politics and news
kleptopia: how dirty money is conquering the world. by tom burgis harpist; 464 pages; $28.99. williamcollins; £20
It is difficult to write about international corruption in an accessible and colorful way, while maintaining an urgent sense of moral condemnation. this book wonderfully captures both the darkness and baseness involved. its final theme, the intersection of politics and personal enrichment, is one of the most important stories of the time.
You are reading: Economist best books 2020
Putin’s people. by catherine belton. farrar, straus and giroux; 640 pages; $35. williamcollins; £25
many books have tried to explain the rise and cruelty of vladimir putin; this is the closest yet to a definitive account. draws on extensive interviews and archival research to tell a vivid story of cynicism and violence. In this view, a massive concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few is used to stifle dissent and project force abroad.
eating the buddha: life or death in a Tibetan village. by barbara demick. random house; 352 pages; $28. great; £18.99
This is the gripping story of Ngaba, a county seat near the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and the sufferings of its people under Chinese Communist Party rule. Exploring an area rarely visited by foreigners, the author paints striking portraits of the people who live there, with a keen eye for detail and a keen understanding of Tibetan history.
irreversible damage. by abigail shrier. editorial regiment; 276 pages; $28.99 and £22
A critical look at the huge increase in recent years in people who identify as trans, especially among girls. covers a budding scandal over the provision of irreversible treatments, whether surgical or pharmaceutical, to teenagers. predictably controversial, but there’s not a shred of animosity in the book.
you should forget about an acquaintance. by john lloyd. government; 224 pages; $25 and £20
A timely and forceful essay on the painful consequences that could follow Scottish independence and the virtues of union with England. The author, a distinguished journalist, argues for further devolution, powerfully enlisting and evoking his own childhood in a Scottish fishing village.
why the germans do it better. by john kampfner. atlantic books; 320 pages; £16.99
This light-hearted but comprehensive anthem argues that Germany’s culture of consensus and stability has generated an unusual resilience among crisis-prone democracies. Despite the derisive title, a swipe at the author’s native Britain, it acknowledges Germany’s problems, from a creaking infrastructure to a sleepy foreign policy.
the twilight of democracy. by anne applebaum. double day; 224 pages; $25 allen drive; £16.99
Mixing personal anecdote and analysis, a well-connected historian of communism recounts the collapse of the international liberal coalition that was forged during the cold war. an insightful view of the rise of authoritarian populism.
biography and memoirs
black spartacus. by sudhir hazareesingh. farrar, straus and giroux; 464 pages; $30 allen drive; £25
the subject of this well-researched book was born a slave and grew up to become the leading figure in the 1791 uprising in modern-day Haiti that reverberated around the world. Fragmentary records have so far meant that Toussaint Louverture was a shadowy historical figure; this reconstruction gives due credit to the political, military and intellectual achievements of him.
a promised land. by barack obama. crown publishing group; 768 pages; $45. viking; £35
There is little reckoning and much introspection in this account of the author’s ascent to and early years in the White House. Thoughtful and reasonable almost to a fault, the book is also a reminder that the 44th president is one of the best writers to ever hold the office.
stranger in the city of the shogun. by amy stanley. notary; 352 pages; $28. chatto & wind; £16.99
Set in the first half of the 19th century, this tale of an obscure woman’s daily struggles in what is now Tokyo is a triumph of scholarship. Using a trove of documents on the subject of her downtrodden from her, the author lifts the veil on a half-remembered world of beauty and cruelty.
glass house. by hadley freeman. Simon & schuster; 352 pages; $26. fourth state; £16.99
living her last years in florida, the author’s grandmother, sala, longed for paris. she was actually born in what is now poland, fleeing pogroms to france. the intricately reconstructed lives of her family are a poignant parable of twentieth-century Jewry. one of her brothers was murdered in auschwitz. another jumped off a train, joined the resistance, then befriended picasso.
give me a goodbye kiss. by Fernando Monte. bloomsbury; 272 pages; $30 and £20
This is the hilarious story of a bizarre, multi-bigamous and pathologically inventive aunt in burlesque upper-class Britain on both sides of World War II. Part detective story, part social story, it moves from the back streets of Sheffield to Claridges.
story
underground asia. by tim harper. harvard university press; 864 pages; $39.95. allen rail; £35
a brilliant study of Asian revolutionary movements in the early decades of the 20th century, showing how a collective consciousness arose in the liminal cracks of empire: in the third-rate class of steamboats, in the two houses of In port cities and in radical circles in London and Paris, Western ideas quickly returned to Asia, undermining colonial rule. The great truth of the revolutionaries, says the author, was that Asia was “at the forefront of the future of humanity.”
