A new novel about the congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of 1907? Starring Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Rosa Luxemburg? What’s not to like? And the book’s premise — that Stalin was a…

I’ve been reading a lot of books by Blake Crouch, some I liked more than others. Pines is the first of the “Wayward Pines” trilogy, a series of books inspired by the television series “Twin…

In 1927 Sigmund Freud was 71 years old and in failing health when he wrote this short book about religion. The title is a misnomer — there is hardly anything about the future here at…

As I sometimes do, I saw this play recently and decided to read the text later. It was a very good play — and it is a superb text. This is the story of Russian…

I loved Dark Matter, I liked Recursion, and I had high hopes for this book too. But I was disappointed. While the other books by Blake Crouch were about theoretical physics (in a sense), with…

Blake Crouch seems to make a habit of taking great ideas for science fiction novels, going as far as he can with the idea — and then going further. Much further. So this book, which…

I could be nasty and summarise this book in one sentence: fast for 16 hours a day and make sure to drink Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof Coffee. Because it gets a little bit annoying (more than…

“False Memory Syndrome” sounds like a real thing, and it is. It is also the starting point for this outstanding thriller which is part time travel, part love story. It is a book, above all,…

Paul Kellogg and Mariya Melentyeva have performed an important service by bringing this long-forgotten work by the most famous of the Mensheviks back into print. Their new translation and Kellogg’s introduction are excellent; the book…

The third (and final, for now) book in the new British crime series featuring Camden mortuary worker Cassie Raven is keeping up the high standard set by the previous two stories. The fact that I…