Books
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Final Verdict by Tobias Buck review – the weight of collective guilt
Reporting on the trial of a former SS camp guard, the author learns that his own grandfather was an early…
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How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn review – rethinking ‘civilisation’
Like the railway and the telegraph, western civilisation was invented in the 19th century. Steven Poole The Guardian It had…
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Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni review – hell on earth in poised prose
In King Lear, confronted with the figure of his cruelly blinded father, Edgar wonders whether matters are as bad as they imaginably…
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The Truce review: deep dive on Democrats’ dynamics and divisions
Joe Biden is more unpopular than Donald Trump. Lloyd Green The Guardian The Democrats’ upstairs-downstairs coalition frays, riven by the Israel-Gaza war,…
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Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie review – an optimist’s guide to the climate crisis
But is there something missing? Bibi van der Zee The Guardian Data scientist Hannah Ritchie has written a good-hearted, generous book that…
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Blitz Bazawule – the Ghanaian who dazzled Beyoncé takes on The Color Purple
In his 41 years, the Ghanaian has also co-directed a Beyoncé film, published a novel, performed his music across the…
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The End of Enlightenment by Richard Whatmore review – a warning from 18th-century Britain
Britain, thought Thomas Paine, needed to be destroyed. Its monarchy must be toppled, its empire broken up and the mercantile…
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Beyond the fog of war: books to help us understand the invasion of Ukraine
With Russian forces pushing deep into Ukraine, bombarding Kharkiv, Kyiv and other cities, and an unprecedented wave of western sanctions pushing…
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Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga review – crisis in colonial Rwanda
“Kamanzi, our sub-chief, came to take away our children.” Aminatta Forna The Guardian So begins a trail of misfortune that…
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Is Tourism Destroying the World?
Though it’s an uncomfortable reality (who doesn’t like to travel?), it’s something award-winning journalist Elizabeth Becker devoted five years of her life…
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A cosmic ocean of shame: Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend confronts a history beyond the ken of storytelling
Are there subjects so immense in historical scope and in depths of human suffering that a form engineered to tackle…
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A Death in Malta by Paul Caruana Galizia review – courage under fire
Journalism. John Simpson The Guardian So is outing hapless celebrities over their sex lives, or researching long-form pieces about the…
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Melbourne presentation of book on woman-symbol of the anti-occupation struggle in Cyprus
She saw her husband, her father and other close relatives killed in front of her. She saw Turkish soldiers raping…
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Roxane Gay: ‘I’m trying to move further left because that’s the only way that we’re gonna achieve change’
Before the pandemic, Roxane Gay was constantly on the road. Bim Adewunmi The Guardian When the lockdowns of early 2020 came into…
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Orwellian nightmares: What I learned about today’s rage culture from rewriting 1984
A few years ago, I got what, for a writer of political fiction, is a dream job. Sandra Newman The…
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Fascism in America: a long history that predates Trump
Pro-Nazi propaganda, courtesy of the US post office? Rich Tenorio The Guardian This unlikely scheme was hatched by George Sylvester…
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