The former diplomat and Harvard professor Rory Stewart spent ten years as a Tory MP, and briefly served in Theresa May's cabinet. But he came to despair of British politics, finding his fellow MPs shallow and narrow-minded, and the system they operated in "dysfunctional". In his memoir of his time in Westminster, Stewart is blunt about his own failings, and equally withering about his former colleagues: Boris Johnson is an "egotistical chancer"; George Osborne displays "breathtaking cynicism". Lauded for its honesty and humour, the book was widely described as one of the best-written memoirs ever produced by a British politician.
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"Full of sharp observations and often funny. But the wider picture is depressing: a portrait of a country where power is wielded by empty careerists, working in a broken system." (Gideon Rachman, FT)
"If you want to better understand the catastrophe that has been our Government since 2010... read this book." (Alan Johnson, The New Statesman)
"Candid, beautifully observed, written by someone with a questioning intelligence." (Chris Mullin, The Spectator)
Rose Tremain's 17th novel is a coming-of-age story set in the 1950s and 1960s – the era in which Tremain herself grew up. Marianne Clifford, a girl from the Home Counties, falls passionately in love at the age of 15 with a slightly older boy named Simon – a relationship that soon ends when he moves to Paris, but which nevertheless echoes through the rest of her life. The novel was widely praised for its emotional subtlety, its elegant prose, and for its precise evocation of the atmosphere of mid-20th century England.
Praise
"This is a slender book; some will think it slight. But each page breathes a kind of magic, a sigh of enchantment." (Rachel Cooke, The Observer)
"Not the kind of book you would expect from an 80-year-old dame, but Rose Tremain has always surprised and delighted her readers." (Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Sunday Times)
"This is a book about the comic, painful life-long search for human understanding. Not a word is wasted, not a phrase trite. It is mesmerising, masterly and profoundly moving." (Sue Gaisford, FT)
In 1982, Malcolm Macarthur, a dissolute Irish aristocrat, killed two people. Having frittered away his inheritance, Macarthur planned to rob a bank, but needed a car and gun to do so – and committed his murders while acquiring them. "A Thread of Violence" revisits this notorious double murder: Mark O'Connell, a Dublin-based journalist, gained Macarthur's trust during the pandemic, and over the course of several interviews tried to make sense of his crimes – although he concludes it was probably a doomed enterprise. Critics described it as a crime story in the vein of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood", and admired its cool handling of a disturbing subject.
Praise
"That we are all unknowable to each other, and often to ourselves, is the lesson of this fascinating and troubling book." (Melissa Harrison, The New Statesman)
"Fascinating, thoughtful... O'Connell explains how he got to know (the not particularly repentant) Macarthur, piecing together his past in search of clues that would explain his brutal outburst." (Robbie Millen, The Times)
"Brilliant and rigorously honest." (Christopher Benfey, The New York Times)
Daniel Finkelstein's mother was a German Jew who was sent to a Nazi concentration camp in 1940. His father was a Polish Jew who spent part of his childhood in the Soviet Gulag. Miraculously, both survived and moved to England after the War, where they fell in love. In this wide-ranging family memoir, Finkelstein, a journalist and Tory peer, tells the stories of his parents in tandem, and by doing so illustrates the horrors wrought by the 20th century's two most reviled dictators. Reviewers found the book enormously moving, and Finkelstein was praised both for his lucid writing and meticulous research.
Praise
"Moving and gripping... a tale of inhumanity (timely, given the rise of antisemitism) but also one of hope and endurance." (David Gauke, The New Statesman)
"A remarkable memoir...deals a vital blow to those still-surviving apologists for Soviet communism who fail to recognise it was every bit as evil as fascism." (Robert Shrimsley, FT)
"A beautiful book about a horrific time." (Gerard DeGroot, The Times)
This sprawling novel by the Irish author Paul Murray is focused on a single family – the Barneses – in the wake of the 2008 financial crash. Dickie, a once-successful car dealer whose business is going under, has taken to hiding out in a shelter in the woods while his wife, Imelda, sells the family's possessions on eBay. Their teenage daughter Cassie is binge-drinking her way through school, and 12-year-old P.J. is planning to run away from home. Critics praised the novel's intricate construction, and Murray's deft shifts of perspective. Many felt that it was more deserving of the Booker Prize than the novel which actually won – Paul Lynch's "Prophet Song".
Praise
"Murray's writing is a pure joy – propulsive, insightful and seeded with hilarious observations." (Jen Doll, The New York Times)
"You won't read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year." (Justine Jordan, The Guardian)
"One of the finest – and funniest – novels of 2023, this tale of a troubled Irish family takes their financial, sexual and existential struggles and turns them into riotous comedy." (Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Sunday Times)
This book, a blend of biography, fiction and polemic, argues that George Orwell had one significant blind spot when it came to equality: he didn't notice the oppression of women, even in his own life. Anna Funder focuses on Orwell's first wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy, who was married to Orwell between 1936 and her death in 1945. Although she was formidably intelligent, and played an important role in his writing, Funder claims that Orwell treated her as a drudge, and never acknowledged the help she gave him. While many reviewers admired the book's spirited revisionism, others said Funder had twisted certain facts to bolster her argument.
Praise
"A nuanced portrait of a charismatic, pragmatic woman who, for better or worse, sacrificed her talent for the man she loved." (Fiona Sturges, The Guardian)
"A genre-melding hybrid that allows Eileen's likeness to be recovered through her own words and the testimonies of those who remembered her, as well as reimagined in fictional passages." (Stephanie Merritt, The Observer)
"A delirious stylistic mosaic." (Kathryn Hughes, The Sunday Times)
"The Earth Transformed" is an epic history of the environment, and its influence on the rise and fall of civilisations. Peter Frankopan shows, time and again, that major historical events have been prompted by climatic events: the turmoil that led to the end of the Roman empire owed much to a huge volcanic eruption in Alaska in 43BC; wet weather smoothed Genghis Khan's path to power; central Asian droughts helped spread the Black Death across the world. Critics praised the book for its magisterial sweep, and particularly admired the sections on the past 200 years – during which humanity went from victim of the climate to its chief ravager.
Praise
"Frankopan has brought together an immense body of research into a... well-informed and fascinating book that carries the intellectual weight and dramatic force of a tsunami." (Gerard DeGroot, The Times)
"A testament to the awesome value of in-depth research." (Alexander Larman, The Daily Telegraph)
"Masterly... packed with riveting examples of how history has been affected by our environment." (Rohan Silva, The Observer)
A frantic, furious but often funny novel about early motherhood, "Soldier Sailor" is a tale of teething, wet wipes and collapsing buggies. The Irish writer Claire Kilroy's first book in a decade centres on a mother who spends her days at home, caring for her baby son, while receiving little help from her self-absorbed husband. Kilroy conjures her feelings of isolation, and her sense of being displaced from her former life. At the same time, the book is mordantly amusing – as it describes, say, the dynamics of a mother-baby group. Critics agreed that Kilroy had tackled her subject in an original way, and had made out of it a surprisingly gripping story.
Praise
"A searing account of the everyday and epic challenges of new motherhood, which toys with a variety of genres to dazzling effect." (Laura Battle, FT)
"Exceptionally good... it burns with fury at everything mothers in particular have to do." (John Self, The Times)
"Be warned: you're looking at a book-length panic attack. The novel is brief but utterly remorseless – it comes at you full-throttle, as if delivered on a single breath." (Sarah Crown, The Guardian)
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