ingenious" The Times This Is How It Ends Eva Dolan 4.13 out of 5 | 3 reviews "Green campaigners and undercover cops face off in this tense, topical novel" The Sunday Times T © 2019 Bookseller Media Ltd.

Home | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Children's | Genres | Publications | Prizes The Week in Review 28th January 2019 Around the World in 80 Trains is on the right track Good morning Karen, The reviewers have tunnel vision when it comes to Monisha Rajesh's Around the World in 80 Trains (Bloomsbury). The travel memoir, which takes Rajesh from London Paddington to Russia, North Korea, Canada and beyond, was said to be "delightful" by Christian Wolmer in the Spectator, who added, "Rajesh [...] is not only blessed with an elegant style, but is witty and ever ready with a bit of self-deprecation," and Michael Binyon in the Times agreed, stating, "What makes the book is her wit, astute observations and willingness to try everything." Leila Slimani's Adèle (Faber & Faber) also attracted plaudits, with Louisa McGillicuddy of the Sunday Times comparing it favourably with the author's previously-released title, Lullaby. "It may not have the same shock factor," she wrote, "but this quieter novel looks at loneliness, shame and the search for independence in a way that is just as thrilling." Molly Young in the New York Times describes the eponymous Adèle as "an everyday iconoclast," with Boyd Tonkin of the Financial Times praising Slimani's "unsparingly lucid prose". Kristen Roupenian's short story Cat Person famously went viral in late 2017, dividing social media in its portrayal of modern relationships, and her first collection You Know You Want This (Jonathan Cape) seems to have achieved the same effect. Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman wrote that the author "bites unsparingly into the dark chambers of the human heart," and Lauren Holmes in the New York Times declared her "out-of-this-world brilliant"; yet the Times' Johanna Thomas-Corr felt the stories were "all spice and no flavour" while Peter Kemp in the Sunday Times declared the collection "gruesomely macabre". By Kiera O'Brien, charts editor, The Bookseller Book of the Week Around the World in 80 Trains Monisha Rajesh 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "a rollicking tale of encounters from Canada to Kazakhstan" The Times "Brief encounters, Orwellian nightmares and a swirl of cultures on a seven‑month, 45,000‑mile adventure" The Guardian "delightful" The Spectator Read all reviews Latest Reviews The Goodness Paradox Richard Wrangham 3.17 out of 5 | 3 reviews "offers some useful, science-based reminders about the human animal" The Sunday Times The Man Who Wasn't There: A Life of Ernest Hemingway Richard Bradford TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "[Bradford] shows this amazing ability to infer someone’s inner thoughts from their actions" The Spectator Eric Hobsbawn: A Life in History Sir Richard J. Evans TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "splendidly drawn" The Sunday Times The Existential Englishman Michael Peppiatt 3.30 out of 5 | 6 reviews "to judge by the swirl of parties, interviews, and chance encounters that fill this memoir, he is a gifted and indefatigable conversationalist." The Sunday Telegraph The Globotics Upheaval Richard Baldwin 4.00 out of 5 | 3 reviews "an engaging and informative book" The Times The Great Wide Open Douglas Kennedy 3.60 out of 5 | 3 reviews "a page-turner, with a relentless pace" The Times Once Upon a River Diane Setterfield 3.61 out of 5 | 6 reviews "Once Upon a River is a hearty paean to the Thames and the people who live on or near it" The Guardian Anti-Semitism: Here and Now Deborah E. Lipstadt TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "Lipstadt’s clearly crafted answers all make complete sense" The Sunday Times Lark Anthony McGowan TBC out of 5 | 2 reviews "heartwarming and heartbreaking" The Sunday Times Best Reviewed The Library Book Susan Orlean 4.86 out of 5 | 3 reviews "It is an account that every bibliophile will need to read with a handkerchief." The Scotsman Golden Child Claire Adam 4.50 out of 5 | 6 reviews "Intelligently and subtly written, Adams’s novel tackles themes which will have global appeal, breaking the hearts of parents the world over." The Scotsman Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens 4.29 out of 5 | 3 reviews "compelling character, plotting and landscape description" The Guardian For the Good Times David Keenan 4.21 out of 5 | 7 reviews "...less a sobering reminder of Irish history than a queasily enjoyable coming-of-age yarn" Esquire Out of the Woods Luke Turner 4.00 out of 5 | 5 reviews "engaging" The Observer Duped Abby Ellin 3.89 out of 5 | 3 reviews "sparkling, hilarious, ruthlessly honest East-Coast-American prose" Daily Mail Godsend John Wray 3.89 out of 5 | 4 reviews "(a) fascinating and frustrating novel" The Guardian Mr Five Per Cent Jonathan Conlin 3.79 out of 5 | 7 reviews "You could hardly come up with a more promising prospect for a biography, nor a more suitable subject for Jonathan Conlin. " The Daily Telegraph The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff 3.75 out of 5 | 3 reviews "the most thorough take down of Big Tech I have read" The Sunday Times Featured Genre: History The Cut Out Girl Bart van Es 4.58 out of 5 | 5 reviews "Deeply moving, this is a remarkable memoir." The Sunday Times Last Train to Hilversum Charlie Connelly 3.22 out of 5 | 4 reviews "you can more or less jump in at any point and find yourself in the middle of a memorable vignette" The Times The White Darkness David Grann 4.40 out of 5 | 3 reviews "...a gripping new book" Daily Mail Last Days in Old Europe Richard Bassett 3.20 out of 5 | 3 reviews "A former foreign correspondent enjoys the pleasures of a bygone age" The Times A German Officer in Occupied Paris Ernst Junger (Klett-Cotta), Elliot Neaman 3.40 out of 5 | 3 reviews "His ability to sum up war’s jarring juxtapositions remains chillingly precise" The Spectator Lords of the Desert James Barr 4.25 out of 5 | 6 reviews "This is a splendid book" Daily Mail © 2018 Bookseller Media Ltd.