There’s a New Language Sheriff in Town
Whether renaming the “Gulf of America” or issuing edicts on gender, Trump is enforcing his own brand of political correctness.
Cloud Pantoum
A poem for Sunday
What to Read in the Face of Disaster
Can any writer offer useful wisdom when ash rains over a metropolis?
The ‘Dark Prophet’ of L.A. Wasn’t Dark Enough
As fires have raged, so have citations of the prescient author Mike Davis. But in a changed world, we need new thinkers too.
Be Like Sisyphus
How to embrace hopeful pessimism in a moment of despair
The Millworker’s Wife
A poem for Sunday
How Does a Real Person Become a Character?
Two novels take different approaches to bringing the dead back to life.
The Forgotten Woman Who Transformed Forensics
In the 1970s, Martha Goddard invented the rape kit. So why did she die in relative obscurity?
The Hipster Grifter Peaked Too Soon
Kari Ferrell’s memoir is a zippy, intimate account of low-level trickery before the era of scams fully erupted.
A New Kind of Immigrant Novel
Aria Aber’s debut about an Afghan German party girl in Berlin shows that there are plenty of ways to tell an outsider’s story.
Where Han Kang’s Nightmares Come From
In her novels, the South Korean Nobel laureate returns again and again to her country’s bloody past.
A Holocaust Novel Confronts Fiction’s Limits
Lily Tuck’s attempt to bring to life a victim of the atrocity turns her into a prosecutor, not a novelist.
A Palestinian Story Unlike Any Other
In her debut novel, Too Soon, Betty Shamieh isn’t trying to educate or enlighten.
We stay and its ours
A poem for Sunday
Why We Celebrate When Copyright Expires
Every January 1 in the Books department, we like to make an extra toast for a concurrent holiday: Public Domain Day.
The Saint America Needs Now
Kindness has become countercultural. Perhaps Saint Francis can help.
What to Read When the Odds Are Against You
Literature is full of reminders that long odds can sometimes be surmounted.
How Sherlock Holmes Broke Copyright Law
Adaptations of Holmes stories are exploding now that the detective is in the public domain. Critics believe it should have happened decades ago.
How ‘the End’ Helps Us Find New Beginnings
Contemplating death at the start of a new year
Five Books That Offer Readers Intellectual Exercise
Each of these titles exercises a different kind of reading muscle, so that you can choose the one that will push you most.
Birthmark
A poem for Wednesday