Tahir's 'Empire' Asks Who Pays the Price When a Child Dies
Sabaa Tahir's 'Empire' resumes the 'Ember in Ashes' story directly after 'Heir', with S'rsha bound to the monster she meant to destroy, and asks who pays when a child dies.
Topic: Book Review
Emily St John Mandel's Exit Party Imagines a Fractured America
Mandel's seventh novel opens in 2031, with Ari Waker freed after 18 years as a second civil war has dissolved the United States. A question of stability versus freedom drives the…
Malcolm Gladwell's Gun Culture Book Called "Wide of the Mark"
The Guardian calls Malcolm Gladwell's The American Way of Killing "highly readable" but "wide of the mark," saying the US gun culture investigation fails to engage the bigger ques…
Charles Spencer's Swan Song: A Memoir of Grievances
Charles Spencer's Swan Song, a 400-page memoir of his sister Diana, draws Guardian criticism for score-settling, including a claim King Charles insulted Diana after her death.
James Marriott's The New Dark Ages: A Grandiose Defence of Reading
Times columnist James Marriott argues smartphones have killed reading and warn of a 'mystical, tribal and autocratic' future. The Guardian finds his polemic lofty but hollow.
AK Blakemore's Doom Painting Reimagines the 1381 Peasants' Revolt
AK Blakemore's third novel tracks 16 days of the Peasants' Revolt through viewpoints from Richard II to a porpoise, in prose the Guardian calls dazzlingly rich.
Karan Mahajan's The Complex: A Superb Family Saga Set in Delhi
Karan Mahajan's third novel opens with a murdered patriarch and a disgraced Punjabi family, unfolding into a sweeping saga of corruption and betrayal with Delhi at its heart.
Mahmoud Khalil's No Land to Stand On: A Memoir of Detention
Mahmoud Khalil spent 104 days in US immigration detention without criminal charges. His memoir, No Land to Stand On, recounts the ordeal with what reviewers call quiet fury.
Derek Owusu's The Recovery House: An Honest Meditation on Mental Health
Derek Owusu's third novel sends readers to the Cranberries before page one, then follows a young novelist piecing together his own breakdown.
