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Jonathan Lee

February 2024

  • window of an apartment block at night

    Wellness by Nathan Hill review – the tragicomic maladies of marriage

    A penchant for super-abundance in this follow-up to The Nix helps to capture the contours of modern American life

October 2022

  • Pisa

    Book of the day
    The Romantic by William Boyd review – a fine ‘whole life’ novel

    Boyd tracks the adventures of a 19th-century traveller in a hugely satisfying cradle-to-grave narrative

July 2022

  • Lower Manhattan - Financial Districtan. Downtown Manhattan, Financial District (FIDI). Church Street, Trinity Church, Wall Street, One Liberty Plaza, HSBC Bank and Broadway.

    Trust by Hernan Diaz review – playful portrait of a Gatsby-like tycoon

    When did wealth become the defining element of American success? This Booker-longlisted novel is a multilayered interrogation of ‘the fiction of money’

February 2022

  • lanterns and red neon signs on Ghost Street in Dongzhimen Beijing China

    Book of the day
    The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang review – a tasty succession drama

    A mysterious death in a small-town family restaurant kickstarts a darkly comic tale of rivalry

June 2021

  • People practice social distancing in white circles in Domino Park in Williamsburg, New York City last spring.

    Top 10s
    Top 10 books about public spaces

    From Toni Morrison and Zadie Smith to Peter Benchley, novelist Jonathan Lee chooses books that celebrate areas where strangers can mingle and be less alone

November 2015

  • Thatcher in a gun sight

    Top 10s
    Top 10 assassination plots in fiction

    Plans to kill have a powerful appeal for narrative plotters, including novelist Jonathan Lee. Here are some of his favourites, from Hilary Mantel to Ian Fleming

July 2015

  • Nightlife in the San Salvario district of Turin

    Alternative Europe
    The alternative city guide to Turin, Italy

    In the first of a series of guides to Europe’s alt cities, we head to Turin, where a new generation has transformed the old factory city into the beating heart of Italy’s progressive music, food and arts scenes. Here, they tell us about the best clubs, festivals, restaurants and creative hubs in town

June 2012

  • Ricky Gervais and Mackenzie Crook in the Office

    The 10 best ...
    The 10 best office dramas

    In print and on screen, the best dispatches from work's frontline