Tibor Fischer
Powerful stuff: I can’t wait for the sequel
The novel in verse is nothing new, but Homer’s Iliad is fast-paced and full of surprises
Novel approach
The five Ancient Greek romances that have made it down to us in their entirety are an enigma
A currency to make bankers cry
Bitcoin is a fascinating hybrid: part cult, part asset, part business enterprise, part currency, part fad—and it appeals to the best and worst of human nature
How the truth can set you free
Jordan Peterson is erudite and well read but 12 Rules for Life has much of the tenor of a typical self-help book
Hopes and fears of all the years
The little town of Bethlehem has been irrevocably linked with Western visions of the Holy Land, but Nicholas Blincoe shows there is much more to its history
Dead horse, the flogging of
A collection of Martin Amis’s essays caresses the bottom of the barrel
America’s First Lady Of Letters
Gertrude Himmelfarb’s essays are impressively erudite and wide-ranging
A Sponger’s Ticket To The Finland Station
The irony of Lenin, Victor Sebestyan’s biography reveals, is that he was profoundly bourgeois
Sound, Fury and Not Much Else
Slovenia’s second most famous export, Slavoj Žižek, gets full marks for effort, but his 1970s dialectic seems a bit retro
American Nightmare
Lionel Shriver’s latest novel is a a speculative spin on the disintegration of the United States
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal