Culture | Treat your shelf

The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist

Readers will never think the same way again about games, horses and spies

Blue books forming a winner rosette on a red background
Illustration: Ricardo Tomás

Biography and memoir

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Angela Merkel in Frankfurt, Germany in December 1991

Germany’s former chancellor sets out to restore her reputation

But her new memoir is unlikely to change her critics’ minds

Elon Musk speaks at the Milken Institute's Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

What to read to understand Elon Musk

The world’s richest man was shaped by science fiction


ITALY. Naples. 2024.

Tech and religion are very much alike

They both have gods, rich institutions and secretive cultures


Woodrow Wilson’s reputation continues to decline

A dispassionate new biography chronicles the former president’s hostility to suffrage

The cult of Jordan Peterson

What the Canadian intellectual gets right about young men

The New York-London arbitrage for musicals

Can you guess which is more expensive: Broadway or the West End?