The New Russia
Mikhail Gorbachev
‘This is a testimony to Gorbachev’s contribution to world history, not just during his heyday of perestroika but over the last two decades of post-communism, offering unique insight into events. Gorbachev takes a critical view of the Yeltsin reforms, and above all he offers a nuanced and intelligent analysis of Putin’s rule. Anybody interested in the end of the Soviet Union, post-communist Russia and contemporary world politics should read this book.’
Richard Sakwa, University of Kent, UK
May 2016
Our Wound is Not So Recent
Alain Badiou
‘Badiou’s short book on the roots of recent terrorist attacks can be compared to a single long cinematographic take, which begins with a close-up of an object and then gradually withdraws, so that we see its historical context. This wider context is the dynamics of global capitalism and it is only from such a perspective that we can locate the causes of the attacks. The book reads like a theoretical detective fiction – it is simply unputdownable.’
Slavoj Žižek
September 2016
Faith and Freedom
Teresa Forcades
‘Teresa Forcades offers a lucid and inspiring reflection on the mutually enriching relationship between contemplation and action, the spiritual and the political, faith and feminism. Structuring her book around the liturgy of the hours, she shows how the Christian life can be lived in a way that is deeply rooted in prayer and tradition, but also radically engaged with the contemporary world.’
Tina Beattie, University of Roehampton
October 2016
Habermas
A Biography
Stefan Müller-Doohm
‘Deftly following the trajectory of Habermas’s life and career from his early childhood in Nazi Germany, his shock at discovering the horrors of the Shoah, his response to the political and social crises of our time, and his passionate advocacy of cosmopolitan democracy, Müller-Doohm brilliantly succeeds in presenting a vivid and nuanced portrait of one the world’s leading thinkers and publicly engaged intellectuals.’
Richard J. Bernstein, New School for Social Research
September 2016
Violence and Islam
Conversations with Houria Abdelouahed
Adonis
‘Faith is like love, Adonis tells us; it falls within personal experience. Violence and Islam explores a multiplicity of modern interpretations that give rise to forms of faith and forms of barbarity. Adonis, in his powerful secular voice, here again proves why he is one of the most important literary figures of our times.’
V. S. Naipaul
September 2016
