FICTION HARDBACKS
Last
weekWeeks in
top 101
Run Rose Run
Dolly Parton and James Patterson
(Century £20)
A young singer-songwriter strives to
escape her dark past and make it in
Nashville (9,145)132
Again, Rachel/Marian Keyes
(M Joseph £20) Successful and nearing 50, Rachel
Walsh has her life upended by an old flame (5,485)263
The Man Who Died Twice/Richard Osman
(Viking £18.99) Stolen diamonds worth £20 million
cause chaos for the Thursday Murder Club (4,355)4284
French Braid/Anne Tyler
(Chatto £16.99) The effects of a family holiday taken
in 1959 ripple through the generations (4,065)—15
The Match/Harlan Coben
(Century £20) A killer targets a secret community
committed to exposing anonymous online trolls (3,450)526
Mothers and Daughters/Erica James
(HQ £14.99) A widow is unsure how her two daughters
will receive news of her new relationship (3,165)627
The Paris Apartment/Lucy Foley
(HarperCollins £14.99) A locked-room mystery set in
an old, elegant apartment building in Paris (2,580)348
High Stakes/Danielle Steel
(Macmillan £20) Five women at a literary and talent
agency discover the high price of success (2,195)749
The Curfew/TM Logan
(Zaffre £14.99) Five teenagers went into the woods
one evening, but only four came out (1,705)10 210
Galatea/Madeline Miller
(Bloomsbury £6.99) A skilled marble sculptor’s statue
brought to life yearns for her independence (1,630)84FICTION PAPERBACKS
Last
weekWeeks
in top 101
The Missing Sister
Lucinda Riley
(Pan £8.99)
The six D’Aplièse sisters search the globe
in their mission to complete their family
(14,210)122
The Rose Queen/Katie Flynn
(Penguin £7.99) A young woman leaves her Welsh
mining community when war is declared (10,370)723
It Ends With Us/Colleen Hoover
(Simon & Schuster £8.99) A first love’s reappearance
threatens a woman’s present relationship (10,210)2304
Finding Ashley/Danielle Steel
(Pan £8.99) Two estranged sisters begin to mend their
relationship and right wrongs of the past (10,085)15 15
Sunrise by the Sea/Jenny Colgan
(Sphere £8.99) The fourth in the Little Beach Street
Bakery series set in a Cornish seaside village (9,470)17 16
Klara and the Sun/Kazuo Ishiguro
(Faber £8.99) The tale of a lifelike android bought
to be a companion to an ill teenage girl (9,170)347
Where the Crawdads Sing/Delia Owens
(Corsair £8.99) The coming-of-age tale of a
reclusive girl abandoned by her family (9,155)—588
Still Life/Sarah Winman
(4th Estate £8.99) Two strangers share an evening in
a Tuscan villa’s ruined wine cellar in 1944 (9,135)449
The Thursday Murder Club/Richard Osman
(Penguin £8.99) Four friends in a retirement village
team up to solve a murder on their doorstep (8,145)84610
Suspects/Lesley Pearse
(Penguin £8.99) On the day a married couple move
into their dream home a body is discovered (7,555)64MANUALS
1
Last
week
1
Weeks
in top 10
2Feel Good Food
Joe Wicks
(HQ £20)
The fitness guru’s
collection of more than
100 healthy recipes
(17,535)2
Last
week
2
Weeks
in top 10
16Pinch of Nom:
Comfort Food
Kate Allinson and
Kay Featherstone
(Bluebird £20) Hearty,
easy and slimming
recipes (8,205)3
Last
week
—
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in top 10
1How to Plan Anything
Gluten Free
Becky Excell
(Quadrille £12.99)
A meal planner and food
diary, with recipes and
tips (5,025)4
Last
week
6
Weeks
in top 10
2Wordle Challenge
(The Ivy Press £7.99)
A collection of 500
puzzles, graded from
easy to expert level,
based on the popular
word game (4,585)5
Last
week
3
Weeks
in top 10
4Fitwaffle’s Baking it Easy
Eloise Head
(Ebury £20)
Social media baking
star’s collection of 100
simple recipes
(2,960)Party. For most strongmen,
however, the challenge has
been to find some way of
holding on to power while
retaining a degree of
constitutional legitimacy.
Rigged elections combined
with media manipulation is
the most favoured method.
But not all succeed. In Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu used
every trick in the book until in
the end the system caught up
with him, and an uneasy
coalition came together to
replace him.Another failed strongman
is Donald Trump. He ticked all
the boxes in his indifference
to the truth, uninhibited
use of populist themes,
pronounced authoritarian
tendencies and disregard of
liberal norms. He never hid
his admiration for autocrats
and the impunity they
enjoyed. He was not really
joking when he said he envied
Xi’s ability to declare himself
president for life. After losing
the 2020 election he tried
desperately to stay in power.
Then there is Boris
Johnson. Rachman justifies
his inclusion because he has
“elements of the strongman”:
he has campaigned on
nationalist themes, resisted
judicial constraints, and has
an uneasy relationship with
the truth, but he is hardly in
an unassailable position.
Rachman also considers
those opposed to strongmen
— the former German
chancellor Angela Merkel, who
grew up under communism,
and the French president,
Emmanuel Macron, who faces
a challenge from the far-right
in his bid for re-election. Also
included are encounters with
the financier George Soros,elevated in rightist conspiracy
theories as the supreme
commander of the global
liberal elite, and Steve Bannon,
a member of another sort of
global elite, travelling the
world promoting culture wars.
The strongmen may learn
from each other, but their
nationalism means they are
not natural allies. Rachman’s
book was written before Putin
launched his war on Ukraine,
a sinister reminder of why
autocrats, surrounded by
sycophants, often perpetrate
the greatest follies. Putin’s
fellow strongmen have not
rallied round. Despite being
lined up to provide vital
support, Xi has equivocated,
as has Modi. Orban grudgingly
decided to stick to the EU
consensus. Opposing Putin is
Volodymyr Zelensky, a liberal
comedian who found inner
reserves of strength when the
situation demanded.
Meanwhile, Putin has seemed
anything but strong — isolated,
scared of human contact and
prey to his paranoid delusions.
The thing about strongmen,
as Rachman reminds us, is
that whatever ways they hold
on to supreme power, they
can’t avoid getting old. cmoderate, reforming Islam. Xi
was eagerly expected to open
up the Chinese system and
Putin would bring order to
Russia after the chaos of the
Yeltsin years, while staying
close to western states.
In some cases, for
example Prince Mohammed
bin Salman in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia as well as Xi,
there was no democracy to
subvert. Power was gained by
challenging the established
systems of power in the royal
family and the Communist
PAPERBACK
OF THE WEEKMy Phantoms
by Gwendoline Riley
Granta £8.99Riley
specialises
in savage
emotional
reckonings
that play
out against
dismal British
cityscapes. My Phantoms
is about the psychological
battleground between
a semi-estranged mother
and daughter. The dialogue
is superb, and these
struggling individuals
feel so agonisingly real
you can’t look away.
Johanna Thomas-CorrST DIGITAL
FOR MORE PICKS, AND OUR
CHOICE OF THE BEST OF 2022,
GO TO THESUNDAYTIMES.
CO.UK/CULTURE3 April 2022 25