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How durable is China’s capitalist model?

The country’s economic system has many flaws — yet critics underestimate it at their peril

FTWeekend Live Q&A

What to read in isolation: FT readers’ favourite books

We asked you to share and recommend what you’ve been reading

Nightshade by Annalena McAfee — a portrait of the artist as a ‘difficult’ woman

The author’s third novel makes us root for her heroine — then twists the knife

ReviewPolitical books

Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot — prudence and caution

John Lloyd engagingly sets out Scotland’s failure to prepare for secession

Spark by Naoki Matayoshi — a strange Japanese double act

Tokyo is omnipresent in the English translation of Japanese publishing sensation that has made it to a Netflix TV series

ReviewHistory books

Military Strategy: A Global History — mission impossible

Jeremy Black’s sweeping survey is outmanoeuvred by its own ambition

ReviewHistory books

Coffeeland by Augustine Sedgewick — the Java script

A history of coffee and its role in global capitalism is fact-filled and entertaining if occasionally over-caffeinated

ReviewPolitical books

Tribes by David Lammy and Vexed by James Mumford — the goodness in our instincts

Two books help us get to grips with tribalism but cannot escape the biases of their own tribes

ReviewScience fiction books

Science fiction round-up: Alien’s xenomorphs get medieval

Folklore tales from Titanic to Arthurian legend, a re-release for Planet of the Apes and a medieval human world in Aliens: Phalanx

What to read in isolation? FT writers pick

From classics by Dostoyevsky to modern escapism and inspiring love stories, here are our choice comfort reads

Weekend long reads

How to save the human race from extinction

If coronavirus doesn’t kill us, what about climate or AI? Here’s why we must get serious about saving the world

ReviewHistory books

The Human Factor — how the superpowers ended the cold war

Archie Brown praises soft power, challenging the idea of a victory for military might alone

Promoted Content

More Books

Friday, 27 March, 2020

Review
Best books of the week
Questioning China’s economy, the Scottish independence question and a midnight stroll through London
Friday, 27 March, 2020

ObituaryAlbert Uderzo
Alberto Uderzo, French cartoonist, 1927-2020
A gracious man, puzzled by the phenomenal appeal of a village of indomitable Gauls
Friday, 27 March, 2020

FT Magazine
Alexander McCall Smith on the joy of very short stories
The best-selling novelist shares the inspiration behind his latest collaboration with illustrator Iain McIntosh
Monday, 23 March, 2020

Review
The Gatekeeper, by Kate Fall
A pacy, personal but unrevealing account of David Cameron’s government
Friday, 20 March, 2020

ReviewFiction
Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones — hell for leather
A gay S&M relationship is at the core of this clever novel — but opportunities are missed
Friday, 20 March, 2020

InterviewFiction
Sebastian Barry on the female gaze and cultural appropriation
The prizewinning novelist talks about the Native American heroine of ‘A Thousand Moons’
Friday, 20 March, 2020

ReviewBiography and memoir
Rust: One Woman’s Story of Finding Hope Across the Divide
In her paean to America’s working class, Eliese Colette Goldbach returned home from university to become a steelworker
Friday, 20 March, 2020

Nilanjana Roy
Join me in the books that can take you around the world
Reading in a coronavirus lockdown transports the mind — and makes us appreciate travel
Friday, 20 March, 2020

ReviewFiction
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld — predators and prey
The writer of the memoir ‘Everything Is Teeth’ fearlessly explores male violence down the generations
Friday, 20 March, 2020

ReviewBiography and memoir
Thinking Again by Jan Morris — the final frontier
In what may be her last work, the Welsh author explores the epic and the everyday
Friday, 20 March, 2020

ReviewFiction
The Bell in the Lake — a fireside read, with splinters
Lars Mytting intertwines love, legend and gritty reality in the wilds of 19th-century Norway
Friday, 20 March, 2020

ReviewCrime books
The state of the world? Look to the latest crime fiction
Tales of race, migrants and cover-ups from Ausma Zehanat Khan, Eva Dolan and James Oswald
Thursday, 19 March, 2020

Coronavirus
The spirit of the Blitz isn’t back, it’s bunk
Winning the war against coronavirus seems too reliant on myths about London under attack
Thursday, 19 March, 2020

ReviewBusiness books
Samsung Rising: Inside the secretive company conquering tech
The rise of a global tech giant — Geoffrey Cain’s gripping tale of a South Korean dynasty
Wednesday, 18 March, 2020

Fiction
Contagion novels: chronicles of a plague
Fiction’s affinity with infection goes back as far Defoe, as themes of adventure, social commentary and survivalist instruction merge
Monday, 16 March, 2020

Review
Radical Uncertainty, by John Kay and Mervyn King
An eloquent rant against the faux-precision of mathematical models
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewBiography and memoir
Three Brothers: Memories of my Family by Yan Lianke
The novelist’s memoir offers a rare insight into ordinary life in rural China
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewAudio books
Four audiobooks to suit a period of seclusion
Hilary Mantel and Lucy Ellmann supply long-haul listening — just when we need them
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewNon-Fiction
The Dragons and the Snakes — modern warfare’s big mistake
An impressive exposé on how terrorists and non-state actors outmanoeuvre conventional militaries
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewFiction
The Inland Sea — life unravels in the climate crisis
The Australian debut novelist’s prose crackles with electricity in a coming-of-age tale
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewFiction
The Voice in My Ear — ten stories of modern life
Poet Frances Leviston’s fiction debut is a stunning exercise in perceptivity
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewFiction
The Discomfort of Evening — a raw, memorable debut
Longlisted for the International Booker, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s novel is exceptional
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewHistory books
The Season: A Social History of the Debutante
Kristen Richardson’s social and economic history makes a more absorbing story than any period drama
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewFiction
The Good, the Bad and the Little Bit Stupid — a European crime caper
The author of ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’ brings a comic touch to Brexit
Friday, 13 March, 2020

ReviewFiction
A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry — on the US frontier
This post-civil war sequel to ‘Days Without End’ explores race, family and violence