Book review
A rich new history of Ravenna
Long overshadowed by Venice, Ravenna was the meeting point of Byzantium and the west
The Secret Barrister exposes how charlatans vandalise the rule of law
"Fake law" offers a powerful corrective to self-serving claims from cynical and incompetent politicians
The unrelenting vision of Lucian Freud
The British artist pushed his life and art to the limit
Getting somewhere: How the Tories leapt ahead of mainstream economists to give towns their due
Political necessity has forced Boris Johnson to notice that towns want to be taken seriously, as distinctive places. It is high time economists caught up
The mystery of Dickens remains unsolved
A bloodless life of the great Victorian writer offers little new
Why the universe still glows from the Big Bang
It's all down to cosmic background radiation
A dazzling and disconcerting tour of our migratory world
From Syrian refugees to migrating seabirds
Shortcuts to stereotypes
A useful account of unconscious bias lacks sustained solutions
Colum McCann sheds imaginative light on a seemingly endless conflict
Israel-Palestine has come to be defined by platitudes. Can fiction succeed where journalism has failed?
The curious religiosity of Martin Hägglund's secularism
Martin Hägglund’s This Life sees the Swedish secular philosopher set up an imitation religion
Ben Lerner's "The Topeka School" sees violence everywhere
The celebrated novelist's latest takes on Trump, Clinton-era complacency, and what it means to be a man
Ann Patchett’s fairy-tale family drama has a darker side
Patchett handles her timeline with dexterity, but tests the reader's patience