A life revisited

TALKING AT THE GATES

James Campbell

(Polygon, £14.99)

AGED 14, James Baldwin became a preacher at Harlem’s Fireside Pentecostal Assembly, and his talent for oratory lived on in his writing, making him one of the most influential black voices of 20th-century America. Glasgow-born James Campbell knew Baldwin for the last 10 years of the latter’s life and brings a fond, personal touch to this biography of the “compulsively sociable” yet “darkly introverted” author, though he doesn’t let friendship get in the way of solid criticism. Drawing on correspondence and interviews, poring over the FBI’s file on him (Baldwin rightly believed he was under surveillance) and examining his relationships with writers like Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Norman Mailer, this is a vivid, candid portrait of a fascinating man. The new edition includes an introduction acknowledging that Baldwin’s politics and “intersectionality” have left him ripe for rediscovery.

THE AGENCY William Gibson

(Penguin, £8.99)

Gibson, who introduced the term “cyberpunk” 37 years ago, still feels impressively current. The Agency is the middle book of a trilogy which began with 2014’s Peripheral, taking place partly in a dystopian 2136 ruled by the shady “klept”, descendants of Russian oligarchs. Some klept amuse themselves by employing quantum technology to communicate with the past and thus create alternate timelines, and it’s Ainsley Lowbeer’s job to prevent that happening, or deal with the consequences when it does. To avert a catastrophe, she reaches through time to an alternate 2017 where Hillary Clinton is

President but which is heading for a nuclear apocalypse. Gibson’s world-building is second to none and, if The Agency lacks the freshness of his breakthrough novels, its themes resonate all the more strongly in a world that seems to have modelled itself on his visions.

THE WISDOM OF PSYCHOPATHS Dr Kevin Dutton

(Arrow, £10.99)

It’s becoming recognised that psychopaths aren’t just cold murderers but are spread throughout the population, flourishing in corporate environments, politics and finance. Kevin Dutton is concerned that the way contemporary society rewards psychopathic behaviour might nudge more people in that direction. His own father displayed many of the same traits. Fascinated by their mental workings, he argues that society needs its share of unflappable surgeons, soldiers and bomb disposal experts. He visits Broadmoor to see what he can learn from murderers and con men. Most interestingly, Dutton undergoes a procedure to deaden his brain’s emotional centres, letting him temporarily experience a state akin to the psychopathic mindset.