GARRITT C VAN DYK explains how snails and oysters became luxury foods

Novels by Cuban Carlos Manuel Alvarez and Argentinean Andres Tacsir, a political novella in verse by Uruguayan Mario Benedetti, and a trilogy of poetry books by Mexican cult poet Bruno Dario

SIMON DUFF recommends an outstanding album of choral works that range from the 12th century to the present day

New releases from Kassi Valazza, Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke, and Friendship

PETER MASON is wowed (and a little baffled) by the undeniably ballet-like grace of flamenco

MEIC BIRTWHISTLE relishes a fine production by an amateur company of a rousing exploration of Wales' radical history

RITA DI SANTO reports on the films from Iran, Spain, Belgium and Brazil that won the top awards

BOB NEWLAND relishes a fascinating read as well as an invaluable piece of local research

JOHN GREEN wades through a pessimistic prophesy that does not consider the need for radical change in political and social structures

MARJORIE MAYO recommends a disturbing book that seeks to recover traces of the past that have been erased by Israeli colonialism

RON JACOBS salutes a magnificent narrative that demonstrates how the war replaced European colonialism with US imperialism and Soviet power

The bard heralds the festive summer 

The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Along Came Love, The Ballad of Wallis Island, The Ritual, and Karate Kid: Legends

MARIA DUARTE recommends the powerful dramatisation of the true story of a husband and wife made homeless

ANGUS REID recommends a visit to an outstanding gathering of national and international folk musicians in the northern archipelago

by Helen McSherry

Heart Lamp by the Indian writer Banu Mushtaq and winner of the 2025 International Booker prize is a powerful collection of stories inspired by the real suffering of women, writes HELEN VASSALLO

Still Wakes The Deep deserves its three Baftas for superlative survival horror game thrills, argues THOMAS HAINEY

SIMON PARSONS is taken by a thought provoking and intelligent play performed with great sensitivity

MARY CONWAY recommends a play that some will find more discursive than eventful but one in which the characters glow

FIONA O'CONNOR recommends a biography that is a beautiful achievement and could stand as a manifesto for the power of subtlety in art

ANDY HEDGECOCK admires a critique of the penetration of our lives by digital media, but is disappointed that the underlying cause is avoided

STEVEN ANDREW is ultimately disappointed by a memoir that is far from memorable

PETER MASON is surprised by the bleak outlook foreseen for cricket’s future by the cricketers’ bible

MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play that presents Shelley as polite and conventional man who lives a chocolate box, cottagey life

Reading Picasso’s Guernica like a comic strip offers a new way to understand the story it is telling, posits HARRIET EARLE  

STEVE JOHNSON interviews with Martin Green about his love affair with brass bands

GEORGE FOGARTY falls under a spell of an unpretentious gathering that is as edifying as it is entertaining

MARIA DUARTE and MICHAL BONCZA review Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Bob Trevino Likes It, Lilo & Stitch, Fountain of Youth

MARIA DUARTE is in two minds about a peculiar latest offering from Wes Anderson

New releases from Nazar, Peter Gregson and Mesias Maiguashca

ANGUS REID calls for artists and curators to play their part with political and historical responsibility

Generous helpings of Hawaiian pidgin, rather good jokes, and dodging the impostors

MARY CONWAY is stirred by a play that explores masculinity every bit as much as it penetrates addiction

by Tracey Rhys

Chris Searle speaks to saxophonist XHOSA COLE and US tap-dancer LIBERTY STYLES

LEO BOIX introduces a bold novel by Mapuche writer Daniela Catrileo, a raw memoir from Cuban-Russian author Anna Lidia Vega Serova, and powerful poetry by Mexican Juana Adcock

RITA DI SANTO speaks to the exiled Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa about Two Prosecutors, his chilling study of the Stalinist purges

FIONA O’CONNOR is fascinated by a novel written from the perspective of a neurodivergent psychology student who falls in love

MATTHEW HAWKINS gives us a sense of what to expect from Glasgow’s International Dance festival

New releases from Robert Forster, Self Esteem, and Arve Henriksen

SIMON PARSONS is gripped by a psychological thriller that questions the the power of the state over vulnerable individuals

SUSAN DARLINGTON is bowled over by an outstanding play about the past, present and future of race and identity in the US

RON JACOBS welcomes an investigation of the murders of US leftist activists that tells the story of a solidarity movement in Chile

RITA DI SANTO surveys the smorgasbord of films on offer at this year’s festival

The bard gives us advance notice of his upcoming medieval K-pop releases

KEN COCKBURN assesses the art of Ian Hamilton Finlay for the experience of warfare it incited and represents

GORDON PARSONS steps warily through the pessimistic world view of an influential US conservative

HENRY BELL takes issue with the assertion that basic income is a remedy for poverty when it doesn’t address the inbuilt inequality of capitalism

Reviews of A New Kind Of Wilderness, The Marching Band, Good One and Magic Farm by MARIA DUARTE, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA

MARIA DUARTE is gripped by a tense drama set almost entirely in a car as distressed parents try to rescue their wayward daughter

In this production of David Mamet’s play, MARY CONWAY misses the essence of cruelty that is at the heart of the American deal

Poems by Mohammed Moussa, Mark Kirkbride, Omar Sabbagh, Ruth Aylett, Mark Paffard and Patrick Jones

SCOTT ALSWORTH foresees the coming of the smaller, leaner, and class conscious indie studio, with art as its guiding star

MIK SABIERS wallows in a night of political punk and funk that fires both barrels at Trump

Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz

MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility

A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens 

SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.

JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones