We Need New Stories

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‘Nesrine Malik writes with urgent eloquence about the world we live in, applying her brilliant mind to some of the most important debates of our age. She’s right: we do need new stories. Most of all though, we need this book’ ELIZABETH DAY, author of HOW TO FAIL

‘We live in confusing and chaotic times – an age where the values many took for granted are being questioned, where universal rights are being casually denied. WE NEED NEW STORIES is the first book I’ve read that makes sense of where we are, and of what we will lose if we don’t wake up. An urgent, totally essential book’ SATHNAM SANGHERA

‘An acute and nuanced interrogator of contemporary prejudices, Nesrine Malik writes with immense moral courage and intellectual power’ PANKAJ MISHRA

‘Stares into the heart of our current seething political volcano and gives it a cool hosing down . . . powerful and persuasive’ OBSERVER

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It is becoming clear that the old frames of reference are not working, that the narratives used for decades to stave off progressive causes are being exposed as falsehoods. Six myths have taken hold, ones which are at odds with our lived experience and in urgent need of revision.

Has freedom of speech become a cover for promoting prejudice? Has the concept of political correctness been weaponised to avoid ceding space to those excluded from power? Does white identity politics pose an urgent danger? These are some of the questions at the centre of Nesrine Malik’s radical and compelling analysis that challenges us to find new narrators whose stories can fill the void and unite us behind a shared vision.

Reviews

Malik has important things to say . . . her arguments echoed powerfully in my mind long after I had put the book down
Melissa Benn, FINANCIAL TIMES
An acute and nuanced interrogator of contemporary prejudices, Nesrine Malik writes with immense moral courage and intellectual power
PANKAJ MISHRA
Nesrine Malik's new book stares into the heart of our current seething political volcano and gives it a cool hosing down. With careful analysis and a great historian's expertise for synthesising a huge amount of information into a clear arc, she engages in a powerful and persuasive debunking exercise
Bidisha, OBSERVER
Nesrine Malik writes with urgent eloquence about the world we live in, applying her brilliant mind to some of the most important debates of our age. She's right: we do need new stories. Most of all though, we need this book
ELIZABETH DAY
A rigorous study of our predicament . . . An expansive, structural interrogation of the status quo that draws on a wealth of research and interviews
Helen Charman, GUARDIAN
We live in confusing and chaotic times - an age where the values many took for granted are being questioned, where universal rights are being casually denied. WE NEED NEW STORIES is the first book I've read that makes sense of where we are, and of what we will lose if we don't wake up. An urgent, totally essential book
SATHNAM SANGHERA
[Malik] presents her case persuasively, with admirable clarity, and in doing so cuts through a lot of the messy, often befuddling noise. Clear, accessible . . . well-researched and thorough
Rachel Andrews, IRISH TIMES
WE NEED NEW STORIES is a plea for greater diversity and essential reading, at a time when politics is so divisive, for anyone with an interest in current or social affairs
Lucy Whetman, THE i NEWSPAPER