At just under 600 pages, this book is that rare and precious thing: a good read. I don’t mean a page-turner that you whip through in an evening. This book accompanied me during my waking hours for days.
Even though I was dealing with people I wouldn’t normally choose to spend time with–entitled teenagers from wealthy Los Angeles families with flashy cars and breathtaking access to illegal drugs–it didn’t matter. The author, who is (perhaps) also the narrator, knew how to make me care about Bret and his friends. I wanted to know what would happen to them next.
The story weaves together fragments of facts, rumors, suppositions, and illusions that may or may not add up to a true picture of events. This is a book about reality. It’s mesmerizing, says the jacket blurb, and for once, that’s true.
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A novel of sensational literary and psychological suspense from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged high school friends in a vibrantly fictionalized 1980s Los Angeles as a serial killer strikes across the city
“A thrilling page turner from Ellis, who revisits the world that made him a literary star with a stylish scary new story that doesn't disappoint.” –Town & Country
Bret Easton Ellis’s masterful new novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set…
Like it or not, the Russian “special operation” in Ukraine is going to affect our lives for years to come. But you can’t help wondering what ordinary Russians think about the war. Do they buy the official line about Ukraine being a non-country populated by Nazis that deserve to be wiped off the map? Do they think that Putin is off his head but are (with reason) too afraid to say so?
British scholar Jade McGlynn explores Russian history, media, and propaganda and shows how the Kremlin has managed to subvert public opinion and turned Putin’s war into Russia’s war. Published in 2023, this is a fascinating read.
In the early hours of 24 February 2022, Russian forces attacked Ukraine. The brutality of the Russian assault has horrified the world. But Russians themselves appear to be watching an entirely different war - one in which they are the courageous underdogs and kind-hearted heroes successfully battling a malign Ukrainian foe.
Russia analyst Jade McGlynn takes us on a journey into this parallel military and political universe to reveal the sometimes monstrous, sometimes misconstrued attitudes behind Russian majority backing for the invasion. Drawing on media analysis and interviews with ordinary citizens, officials and foreign-policy elites in Russia and Ukraine, McGlynn…
If you’ve watched the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses, you will know that Slough House is the place where failed spies go to purge their penance, play strange games, and wait (in the words of Mick Jagger’s wonderfully rendered title song) to “dance with the big boys again.”
There are several books in Mick Herron’s spy series, and this happens to be the first one I’ve read, but I’ll be back for more. The writing is edgy, the characters are believably and compulsively awful, the humor is pervasive, and the tension never fails.
Anne, a French student, arrives in communist East Germany in 1985. She falls in love, gets married, and settles in Leipzig. But then she is contacted by the Stasi, the notorious secret police, who have files on nearly one-third of the population. Not understanding what is happening until it's too late, Anne goes along with them.
Four years later, the Berlin Wall comes down, the Stasi archives are opened, and Anne realizes that her husband Matthias will see his file and discover that she has betrayed him. How can she atone for her shame and guilt, and show Matthias she really loves him?
Back in France, sitting under the Judas tree in her family’s garden in Uzès, Anne decides on a course of action.
