With thousands of AI‑written, edited or ‘polished’ books being sold, LAURA BEERS hears an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel‑writing machines’

Death comes for Liberals, entitled murder, Vatican hit squads, and fraternising with the Blitz killer

ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart

STEVE JOHNSON relishes the inspirational nature of an event which combined great songs with historical narrative

New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, and John Luther Adams 

GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men

Michael Rosen is in his element with a new show for kids, suggests PAUL DONOVAN

KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it

The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach

STEVE ANDREW welcomes an autobiographical account of activism by a US Marxist journalist that is an inspiring introduction to the struggles of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s

ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an accessible - and optimistic - take on our relationship to new technology

JOHN GREEN suggests that a new, biased, and highly readable re-hash of the story of the Cambridge Five be taken with a large pinch of salt

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a timely reminder of the long history of protests and the outdoor spaces in which they takes place

FIONA O’CONNOR and MARIA DUARTE review Romeria, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, Remarkably Bright Creatures, and The Sheep Detectives

LEO BOIX recommends a ravishing, full-bodied drama about the intensely demanding and emotional art of Kabuki theatre

On the day of the election, MARTIN GOLLAN reflects on the perennial relationship between the far-right and the back-hander

by Mohammed Yasser Al-Batniji

RUTH AYLETT recommends that this mixture of memoir, diary and poetry by a young Gazan writer be read as widely as possible

MARY CONWAY is gripped by the powerful emotional journeys portrayed by the parents of the perpetrator and victims of a mass shooting

FIONA O’CONNOR welcomes the the return of the Barbellion prize for disabled writers

ROBIN STYLES welcomes a boundary pushing work of fiction exploring the life and ideas of the godmother of modernism

LEO BOIX reviews a novel where shadows deceive and mortality looms, and a poetry collection that refuses to dim

ANGUS REID recommends that you discover a uniquely intimate community venue in central Edinburgh for an evening of beer and ambitious jazz

Reviews of Charlotte Cornfield, Michael Weston King, and Gun Outfit

Read this book and be aware that this is our history, says RUTH AYLETT

ANGUS REID appreciates the political candour expressed in Bansky’s latest and brilliant work of public art

ED WAUGH introduces a special event to commemorate the centenary of the 1926 General Strike

IAN SINCLAIR draws our attention to a film, available for everyone to use, to stimulate community discussion and active engagement in the climate emergency

JAMES WALSH previews the smorgasbord of talent and hilarity on show at the Brighton Fringe

PAUL DONOVAN recommends an energetic adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel, that emphasises how psychiatry is a tool in the hands of a racist agenda

SIMON PARSONS recommends an outstanding revival of the musical based on Argentinian LGBT activist Manuel Puig’s groundbreaking novel

MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes the literary output of autistic writers, and recommends its insight to readers both including and beyond the community themselves

ALEX HALL is fascinated by a lucid and historically convincing account of how rent has dominated capitalist economies from feudalism to modernity

ELLIS RAE recommends a stunning history of the active role played by the British monarchy in establishing and profiting from slavery

GUILLERMO THOMAS is fascinated by a little known rebellion in the English colony of Granada, led by a mixed-race French officer and inspired by the French Revolution

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Wild Foxes, Hokum, I’ve Seen All I Need to See, and Ada: My Mother the Architect

JOHN GREEN is riveted by the rare example of a disillusioned spymaster taking a swing at his paymasters and their folly

GORDON PARSONS is disappointed by the outdated form of a play set in Trinidad, whose subject is the switch from British to US imperial control

by Omar Sabbagh

by Omar Sabbagh

MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival

JAMES WALSH revels in a miscellany of beautifully observed characters, ranging from the parodic to the frankly batshit

MALC McGOOKIN appreciates a graphic novel that records the history of the legendary peace camp and surveys the state of the right to protest in contemporary Britain

Although this account of the Beatles’ manager is exquisitely drawn, MARY CONWAY wishes it embraced the bigger picture of the band’s explosive impact

New releases from Otherlands Trio, Isabelle Bodenseh, Kris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet

SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a fascinating, revealing, superbly acted evening of theatre

STEVEN ANDREW praises a beautifully written and enjoyable read

ROGER McKENZIE suggest this book is used as a resource to help spark resistance to the rise of nuclear power

The allies of the US, like our own country, end up dominated and cowed, concludes ALEX HALL

LYNDA GRAHAM looks at how successive government allowed the water companies take us all for a ride

DAVID NICHOLSON relies on 10-year-old SKYLAR and nine-year-old BEHATI’s insights when recommending this pirate cum sea monsters romp

