Articles by Peter Whittaker

Fifty years after the UN Secretary-General’s death, are we any closer to the truth?

‘Unmasking the mystery of how life transforms’ - does Frank Ryan’s book live up to its sub-header?

A review of the book by Paul Cliteur

By Benjamin Kwakye

By Mashingaidze Gomo

By Véronique Tadjo translated from the French by Amy Baram Reid

By Alastair Crooke

By Mark Curtis

By Tomoyuki Hoshino

Part memoir, part social commentary, part philosophical inquiry, US writer Nick Flynn’s book builds on his earlier autobiography, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.

Ninni Holmqvist’s début novel is a dystopia in the tradition of Margaret Atwood and Marge Piercy.

The best books, music & films of 2009 as reviewed by NI.

A fictionalized account of the 2005 Make Poverty History campaign.

Racism, Migration and Islamophobia in Europe

Szperling’s short, punchy novel paints a vivid pen-portrait of the savage and amoral nature of this stratum of Argentinean society.

Nominally a thriller, Thursday Night Widows is less concerned with the ‘whodunnit’ aspects of plotting than with a psychological dissection of a social class obsessed with bickering and petty jealousies as the pillars of their world dissolve.

A grim but compelling reading – a fitting testament to all the women killed who had sex outside marriage.

An excellent first novel, teeming with memorable characters and dealing with momentous events; the sort of old-fashioned yarn in which the patient reader can become immersed.

A multi-layered tribute to the human spirit – beaten but not broken, and laughing drunkenly in the face of adversity.

A collection of stories about childhood from a stellar cast of authors from around the world, with all royalties going to Save the Children. Edited by Richard Zimler and Rasa Sekulovic.

Short Writings from Zimbabwe, edited by Jane Morris.

The first ever Arabic detective novel to be translated into English

The Last Supper is an erudite and entertaining novel of boundless ambition in its concept and consummate skill in its delivery.

Equatoria by Tom Dreyer

There is a company which manufactures and distributes concentrated sugary syrup and the way it conducts its affairs is the subject of Mark Thomas’ enormously readable book.

John le Carré’s latest novel could hardly be more topical or timely, dealing as it does with the seamier reaches of international banking and the nether-world inhabited by the fugitive and the stateless.

Winner of the best novel prize at Cairo International Book Fair, Hala El Badry writes about her life as an Arabic woman.

25 contradictions about that day in New York by David Ray Griffin

The fourth novel of Mozambican author Mia Couto

A heartrending love-story and a searing indictment of authoritarianism in all its forms.

Lieve Joris’s spellbinding account of the recent ill-starred history of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Riddle of Qaf is crammed with allusions to classical literature and cod-scientific theories and it makes free (and unapologetic) use of myths and legends.

Stories of continuity and change in the Polynesian community of Tikopia by Julian Treadaway

Karen King-Aribisala’s debut novel, a dark and brooding meditation on the stories we tell and the effect they have on everyday life

Donna Dickensen’s fascinating overview of the complex world of medical ethics

The simple – and brilliant – premise of Khaled Al Khamissi’s Taxi is to bring together 58 short fictional dialogues with some of Cairo’s 80,000 cab drivers, drawn from his own extensive experience of taxi journeys through this polluted, turbulent city.

Ma Jian has undertaken his most ambitious project yet; a sweeping panorama of China in the years before and after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 4 June 1989.

Final Silence is a finely modulated meditation on guilt and forgiveness.

A simple tale of great subtlety and power set in Nyanyadu in the rural hinterland of KwaZulu Natal

A beautifully crafted fable by Angolan author Ondjaki

Alain Mabanckou’s scathing attack on greed and material values

Why We’re Losing The War on Terror

A Soldier’s Journey from Iraq to Afghanistan

The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison

Music, Books, Films

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

Mistress by Anita Nair

Softcore by Tirdad Zolghadr

Bahia Blues by Yasmina Traboulsi

Acting From the Heart: Australian advocates for asylum seekers tell their stories

A Nigerian in Berlin

by Kader Abdolah

by Michael Muhammad Knight

Monica Waitzfelder’s true story of her family’s suffering during and after World War Two

Veerapen Prendrapen – half Jewish, half Tamil – is the fastest runner in his school

Dead Horsemeat by Dominique Manotti

The Uncomfortable Dead by Subcomandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo II

A special look at three works from Southern Africa.

The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa translated by Daniel Hahn

The Star of Algiers by Aziz Chouaki

Falling Through the Earth by Danielle Trussoni

Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi

Iran: Everything You Need to Know by John Farndon

A War Too Far: Iran, Iraq and the New American Century by Paul Rogers

A Life Elsewhere by Segun Afolabi

Body Count by Peter Gill

Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto.

After The Neocons by Francis Fukuyama

The Battle for Saudi Arabia by As’ad AbuKhalil

A Month and a Day & Letters by Ken Saro-Wiwa

The Great War for Civilisation by Robert Fisk

Witness to AIDS by Edwin Cameron

The Greening of Larry Mahon by Dave Duggan

Baghdad Bulletin by David Enders

Wild Grass - China’s Revolution from Below by Ian Johnson

Minaret by Leila Aboulela

The Travels of a T-Shirt in The Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli and Ripped and Torn by Amaranta Wright

Ao Toa: Earth Warriors by Cathie Dunsford

100 Myths About the Middle East by Fred Halliday

Iraq, Inc: A Profitable Occupation by Pratap Chatterjee

Extinction by Ray Hammond

The Oath by Khassan Baiev.

Dispatches from the People’s War in Nepal by Li Onesto

American Dream: Global Nightmare by Ziauddin Sardar & Merryl Wyn Davies

Burrow by Manzu Islam.

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by MG Vassanji

Gaza Blues by Samir El-Youssef and Etgar Keret

Creating Chaos by Claire Dowie

Bénarès and In Babylon by Barlen Pyamootoo.

Living Rights edited by Marisa Antonaya

The Shadow of Imana by Véronique Tadjo; Mema by Daniel Mengara; The Cry of Winnie Mandela by Njabulo S Ndebele; Conversing with Africa by Mukoma wa Ngugi

Moonzoo by Paul Hewlett

The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim al-Koni

The Naked Pioneer Girl by Mikhail Kononov

The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy

North Korea/South Korea by John Feffer

Stevenson Under the Palm Trees by Alberto Manguel

Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack. By Austin Clarke.

The Long Way Back by Fuad al-Takarli

The Long Way Back by Fuad al-Takarli

Bitter Eden by Tatamkhulu Afrika

The A to Z of Postmodern Life by Ziauddin Sardar

Palaver Finish by Chenjerai Hove

Red Poppies by Alai

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Stone of Heaven by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark

In the Name of Osama bin Laden by Roland Jacquard.

The Brothers by Milton Hatoum

A History of Bombing by Sven Lindqvist

Heaven’s Edge by Romesh Gunesekera

Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan.

Peter Whittaker makes the case and introduces his choice of vibrant new writing.

Reyita by Daisy Rubiera Castillo

The Years with Laura Díaz by Carlos Fuentes

In The Blue House by Meaghan Delahunt

The Hero’s Walk by Anita Rau Badami

This is Serbia Calling by Matthew Collin

The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri

1688: A Global History by John E Wills