Agustín Fernández Mallo: The Things We've Seen review - degrees of separation

★★★ AUGUSTÍN FERNÁNDEZ MALLO: THE THINGS WE'VE SEEN Degrees of separation

The B-side of reality comes to the fore in this roving exploration of connection and isolation

Trilogies (it is noted, in the term’s Wikipedia entry) “are common in speculative fiction”. They are found in those works with elements “non-existent in reality”, which cover various themes “in the context of the supernatural, futuristic, and many other imaginative topics”. All of these apply in some sense to The Things We’ve Seen, the latest novel from Spanish writer Agustín Fernández Mallo.

Hughes, Manchester Collective, Lakeside Arts online review - creating the occasion

★★★★ HUGHES, MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE, LAKESIDE ARTS ONLINE Creating the occasion

From gentle melancholy to burning conviction in a single stream

There’s an atmosphere of tender restraint through most of the programme created by Ruby Hughes and Manchester Collective for Lakeside Arts at the University of Nottingham. It was streamed live yesterday afternoon, and, as is the way with most performances just now, was in an empty hall, with its slightly strange "empty" acoustic affecting the spoken word as the artists introduced their music.

Albums of the Decade 2011-2021

ALBUMS OF THE DECADE 2011-2021 Our writers explain their choices from the last ten years

Our writers explain their choices from the last ten years

On Valentine’s Day 2011 Disc of the Day album reviews sprang into being, and has been solidly reviewing five albums a week ever since. Out of the many thousands, which ones did we rate the most? To mark 10 years since its inception, 12 of theartsdesk’s music writers mark the occasion by choosing an Album of the Decade. They appear in alphabetical order by writer.

Alt-JAn Awesome Wave – by Russ Coffey

Alice Ash: Paradise Block review - a matrix-like collection that reinvents the short story genre

★★★★ ALICE ASH: PARADISE BLOCK Matrix-like collection reinvents short story genre

Watching boundaries come undone in a surreally sinister block of flats

“Burglar alarms jangled through the empty hallways of Paradise Block.” In this ramshackle, lonely tenement, such alarms might be one’s only company. Yet, in this intricate collection of short stories, the inhabitants’ lives intertwine.

Raven Leilani: Luster - portrait of the artist as a black millennial woman

★★★★★ RAVEN LEILANI: LUSTER Portrait of the artist as a black millennial woman

Diamond-cut debut catches every glint of our modern malaise

One of the finer episodes in Raven Leilani’s startling debut (which contains an embarrassment of fine episodes) comes about halfway through, when Edie, our young, struggling black narrator, starts working as a rider for a “popular in-app delivery service”. The gig gives her tantalisingly brief contact with a spectrum of outlandish New Yorkers and their equally peculiar needs.

Mark Fisher: Postcapitalist Desire - The Final Lectures review - imagining the alternative

★★★★ MARK FISHER: POSTCAPITALIST DESIRE - THE FINAL LECTURES An eye-opening exploration of capitalism and desire

An eye-opening exploration of the relationship between capitalism and desire

Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures is a collection of transcripts, recording weekly group lectures delivered by Mark Fisher to his students at Goldsmiths, University of London during the 2016/17 academic year.

Courttia Newland: A River Called Time review - an ethereality check

★★★★★ COURTTIA NEWLAND: A RIVER CALLED TIME Picturing a world without the legacies of colonialism and slavery

Picturing a world without the legacies of colonialism and slavery

It is near impossible to imagine what the world would look like today if slavery and colonialism had never existed, let alone to write a book on the subject. Courttia Newland sets himself this daunting task in his latest novel, A River Called Time.

Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative, Royal Court online review – the news, but better

★★★★ LIVING NEWSPAPER: A COUNTER NARRATIVE, ROYAL COURT The news, but better 

The Royal Court’s experimental piece is political theatre at its finest and fiercest

Edition 2 of Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative, an experimental new piece of online theatre from the Royal Court, doesn’t mess around. Within minutes, a cry of "Tory scum" is echoing around the Jerwood Theatre – the refrain of an anarchic musical number presided over by a mannequin painted blue, wearing a shaggy blond wig.