And Then What?
Catherine Ashton
Elliott & Thompson, £10.99, pp288 (paperback)
This thoughtful memoir from the former EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy promises “despatches from the heart of 21st-century diplomacy”. The result is an eye-opening journey through negotiations over Ukraine, the Iran nuclear deal, the western Balkans and the Arab spring. Ashton values collaboration, “deep democracy” and a proper understanding of the issues, making her an outlier in a populist age. Looking at the world now, it’s easy to judge her time as a failure. But consider how much worse things might have been without her moderating influence.
The Dimensions of a Cave
Greg Jackson
Granta, £18.99, pp480
A “modern-day retelling of Heart of Darkness” is a familiar catchline, but one of Granta’s best young American novelists renders it plausible in his expansive debut. Quentin Jones is an investigative reporter who uncovers a US government VR interrogation programme and delves into its obfuscations, corruption and power structures, endangering his safety and state of mind. While Jackson leans on several psychological thriller tropes, and there is a lot of plot exposition, humanity’s place in a tech-dominated world is properly explored.
Turkiye: Cycling Through a Country’s First Century
Julian Emre Sayerer
Arcadia, £25, pp368
Sayerer has form for combining politics with a love of riding his bike; 2020’s Fifty Miles Wide offered a deeper understanding of Israel and Palestine by journeying through it at 12mph. Here, to mark modern Turkey’s first century, he cycles from the Aegean coast to the Armenian border, documenting the people, places and histories characterising this remarkable part of the world. Perhaps because the author is of Turkish heritage, there’s more polemic than storytelling – but the book is a persuasive corrective to western views of a place he loves.
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