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every drop of blood. by edward achorn. Atlantic Monthly Press; 336 pages; $28. black cat; £19.99
abraham lincoln’s second inaugural address, delivered towards the end of the civil war, is engraved on the wall of his memorial in washington. declining to gloat, the soon-to-be-victorious—and assassinated—president instead advocated “malice towards none” and “charity for all.” this book richly evokes the intellectual origins and context of a discourse that remains a model of political magnanimity.
a house in the mountains. by caroline moorehead. harpist; 416 pages; $29.99. chatto & wind; £20
After the country capitulated to the Allies in 1943, around 80,000 partisans in northern Italy died in a fight for freedom against supporters of fascism and their Nazi supporters. Weaving deep research into a compelling narrative, this book tells the story of four women involved in the struggle.
alaric the gothic. by douglas boin. ww norton; 272 pages; $26.95 and £19.99
Most of history can be written by the victors, but the destruction of Rome by the much less literate Goths in AD 410 is an exception. This colorful portrait of the city and empire in the 5th century tells his side of the story. the wealthy Romans lived in splendor while the Goths endured slavery. Alaric, their leader, served in the Roman army before turning against his oppressors.
fiction
the butcher’s daughter. by yaniv iczkovits. translated by orr scharf. maclehose press; 528 pages; £18.99. to be published in america by shocken in february; $28.95
Echoes of Russian and Yiddish literature resonate in this delicious picaresque, but you don’t need to listen to them to enjoy it. We are in the late 19th century, and a Jewish mother on the edge of a settlement sets out to retrieve her wayward brother-in-law from Minsk. the technicolor characters, pathos and humor are beautifully captured in a snappy translation from the Hebrew.
shuggie bath. by douglas stuart. grove press; 448 pages; $17. picador; £14.99
this richly told coming of age story, set in deprived 1980s glasgow, won this year’s booker award. Though the title character captivates with her humorous sideways glance at the world, the emotional center of the book is her “disintegrating mother,” Agnes, whose high hopes are tragically derailed by alcoholism.
my dark vanessa. by kate elizabeth russell. william morning; 384 pages; $27.99. fourth state; £12.99
The title comes from a novel by vladimir nabokov, and the story is partly a reworking of “lolita”, recounting the bullying and abuse of a teenage girl by a middle-aged teacher. in interspersed sections, he recalls those events of adulthood, through a haze of twisted memory. a powerful story that will strike a chord with many women, but should really be read by men.
the glass hotel by emily st john mandel. I touched; 320 pages; $26.95. picador; £14.99
The main character of this immersive novel is a bartender who becomes a con artist’s trophy wife and later a cook on a container ship. evoking the atmosphere of the 2008 financial crash, the real theme of it is the difficulty of leaving the past behind. “There are so many ways to torment a person,” the author writes, “or a life.”
ministry for the future. by kim stanley robinson. orbit; 576 pages; $28 and £20
Climate change is a notoriously difficult topic for novelists; this is your most important treatment for some time. Led by a former Irish minister, an intergovernmental body explores avenues from terrorism to geoengineering to central banking in its bid to avert disaster. At times frightening, at others it seems almost out of control, the book is driven by a hopeful but hopeless vision of the future.
elegies of the motherland. by ayad akhtar. little, brown; 368 pages; $28. tinder press; £18.99
A stunning, part autobiographical story of growing up as a Pakistani-American through the 9/11 era and then Donald Trump. it deals with ambivalence about Islam, enduring feelings of not belonging, and the perils of material success. by a pulitzer prize-winning playwright.
the perfect nine. by ngugi wa thiong’o. the new press; 240 pages; $23.99. Harville Secker; £12
Most writers lose their energy and inventiveness as they age. not the 82-year-old Kenyan author of this fresh and magical novel. Written in galloping verse in white, it tells of the first Kikuyu people and their passionate attachment to Mount Kenya, the home of their god, Ngai.
burnt sugar. by avni doshi. the gazebo press; 240 pages; $26. Hamish Hamilton; £14.99
“I would be lying”, the narrator begins, “if I said that my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure”. Antara, now an adult, cannot forgive her parents’ failings and cruelties, but she feels compelled to care for her as her dementia takes hold. This gripping first novel investigates the ties that bind, as well as the slippery nature of memory.
culture and ideas
cupcake: river of dreams. by wade davis. I touched; 432 pages; $30 bodley head; £25
the title river is the heart and soul of colombia. In addition to dividing the country, the waterway is “the source of Colombian music, literature, poetry, and prayer,” says the Canadian author, anthropologist, and explorer. Traversing the 1,000-mile length of the Magdalena, on foot, on horseback, by car, or often by boat, he has produced an enchanting chronicle that combines culture, ecology, and history.
mozart: the kingdom of love by jan swafford. harpist; 832 pages; $45 faber & faber; £30
Mozart’s compositions, notes this outstanding account of his life and work, exhibit “a kind of effortless perfection so easy to use that they almost seem to have written themselves.” In this account, Mozart was a fundamentally happy man, a genius with a persistently childlike sense of humor. The author, himself a composer, peppers his narrative with penetrating insights into music.
