Reviews
The last king of Scotland.
A biographer awestruck by his subject.
Though tortured by isolation and his fastidious intellect, David Foster Wallace produced work that will endure.
How football, the working man’s passion, united a father and son.
The intrigue of Canada, this novel of crime and punishment, is not what happens and when but how and why.
When Hank Haney declares that Tiger Woods is the “human being who’s fallen faster than anyone else in history”, you forgive the hyperbole because he speaks as a sportsman.
In his meditation on Graham Greene, the author reflects on his own journey.
Christopher Hitchens’ fierce certainties make for fine polemic but they have often obscured reality.
Matthew Hollis pays tribute to Edward Thomas, the first world war poet who immortalised the beauty of England.
The setting of The Stranger’s Child feels immediately familiar, as do the ironies – elegant people partying on the edge of the abyss.
At its best, V S Naipaul’s Masque of Africa is marked by moments of startling clarity and insight.
Sex, death, loneliness, old age: yes, it’s another Roth novel. But this time, is the great American.
Jay McInerney’s bright lights may have been dimmed but sex in the city remains a constant source of satire, writes Jason Cowley.
In investigating what sets geniuses apart, is Malcolm Gladwell also asking what makes him so special, wonders Jason Cowley.
Sex and death are once again the central preoccupations of Philip Roth’s latest novel, a poignant addition to his rich late period.
Haruki Murakami runs miles every day to keep fit for writing. Here he combines his two loves.
Lahiri is presently probably the most influential writer of fiction in America.
For writers of colonial fiction, Africa held a dark erotic attraction, even if the message underlying their work was that Europeans have no place there.
No matter which name Philip Roth chooses for his narrators or fictional alter egos, whether it is Nathan Zuckerman, David Kepesh or indeed even, slyly, Philip Roth, they invariably share many of the same urgent preoccupations.