Read my lips: Tai Haf Heb Drigolyn (Uninhabited Summer Houses), Rethink Everything

In the interventionist spirit of of Atelier Populaire Mazen Kerbaj Gaza in My Phone ‘notebook’ deeply touches JAMIE BRITTON

SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys an imaginative revival of the dance classic

GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring

MARIA DUARTE and JOHN GREEN review Michael, The North, Exit 8, Rose of Nevada

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends a gripping and touching drama, based on a true story, about a Serbian refugee rebuilding his life in Bristol

New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, John Luther Adams

By Sally Spiers

CHRIS SEARLE talks to the celebrated saxophonist COURTNEY PINE

DAVID YEARSLEY has fun recalling George Harrison’s mischievous Taxman, which was released 60 years ago

Banksy’s identity may have been published – but was the investigation in the public interest, asks PETER BENGTSEN

IAN SINCLAIR recommends a documentary that highlights the multifarious benefits of legalising access to land throughout England

New releases from Kneecap, Sam Blasucci, and Juni Habel

DAVID NICHOLSON recommends the staging of this Wagnerian classic minus one or two insignificant quibbles

CHRIS MOSS joins the hunt in Argentina for the works of Poland’s most enigmatic exile

SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a survey of successful contemporary worker co-operatives and economy-based co-operative systems

RON JACOBS recommends a book that charts the disparate circumstances that defined the lives of two prominent black Afro-Americans — one a communist, the other an anti-communist

JOHN GREEN relishes the record of a life well lived in the service of the fight for justice and socialism

EWAN KOTZ got to the Jacaranda Baltic in Liverpool only to be taken by strong songwriting of the emerging all-women Lime Garden

TONY BURKE talks to Garth Cartwright author of Princes Amongst Men — Journeys With Romani Gypsy Musicians

The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review The Blue Trail, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Colours of Time, Glenrothan

JOHN GREEN has reservations about a film that tries hard to rise above the cliches but in the end fails to do so

Reviews of a compelling account of a tragedy that shook Chile in 2005, a poetry collection about home and belonging, and a bilingual poetry collection on migration, fire, and art, drawing on the work of Hieronymus Bosch

SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a production that looks back at the political Tinseltown in the mid-1970s when US cinema ‘didn’t pander to trends’

CHRIS SEARLE on Mike Westbrook who died aged 90

FINOLA SCOTT relishes a collection of verse in Scots that, among other things, meditates on the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu

STEVE JOHNSON speaks to JIM MORAY about an album that marks 25 years since his first

by Chalice Am Bergris

SAHAR MARANLOU explores a novella, newly translated and republished in English that tells the history of Iran through women’s bodies

DENNIS BROE observes how cutbacks, mergers and AI create content detached from both reality and history itself

CHRISTOPHE DOMEC relishes a dizzyingly precise fiction that relays the problem of reporting the truth

New releases from Claire Vine, Amy Leach and Alasdair Paul, Brooks Williams and Aaron Catlow

JENNY FARRELL recommends an earthy production, driven by two magnificent performances

MARY DAVIS welcomes a remarkable documentary about the general strike — politically spot on, and featuring accounts from the strikers themselves — that is available for screenings

New releases from Peruvian Ranil y Su Conjunto Tropical, Leve Leve: Sao Tome & Principe, and South African BCUC

SCOTT ALSWORTH revels in the political subtext and exquisite visuals of Cuba’s first-ever videogame

DAVID NICHOLSON applauds the revival of a joyous production that deals with choirs, competitions and communism

PETER MASON welcomes collected writings from Britain’s first black female publisher that focus on the place of black writers in literature

RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a book stands as a testimony to those who fought against the evil institution of slavery

MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes, with reservations, a scholarly addition to the unfinished business of understanding how capital works on a world scale

The bard tours Finland and tampers with the cuisine

MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review The Stranger, Undertone, and Outcome

MARIA DUARTE relishes the outrageous true story of two working-class lads from Dundee who conned the music industry

WILL STONE applauds the anniversary tour of Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches by Madchester icons, Shaun and Bez

by Reshma Ruia

JORDAN PHIZACKLEA-CULLEN reminds us of a sometimes overlooked political singer-songwriter, on the 50th anniversary of his untimely death

MARY CONWAY is compelled by the production but repelled by the sleaze in a revival of Christopher Hampton’s play

JAN WOOLF invigilates images that meditate on Palestine, and the people who witness them

A murderous convention of crime writers, a hymn to nursing, a monster hunt, and robber baron capitalism

BEN COWLES samples the many sonic and social therapies of Manchester Punk Festival 2026, and is ready again to smash capitalism

New releases from Brown Horse, Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds, and The Sophs

MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a three-hander that broaches big themes, but doesn’t transcend dry academia 

DAN GLAZEBROOK eavesdrops on the bourgeois intelligentsia and the stories it tells itself at this moment of crisis

DENNIS BROE relishes the working class characters of the BBC’s Can You Keep A Secret, and Hulu’s Sunny Nights

JAN WOOLF is bowled over by a major retrospective for the YBA artist

LEO BOIX, ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review Night Stage, Two Women, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, and Fuze

MARIA DUARTE refuses to disclose the twist by which a conventional rom-com is undone by a universal US malaise

by Kevin Scheepers

CHRIS SEARLE relishes the relevance and sheer poetic dexterity of an excellent imagining of the divided destiny of the Levellers

KATHRYN JOHNSON recommends the work of Norman Kaplan that was a tool in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa

GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a bold feminist subversion of classic folktales that are ubiquitous in the Irish imagination

A novel by Mexican Juan Pablo Villalobos, poetry by Mexican Ingrid Bringas, and a biography by Argentinian Mercedes Halfon

STEVE JOHNSON recommends an exceptional album that explores the narrative folk tradition often with a strong political message

ELLIS RAE is disappointed by the revival of a nihilistic play that fails to offer alternatives for social change

PAUL DONOVAN applauds an entertaining dramatisation of the famous dispute that gives insight into the struggle, and Murdoch’s unscrupulous mendacity

ALISON BAKER casts an appreciative eye over Dennis the Menace at 75

Reviews of Test Dept, Madli Marje Gildemann, and Heinz Holliger and Marie-Lise Schupbach

ROGER McKENZIE grooves to the message that jazz supports, expresses and sparks fresh political movements and ideas

JOHN GREEN appreciates an informative and readable account of the nation state and its current dilemmas, but doubts the solutions this author has to offer

MARTIN GRAHAM recommends a comprehensive demolition of the case for nuclear power

JOHN MCINALLY recommends that this rational, reasonable and devastating case against the End Of Life Bill be read by every serious socialist activist

CHRIS SEARLE urges you not to miss Mark Sanders’ three night residency at Cafe Oto, Dalston, London

JENNY MITCHELL surveys the work of Hurvin Anderson, now a centrepiece of Britain’s white-dominated art establishment, and explores some of the complexities it opens up about British Caribbean identity

Join Attila at the Together Against The Far Right march in London today

ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review DJ Ahmet, Redoubt, They Will Kill You, and The Magic Faraway Tree

ANDY HEDGECOCK is disappointed by a survey of George Orwell’s life and literary obsessions that is mesmerised by its own baroque technique

In this gung-ho moment, GORDON PARSONS has doubts about the ambiguity of a patchy production of Shakespeare’s paean to warfare

SOPHIE STOLL wallows in a fine live recording of old blues-infused folk songs immersed in American blue-collar culture

by Olaore Durodola-Oloto

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Nepali jazz drummer ANMOL MOHARA about tradition, culture, identity, migration and belonging

KEVIN DONNELLY asks HOLLY GRAHAM how she, as an artist, can confront an institution over its own association with the slave trade

SYLVIA HIKINS twists and shouts, and recommends an outstanding homage to Lennon and McCartney

MARY CONWAY is moved by a play of depth and originality that brings true insight into Van Gogh’s journey

New releases from Joe Pernice, Arlo Parks, and Marilyn Crispell & Anders Jormin

PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.

RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger

ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs

PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis

GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield

PAUL FOLEY speaks to Mark Calvert, director of I, Daniel Blake before a new tour

MICHAL BONCZA introduces a sculpture that celebrates the end of Franco’s fascist rule while commemorating some of the last victims of its proclivity for mass murder

JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey

ANDY HEDGECOCK peers into the US psyche to find deluded ambition, toxic aggression and an obsession with fame

by Khayelihle Benghu

ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east

MIK SABIERS is enveloped by the enchanting bass and vocals of Beth Rettig in a small but historic venue

Taxi Driver at 50: Martin Scorsese’s film remains a troubling reflection of our times, writes ALEXANDER HOWARD

A dazzling novel, and autobiographical fiction, by Mexicans Brenda Navarro and Cristina Rivera Garza, and poetry by Brazilian Ricardo Domeneck

JONATHAN TAYLOR ponders the difference between autobiography and memoir - between life and story - in Margaret Atwood’s account of herself

DENNIS BROE examines two new horror films — Send Help and Scream 7 — for the way they demonstrate how capital routinely desensitises the consumer

Rereleases from Andrew Gold; John McFee, Stu Cook, Keith Knudsen; and The Outer Limits

KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost

The Bard finds Bard Company, and rallies us all to the anti-fascist cause

JOHN GREEN is intrigued by an explanation of irrational behaviour from the point of view of brain science

SYLVIA HIKINS celebrates the chance that a new memoir offers to explore Frieda Brewster’s remarkable life story

MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Tasters, A Pale View of Hills, How To Make a Killing, and Reminders of Him

Five years ago a flash crowd of Glaswegian activists defeated the Home Office and the police; MATT KERR urges you to savour that day in a cinema

PAUL DONOVAN enjoys a somewhat rose-tinted survey of Brown’s achievements and legacy, as well as his moments of political cowardice

BRENT CUTLER admires the plotting but takes issue with the politics of a new Scottish crime thriller

SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds the sensuality and strong characterisation of an unconventional ballet about an unconventional woman

JOHN GREEN is disappointed by a history of the British working class that retreads familiar paths and offers no new insights

GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends an important, if dispiriting book about the neo-colonial culture of Uganda under Yoweri Museveni

by Patrick Cotter

KEN COCKBURN is intrigued by the publication of the Marxist theorist’s reminiscence of a bourgeois childhood

PAUL FOLEY steps gingerly through an exhibition that purports to show east and south-east Asian culture, and questions its intentions

Tyrannosaurs in Thailand, colonialism as videogame, and a feminist gem from 1936

DENNIS BROE surveys the bias of the US news networks, and recommends alternatives

New releases from Alex Wilson and Omar Rios Melendez, Hello Cosmos, and Harry Christelis

New releases from Shabaka, Squeeze, and Roswell Road

JOHN GREEN welcomes a vital contribution to the debates around genetic manipulation

GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a biography of the Marxist intellectual and author, made from the point of view of his son

SYLVIA HIKINS is compelled by a travel writer’s personal exploration of his native Lancashire, by the Morning Star’s own Chris Moss

MARJ MAYO recommends a lyrical and disturbing account of the tragic suicide in Venice of Pateh Sabally, a refugee from the Gambia

In the face of Trump’s brutal aggression, DODIE WEPPLER and TRISH MEEHAN invite you to share some of the masterpieces of Cuban cinema

GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends an inspiring, political and bittersweet account of the munitions factory workers who are the fore-runners of the modern women’s game

MARY CONWAY is spellbound by superb performances in Arthur Miller’s study of the social and personal stress brought about by Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review The Bride!, The King’s Warden, Sound of Falling, and Mother’s Pride

ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends an unflinching analysis of the billionaire class that celebrates collective resistance to it

RON JACOBS recommends an outstanding family memoir of life in Gaza

SIMON PARSONS applauds an outstanding one woman show that weaves real poems and narratives into the story of one girl’s flight

MARY CONWAY applauds an exploration, through five short plays, that demonstrates the vital role of drama in furthering collective understanding

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Nicaraguan guitarist OMAR RIOS MELENDEZ

by Gabriel Gbadamosi

SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective

Good Cop vs Bad Fascist fantasy, a guilty witness, Scottish witchcraft, and Camino de Santiago shocker

FIONA O’CONNOR relishes a cinematic exploration of the writing, and the historical context of Thomas Mann’s WWI masterpiece, The Magic Mountain

SHELLEY GALPIN points out that Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure criticised university elitism, and still rings true today

Releases from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Maggie Nicols/Robert Mitchell/Alya Al Sultani, and Gordon Beck Trio and Quintet

LEO BOIX reviews a dazzling art exhibition by one of Latin America’s most important and rebellious artists, whose art exposes the way state violence operates not only through physical force, but through culture

The Bard stands with the Reformers of Peterloo, and their shared genius in teaching history with music and song

MARJORIE MAYO is disappointed by the lack of class analysis in an all-too-plausible account of progressive causes

IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a mainstream scholar to the ranks of left-wing critique of US foreign policy

PETER MASON is disappointed that the eponymous Count fails to put in an appearance

STEVE ANDREW recommends a Marxist analysis of the long chains of production that global corporations exploit

SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State

MARIA DUARTE and MALC McGOOKIN review Sirat, The Testament of Ann Lee, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and All You Need Is Kill

SCOTT ALSWORTH recommends a film that is as informative as it is rage inducing

MARY CONWAY relishes the period detail but misses the drama in this unsatisfactory dramatisation of the subjugated life of George Eliot

DENNIS BROE points out that two popular TV series promote police violence and disguise it as ‘fun’

by Nuala Watt

GORDON PARSONS applauds a marvellous story of human ingenuity and youthful determination, well served by a large and talented company

PETER MASON relishes a quirky and highly entertaining take on Shakespeare’s tragicomedy