Best books of 2019: Literary non-fiction

The Man in the Red Coat , by Julian Barnes, Jonathan Cape, RRP£18.99

Barnes’ hybrid book focuses on three exemplary characters during the Belle Époque — a prince, a count and a society doctor called Samuel Pozzi (the man of the title). In the process, he upends the received notion of France at the time, revealing the period instead to have been “an age of neurotic, even hysterical national anxiety”.

Somewhere Becoming Rain: Collected Writings on Philip Larkin, by Clive James, Picador, RRP£12.99

This slim collection of Clive James’ writings on Philip Larkin demonstrates both a life-long passion for the poet’s work and a deep critical endeavour to rehabilitate his reputation as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. A collection to savour two-fold — for the genius of Larkin and the playful erudition of James.

A Month in Siena , by Hisham Matar, Viking, RRP£12.99/Random House, RRP$27

A quarter of a century after he first discovered the Sienese School of painting, Matar, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of The Return about the disappearance of his father in Libya, spends a month in the Italian city to immerse himself in art. His book is a dazzling exploration of art’s impact on his life and writing, and a moving contemplation of grief.

Sontag: Her Life , by Benjamin Moser, Allen Lane, RRP£30/Ecco, RRP$39.99

Moser’s “beguiling” biography draws on the restricted archives of the essayist Susan Sontag, who died in 2004, along with hundreds of interviews with her lovers, friends and foes. The result is a monumental work that reveals the flawed private person behind the ferocious public persona.

Three Women , by Lisa Taddeo, Bloomsbury, RRP£16.99/Simon & Schuster, RRP$27

Taddeo spent eight years talking to women about sex with the intent of registering “the heat and sting of female want so that men and other women might more easily comprehend before they condemn”. The result is a graphic — although not titillating — literary account of three American women’s sex lives, which became an instant bestseller and was seen as a corrective to Gay Talese’s 1981 book Thy Neighbor’s Wife.

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, by Jia Tolentino, Fourth Estate, RRP£14.99/Random House, RRP$27

New Yorker journalist and “professional millennial” Tolentino rips through the zeitgeist in these nine interlinked essays. From the rise of the internet to reality TV, her experiences with ecstasy to the obsession with “self-optimisation”, Trick Mirror introduces an astute and exciting new voice.

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