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time of the magi. by wolfram eilenberger. Translated by Shaun Whiteside. penguin; 432 pages; $30 allen drive; £25
high thought and low politics meet in this lively group portrait of four revolutionary german-speaking philosophers in the 1920s. ludwig wittgenstein, walter benjamin, and martin heidegger gazed with emotion at the post-war cultural abyss; Like a Nazi puppet, Heidegger intervened. only the decent and liberal ernst cassirer, “thinker of the possible”, kept his head completely.
leo tolstoy. by andrei zorin. reaction books; 224 pages; $19 and £11.99
The outlines of Tolstoy’s amazing life are well known: the debauchery, the remorse, the masterpieces, the infamously unhappy marriage, and the death at the Astapovo railway station. But this elegant and insightful biography weaves together his times, his writing, his faith, and his political activism into a single, seamless whole.
150 glimpses of the beatles. by craig brown. farrar, straus and giroux; 592 pages; $30 published in Great Britain as “one, two, three, four”; fourth state; £20
books about the beatles often get bogged down in minute details of the band’s career. He traverses the swamp with wit and style, in a witty story that focuses on 150 revealing and entertaining anecdotes. ringo turns out well, the others not so much.
science and technology
a dominant character. by samanth subramanian. ww norton; 400 pages; $40 Atlantic Books; £20
The subject of this astute book was a giant of British science. J.B.S Haldane helped develop Darwin’s theory of natural selection by marrying it with genetics and basing it on mathematics. he served in the trenches during the first world war and wrote prodigiously. A committed communist, he was slow to acknowledge the depredations of the Soviet Union. “Even if teachers leave politics alone,” he commented, “politics won’t leave teachers alone.”
the end of everything (astrophysically speaking). by katie mack notary; 240 pages; $26. allen rail; £20
The universe had a beginning and one day it will end. The author uses the latest physics to explore the possibilities of doomsday. Despite its solemn subject matter, its humor and eclectic references (from Shakespeare to “Battlestar Galactica”) carry the book forward. even through discussions of cutting-edge science, the general reader is never fazed.
the human cosmos. by jo marchant. fool; 400 pages; $28. canongate; £16.99
since the beginning of human civilization, religion, art and science have been concerned with the stars and other celestial wonders. this is a thought-provoking look at how a fascination with the skies has shaped human culture, and still does.
privacy is power. by carissa véliz. rooster press; 288 pages; £12.99. to be published in America in June; $24.95
The constant and ubiquitous collection of data on private citizens is an abusive system that undermines their rights, argues an oxford philosopher. its solutions, such as banning the trading of personal data, may be extreme, but it drives an urgent conversation.
the arrow of apollo. by nicholas christakis. little, brown; 384 pages; $29 and £20
A leading sociologist and scientist discusses the history of plagues and how some countries made mistakes in their responses to covid-19. pandemics are not only biological but sociological, he points out: viruses mutate but human behavior also changes.
business and economy
no filter. by sarah frier. Simon & schuster; 352 pages; $28. random home business; £20
Based on the author’s close access to insiders on instagram, this is an animated and revealing look at how the world came to see itself through the platform’s lens. His story includes glimpses of Silicon Valley oddities and an account of the sale of Instagram to Facebook and its bitter consequences.
there are no rules, rules. by reed hastings and erin meyer. penguin press; 320 pages; $28. virgin books; £20
Unlimited vacations and no formal spending limits sound like a recipe for corporate chaos. In a rare book by a CEO that’s both readable and illuminating, the Netflix boss — and his co-author — explain how he came up with these and other radical management rules, and why they’re not as crazy as they sound.
the price of peace. by zachary carter. random house; 656 pages; $35 and £25
This beautifully written portrait of John Maynard Keynes traces the evolution of his thinking on political economy. it recasts his contributions to twentieth-century intellectual life in a way that is illuminating and more faithful to his thinking than most classroom accounts.
the myth of Chinese capitalism. by dexter roberts. saint martin press; 288 pages; $28.99 and £22.99
an unvarnished look at the rural immigrants who have fueled china’s long rise but remain second-class citizens. the author combines a sharp analysis with the story of a family he followed for two decades.
fully developed. by dietrich vollrath. chicago university press; 296 pages; $27.50 and £20
a comprehensive and original study of the slowdown in economic growth in america in recent decades. the author attributes this to depleting returns from expanding education and bringing women into the labor market, and the shift toward services as people have gotten richer. these tendencies are welcome, he argues he: the lack of ripe fruits means that he has successfully collected everything.
open: the story of human progress. by johan norberg. atlantic books; 448 pages; $24.95 and £20
Progress depends on openness, this book contends, but that creates a backlash, as people are hardwired to fear rapid change. the author brings together striking examples from every continent and era, and ends on an optimistic and timely note. recent years have seen the rise of populist demagogues who want to build drawbridges, but those leaders eventually lose power because they have no choice but to govern.