Angela Merkel leaving Berlin's Bundestag on the day of a December 2012 EU summit ©Getty ESSAY May 17, 2013

Berlin or bust

Can a European Union chafing under German leadership and struggling to restore a sense of collective purpose do more to connect with its people? Tony Barber reviews ‘The Passage to Europe’, ‘The Lost Continent’ and ‘German Europe’

©Corbis NON-FICTION May 17, 2013

Correspondence course

Personally reticent, intellectually generous letters from one of Italy’s finest postwar writers. Christopher Tayler reviews ‘Italo Calvino’, edited by Michael Wood

Illustration of Constance by Robert Ball ©Robert Ball FICTION May 17, 2013

Remade in Manhattan

An accomplished novel of how family history haunts one young woman’s life. George Pendle reviews ‘Constance’, by Patrick McGrath

Circa 1750, View of the River Arno and Trinity Bridge, Florence, Italy. A fisherman tries to sell his catch to passengers in a passing boat. ©Getty FICTION May 14, 2013

Hell is other people

This new blockbuster leaves us confused. AN Wilson reviews ‘Inferno’, by Dan Brown

A man begs in Barcelona ©Reuters NON-FICTION May 17, 2013

Death by a thousand cuts

A study of public health in times of recession. Clive Cookson reviews ‘The Body Economic’, by David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu

Front cover of 'The Anatomy of Violence', a book by Adrian Raine NON-FICTION May 17, 2013

Criminal minds

The impact of biological factors on violent behaviour. Julian Baggini reviews ‘The Anatomy of Violence’, by Adrian Raine

Perilous Question cover NON-FICTION May 17, 2013

Liberty on the march

How aristocratic politicians began the process of extending the vote to all Britons. Sue Gaisford reviews ‘Perilous Question’, by Antonia Fraser

Petite Mort book jacket FICTION May 17, 2013

In brief

David Evans reviews ‘Petite Mort’, by Beatrice Hitchman

'Film Freak' book jacket NON-FICTION May 17, 2013

In brief

Reviews of ‘Film Freak’, by Christopher Fowler; ‘Nijinsky’, by Lucy Moore

One of the camps established by the 1953 expedition, at 24,000ft on the Lhotse Face of Everest ©The George Lowe Collection ESSAY May 10, 2013

Everest, 60 years on

In the anniversary year of Hillary and Tenzing’s conquest of Everest, a crop of new books explores what has changed in those Himalayan heights since 1953. By Carl Wilkinson