Scores of Bowie books already exist, including several essential ones, but you’ll want to make space on that groaning shelf for Alexander Larman’s Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie.
Larman, a journalist and an author of well-regarded works on Lord Byron and Edward VIII, focuses on Bowie’s remarkable last act (The Next Day, Lazarus, Blackstar) but also, and every bit as compellingly, on what preceded it: a creatively dismal period during which the singer fell out of fashion—how un-Bowielike!—then enjoyed a career resurgence interrupted by a decade-long hiatus. Drawing on new interviews with Bowie’s collaborators and associates, as well as archival material, Larman offers a touching, detailed portrait of a gifted artist losing his bearings, flailing about, and re-inventing himself. Yet again.
