MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
Latest editorial
The first great political novel of the Trump era
JOHN GREEN recommends an acute portrait of a troubled and divided US by Barbara Kingsolver
Insightful: Barbara Kingsolver
[David Wood]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
Unsheltered
by Barbara Kingsolver
(Faber & Faber, £8.99)
IN THIS novel, Barbara Kingsolver carries forward the strong commitment to social justice and environmental care expressed so strongly in her previous books and demonstrates again that she is one of the US’s foremost socially critical writers of fiction.
Her narrative centres around an old house falling apart, a recurring symbol of social decay. It was built in a small US town which, created in the mid-19th century as a model community, is beholden to its wealthy entrepreneur founder who very much dominates and controls its citizens’ lives.
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