Looking for your next page-turner? Here’s our guide to the best books to read.
Karla’s Choice - Nick Harkaway
The cover tells us that this is “A Novel of John le Carré’s Circus” but it’s not one of the usual tribe of literary bodysnatchers — the sequels or prequels that piggyback on famous books and are never remotely as good. This is another story … by Le Carré’s son, about George Smiley, which fits into the gap between The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It’s had rave reviews. More, please!
The Siege - Ben Macintyre
An account of the astonishing events in 1980 when armed men took over the Iranian embassy in Kensington in a siege which lasted six days. This is a brilliant evocation of the event. One of the six, Towfiq, died from 15 parabellum bullets fired from three feet away. “There was no blood … just holes.”
Question 7 - Richard Flanagan
This exploration of one of Chekhov’s Questions Posed by a Mad Mathematician, viz, “Who loves longer, a man or a woman?”, is almost impossible to sum up, being an exploration of love, loss and memory, an account of the wartime captivity of Flanagan’s father, the making of the atom bomb, HG Wells kissing Rebecca West and the death of the last Tasmanian tiger. Moving and intriguing.
The Knife - Salman Rushdie
The book that its author never wanted to write. Obviously. It’s an account of the attempt by an Islamist attacker finally to silence him on 12 August, 2022 at a festival celebrating … free speech. It’s written with “one eye and one and a half hands”. This is Rushdie’s victory over his would-be murderer.
On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century - Tony Blair
The manual on leadership that Tony Blair wishes that he had been able to read when he became prime minister. Sir Keir Starmer could do worse than make it his bedtime reading.
