Near and Distant Neighbours: A New History of Soviet Intelligence

Jonathan Haslam

A detailed appraisal of how the Soviet Union handled undercover operations from the communist revolution in 1917 until the end of the cold war. The most gripping chapters focus on the chaos that was unleashed by Josef Stalin.

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis

Robert Putnam

The most important divide in America today is class, not race, and the place where it matters most is in the home. In a thoughtful and persuasive book, the former dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government analyses the growing gulf between how the rich and the poor raise their children, adding a liberal voice to long-standing conservative complaints about family breakdown.

North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

Daniel Tudor and James Pearson

Two knowledgeable journalists offer a bird's-eye view of everyday life that teases out how the famine of the 1990s prompted unexpected change in the attitudes, governance and lives of ordinary North Koreans, giving the lie to the simplistic view that Koreans are a homogenous people under the thumb of a power-crazed dictator.

Ghettoside: Investigating a Homicide Epidemic

Jill Leovy

Black men are still dying at alarming rates in the toughest urban pockets even though, overall, America's murder rate is down. A study of one neighbourhood in Los Angeles has the power to change how people think about policing in America.

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story

David Maraniss

One of America's finest non-fiction writers, a son of Detroit, offers a lively and meticulously researched account of how the city, once the engine room of America, began sputtering.