Reviews

What the critics are reading, and what they made of it.

Book of the Day

The Guide

R.K. Narayan · 1958

His first novel was going nowhere in London until a friend at Oxford put it in front of Graham Greene — who found him a publisher and told him to shorten his name.

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ReviewNon-fiction

Hawking by Graham Farmelo review – the dark side of genius

A biography of the physicist recognises his achievements, but also reveals the selfish narcissist underneath When I wrote an unadoring review of Stephen Hawking’s final book, a collection of essays published posthumously in 2018, New Scientist suppressed some of my criticisms on the grounds that it was “too early” to voice anything other than praise for the physicist who died, aged 76, that March.…

The Guardian · 9 days ago

ReviewNon-fiction

August’s Best Reviewed Nonfiction

Claire Stapleton’s Don’t Be Evil, Kimon de Greef’s The Ego Trip, and Dave Ziren’s The People’s Historian all feature among the best reviewed nonfiction titles of the month. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews. *

Literary Hub · 19 days ago

ReviewNon-fiction

John Berger: From Life by Tom Overton review – a vibrant biography of the pioneering critic

This multi-layered portrait is a fitting tribute to the man behind Ways of Seeing The cultural critic John Berger was still alive and kicking when he donated his literary archive – heaped boxes of letters and notepads, sketches and scripts – to the British Library in 2009. From his home in the Alps, he proceeded to liaise with the collection’s curator, Tom Overton, sorting each item and recounting…

The Guardian · 37 days ago