Suspense,spells and a deeply moving diary:10 new books

Our reviewers cast their eyes over new fiction and non-fiction titles.

  • Cameron Woodhead andFiona Capp

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Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles.

How a seminal American artwork divided Australians

When Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles was bought in 1973 for $1.4 million by the Whitlam government,it sparked a national controversy.

  • Michael McGirr
Bestselling novelist and romance evangelist Emily Henry.

Emily Henry’s new romcom proves again she is a formulaic genius

The bestselling author’s latest novel features all the tropes that her dedicated fans know and adore.

  • Jessie Tu
Allende’s latest work has a stupendous dreamlike quality.

Isabel Allende’s new book is a bold,contradictory enchantment

The Chilean-American author’s latest work is moving,eloquent and breaks all the rules.

  • Peter Craven

Online pile-ons and culture wars:How did we get here?

Philosopher A.C. Grayling dissects the evolution of cultural warfare and makes a sensible,if optimistic,case for an armistice of sorts.

  • Pat Sheil

A Booker winner,a comedy and Hitler’s obsession with Einstein

Our reviewers cast their eyes over new fiction and non-fiction releases.

  • Cameron Woodhead andSteven Carroll
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There’s a bumper selection of new books to read this May.

‘Inconvenient women’,mortality and a controversial work by Joan Didion:13 new books to delve into

From a book that its own author may not have approved of to a beautiful and confronting photography collection,there’s a bumper crop of releases this month.

  • Jason Steger
Katie Kitamura’s novel demonstrates that stories themselves are equal parts light and shadow.

This hotly anticipated novel explores the dark embers of the psyche

In the third instalment of her fictional triptych,Katie Kitamura wields her words with scalpel-like precision to explore the demands women are “expert at negotiating”.

  • Jessie Tu
Tom Hanks’ daughter E A Hanks.

Tom Hanks’ daughter reveals a childhood marred by abuse at the hands of her mother

E.A. Hanks’s memoir re-creates a road trip she once took with her late mother to seek answers to what was an “incomprehensible” childhood.

  • Nathan Smith
Vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19.

Does the US suffer from an abundance of good intentions?

A central focus for US progressives should be raising wellbeing by creating more for everyone,argue Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their new book.

  • Andrew Leigh