The Comfort Book
Matt Haig
Canongate, £16.99, pp256
By now, most people will have formed their own opinion of the novelist and mental health guru Matt Haig. This collection of self-help aphorisms, anecdotes and advice is unlikely to change anyone’s mind. Haig’s many admirers will see The Comfort Book as profound, witty and uplifting, and a stirring testament to hope and the imagination. The unconverted are more likely to regard it as trite and banal. But the book’s unpretentiousness will enable its positive message to reach a wide and grateful readership.
The Dictator’s Muse
Nigel Farndale
Doubleday, £16.99, pp322
The German film-maker Leni Riefenstahl continues to arouse strong feelings nearly two decades after her death, because of her role as “Hitler’s propagandist” who made the pro-Nazi films Triumph of the Will and Olympia. Nigel Farndale’s fascinating novel examines Riefenstahl’s work documenting the 1936 Berlin Olympics through such fictional characters as an English athlete intrigued by fascism and a communist who has infiltrated the Blackshirts. Riefenstahl is portrayed with more sympathy than many readers might expect, or hope, but Farndale’s panoramic view of pre-war German society on the verge of irreparable change is persuasively evoked.
Shadow State
Luke Harding
Guardian Faber, £9.99, pp342 (paperback)
If anyone in the west feels complacent about the extent of Russia’s far-reaching and malevolent power, they should read Guardian journalist Luke Harding’s essential exposé. A clear-sighted and often terrifying account of the ways in which Putin’s administration has infiltrated democratic powers to destructive effect, Shadow State is a grim reminder that Britain’s relationship with Russia is worse than it has been in decades and shows no signs of improving.
• To order The Comfort Book, The Dictator’s Muse or Shadow State go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
