When History Doesn’t Do What We Wish It Would
In Ed Park’s new novel, the past is slippery, elusive, and alive.
The Novel That Takes You Inside a Defense Lawyer’s Mind
In Marie NDiaye’s latest, an attorney struggles with the case of a mother accused of infanticide.
The Rise and Fall of the ‘IBM Way’
What the tech pioneer can, and can’t, teach us
Seven Books That Will Make You Rethink Your Relationship to Nature
These titles remind us that our connection to the Earth is inescapable.
What Does the Working Class Really Want?
Vying for its crucial support, neither Democrats nor Republicans are focusing on the essential question.
Weather
A poem for Sunday
The Best Strategy for Late-December Reading
At this time of the year, I try to resist the pressure to be productive.
A Novel That Shows the Dark Side of Utopia
Gabriel Bump’s new book examines the human impulse to build new societies—and to destroy them.
The Atlantic 10
The books that made us think the most this year
My Ancestors Ride Wit Me
A poem for Sunday
Let’s Never Do This to Edith Wharton Again
The writer’s deeply emotional architecture is made dully explicit in a new adaptation of The Buccaneers.
What a Classical-Music Critic Reads
Anthony Tommasini, the former chief classical-music critic for The New York Times, recommends books and music.
A Masterful Depiction of Male Cruelty
For decades, Claire Keegan has been exploring the shabby way the world treats women.
My New Coat
A poem for Wednesday
Beware Populist Politicians Who Threaten to Kill
A country that once peacefully ousted a dictator chose a murderous autocrat as its leader.
The Case for Challenging Music
Why in classical contemporary music do so many people equate challenging with intimidating—or even infuriating?
Port Authority
A poem for Sunday
The Tyranny of Stuff
The letters of Seamus Heaney reveal that he was bedeviled by the same problem that overwhelms all of us.
Six Books That Might Change How You Think About Mental Illness
These individual, honest narratives can help dislodge oversimplifications about mental health.
Revisiting Hidden Pasts at the National Book Awards
This year, the awards honored books that resurface previously suppressed history.
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