This format for the FT’s ‘books of the week’ has been changed. For the latest offerings, please visit this page. It is updated every Friday
Trade wars, such as the one between the US and China, are usually presented as international conflicts. Not so, argues a provocative new book reviewed by the FT’s formidable commentator Martin Wolf — rather, they are waged between ‘the very rich and everyone else’. Conflict within nations is also the touchstone of The Vanishing Half, a timely novel about skin colour in America. And as concerns about Covid-19 resurface, we also review Wuhan Diary.
Next week, our Summer Books special will turn its spotlight on the best reads of 2020. But we also want to hear from you, our readers — please tell us about your favourite books and we’ll publish a selection on FT.com
Trade Wars Are Class Wars — the threat of both conflict and inequality
MATTHEW C KLEIN & MICHAEL PETTIS
Martin Wolf praises a book that exposes ‘domestic pathologies in leading economies’, with severe global imbalances, unsustainable debt and financial crises. A story that matters for everybody.
The Vanishing Half — painful truths about race and skin colour in America
BRIT BENNETT
Laying bare the racial inequalities born of shade, Brit Bennett’s moving saga follows black twin sisters whose fates diverge when one of them passes for white
Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City
FANG FANG
Born of social media posts, this go-to unofficial account of how Covid-19 took hold in Wuhan has a simple, powerful message for both China and the west
Ernest Bevin: Labour’s Churchill — an overlooked colossus of UK politics
ANDREW ADONIS
Too often confused with his near-namesake Nye Bevan, Bevin was, as Andrew Adonis argues, a figure crucial to Labour’s wartime role and postwar election landslide under Clement Attlee
The New Long Life — a call to reinvent retirement
ANDREW J SCOTT & LYNDA GRATTON
This manifesto for later years urges governments, employers and individuals to embrace lifelong learning and multigenerational living and avoid ageist labels
Genre round-up — the best new crime thrillers
Gripping yarns from John Grisham, Jeffery Deaver and Stephen King as they venture into new territory — plus a chilly serving of Nordic noir from Iceland
The Chiffon Trenches — a fashion-world memoir of life at Vogue
ANDRÉ LEON TALLEY
A tell-all account of a life in the inner sanctums of high fashion — including friendship with Karl Lagerfeld and what happened when the author was frozen out by Vogue’s Anna Wintour
The Blind Light — a story of friendship and nuclear paranoia
STUART EVERS
Two men from very different social classes are at the core of a family saga spanning 60 years of life lived with the paranoia of apocalypse and threat of atomic conflagration
Enemy of All Mankind — Piracy, Power and History’s First Global Manhunt
STEVEN JOHNSON
This true story of pirate Henry Every and his pursuit by the East India Company explores the fear and adulation of pirates — and the fine line between plunder and colonialism
The Garden of Monsters — tangled lives under the Tuscan sun
LORENZA PIERI
A story of art, social class and hypocrisy, the Italian writer’s first novel translated into English succeeds as both family saga and coming-of-age tale
For the best books of 2019 across all genres, including critics’ choices and readers’ favourites, go to ft.com/booksof2019
If you want to browse all of this week’s book reviews in one place, bookmark this page. It is updated every Friday lunchtime
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