Paul Elie
Paul Elie’s first book, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, was a National Book Critics Circle award finalist. It has just been published in paperback.
Giacometti by James Lord (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, $25). Lord, who knew Alberto Giacometti well, seems to have acquired the great sculptor’s sense of the power and mystery of the human figure seen in the round. In Lord’s sentences, which have the grace of Flaubert’s, Giacometti stands before the reader as a physical, indeed a sculptural, presence.
Dr. Johnson and Mr. Savage by Richard Holmes (Vintage, $13). The biographer of Shelley and Coleridge here puts himself forward as the anti-Boswell. Whereas Boswell’s Life of Johnson is the most complete of biographies, this book takes a single early friendship of Johnson’s—with the doomed poet Richard Savage—and through it refracts Johnson’s life story. In so doing, Holmes offers an ars poetica for the art of biography.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Edmund Campion by Evelyn Waugh (out of print). The devotional work as an act of the historical imagination. In this short biography of the martyred recusant English Jesuit, Waugh vividly evokes the Catholic England vanquished by Henry VIII and his successors, and so puts forward his own ideal of the Catholic faith: learned, steadfast, heroic, stylish.
Erasmus by Johan Huizinga (out of print). Though the Dutch historian Huizinga is expert in Erasmus of Rotterdam’s many works, this is not a literary biography or a life of ideas but a work of biographical portraiture—an image of the man as might have been fashioned by a Dutch master.
God: A Biography
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
5 fact-checked cartoons about Meta firing its fact checkers
Cartoons Artists take on playing chicken, information superhighway, and more
By The Week US Published
-
NCHIs: the controversy over non-crime hate incidents
The Explainer Is the policing of non-crime hate incidents an Orwellian outrage or an essential tool of modern law enforcement?
By The Week Staff Published
-
Islamic State: the terror group's second act
Talking Point Isis has carried out almost 700 attacks in Syria over the past year, according to one estimate
By The Week UK Published
-
Alan Cumming's 6 favorite works with resilient characters
Feature The award-winning stage and screen actor recommends works by Douglas Stuart, Alasdair Gray, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Shahnaz Habib's 6 favorite books that explore different cultures
Feature The essayist and translator recommends works by Vivek Shanbhag, Adania Shibli, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Niall Williams' 6 favorite books with rich storytelling
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Charles Dickens, James McBride, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Nigel Hamilton's 6 inspirational books for fellow writers
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by John Banville, Ann Patchett, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Ed Park's 6 favorite works about self reflection and human connection
Feature The Pulitzer Prize finalist recommends works by Jason Rekulak, Gillian Linden, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Kate Summerscale's 6 favorite true crime books about real murder cases
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Helen Garner, Gwen Adshead, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Bonnie Jo Campbell's 6 favorite books about unconventional relationships
Feature The former National Book Award finalist recommends works by Tove Jansson, Virginia Woolf, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Peter Ames Carlin's 6 favorite books on pop culture icons
Feature The author recommends works by James McBride, Jim Bouton, and more
By The Week US Published