STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
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Fictional bridge between East and West a resonant meditation on art and power
Islamic inspiration: 16th century Suleymaniye mosque interior, Istanbul
[Jose Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro/Creative Commons]
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
JAN WOOLF relishes an extensive history of our long relationship to trees in Britain that underlines the current emergency
DIANE WATT argues that while evidence of sex is not there, a 16th‑century lesbian poet could be Scotland’s answer to Gentleman Jack
Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants
by Mathias Enard
(Fitzcarraldo Editions, £10.99)
IN 1506 Michelangelo, then one of the most promising artists of his epoch, was invited by the Sultan of Constantinople to design a bridge over the Golden Horn. The historical record tells us that this invitation was rejected, but Mathias Enard's novel, exquisitely translated by Charlotte Mandell, imagines what would have happened if he had instead accepted.
Enard trades in the formalism of his previous fictions Zone and Compass for a more conventional historical novel, created from third-person narrative and the actual letters of Michelangelo. Instead of characteristic interior monologues and essayistic digressions, the reader is treated to a prose of elegant economy.
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FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction
CHRIS MOSS joins the hunt in Argentina for the works of Poland’s most enigmatic exile
KEN COCKBURN relishes the memoir of a translator, but wonders whether the autobiography underlying the impulse would make a better book
The creative imagination is a weapon against barbarism, writes KENNY COYLE, who is a keynote speaker at the Manifesto Press conference, Art in the Age of Degenerative Capitalism, tomorrow at the Marx Memorial Library & Workers School in London