Στα Βιβλία της χρονιάς κι ο Απόστολος Δοξιάδης

Books of the year

Introduction by Rosie Blau

Published: November 28 2009 00:26 | Last updated: November 28 2009 00:26

As the new year dawned, the global economy seemed on the brink of collapse. The publishing industry has provided a bridge across the ravine: never have so many books been produced so quickly to explain how the financial world had come to dominate all of our lives.

Most of these books will plummet into oblivion – but a few fine works will survive. And even as markets recover and consumer confidence returns, this publishing trend will continue: we have been reminded that we are all part of the financial world now – and that it was not terrorism but our own actions that took the economy to the precipice.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

More from Books - Nov-24

The year also saw the first – less successful – forays into credit crunch fiction. We have yet to find the Dickens for our time to conjure the economic crisis as a sympathetic backdrop for a great novel. Until then, we continue to seek solace in historical fiction: book prizes were dominated by works set in the past, including Hilary Mantel’s magisterial recreation of the court of Henry VIII, winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize. In a triumph of literary fiction over the mass market, Mantel’s Wolf Hall briefly topped Amazon’s bestseller list and knocked Dan Brown’s blockbuster The Lost Symbol off the number one spot. A popular classic got a modern twist in the year’s most surprising hit, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which squeezed new blood out of Jane Austen’s work.

In non-fiction, the publishing world showed its continuing obsession with anniversaries. A flurry of books tracked the lives of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln, born 200 years ago this year. Others tackled more recent turning points: 70 years since the second world war began; 40 from man’s first steps on the Moon; 20 since the Berlin wall fell and communism crumbled in Europe. The choice of what to read is rich, varied and confusing, but the FT’s critics will help you decide. [...] continued

Rosie Blau is the FT’s books editor

Ιδού και το βιβλίο του Απόστολου Δοξιάδη κάτω από την ενότητα Politics & Religion:

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
By Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H Papadimitriou
Bloomsbury, £16.99
The graphic novel has surely come of age when it is the chosen medium for a story about the philosophy of mathematics. Bertrand Russell is the star in this rich, colourful and surprising tale.