Eight Nonfiction Books That Will Frighten You
These eight titles are some of the best the true-crime genre has to offer.
The Year My Father Died
A poem for Wednesday
The Writer Who Understood the True Nature of Obsession
The late Gary Indiana kept the culture of his time close to his chest because it fueled his indignation—and his fixations.
The Virtue of Being Forgotten
A new book argues that privacy is the key to a meaningful existence.
The Genius of Handel’s Messiah
The oratorio is a feat of sustained inspiration arguably unsurpassed in the canon of Western classical music.
Sapphire
A poem for Sunday
The Least-Loved Type of Memoir
Political autobiographies are usually dreck, but some rise above their genre.
Michel Houellebecq Has Some Fresh Predictions. Be Afraid.
In a new novel, France’s famously abrasive author progresses from barbed satire to a spiritual-conversion narrative.
Why Randy Newman Is Least Loved for His Best Work
The musician’s greatest songs are dramatic, psychologically complex, and often very bleak.
Six Political Memoirs Worth Reading
Hackish campaign memoirs shouldn’t indict the entire genre—there are truly excellent books written about power from the inside.
A Dissident Is Built Different
How did Alexei Navalny stand up to a totalitarian regime?
Sunday Morning
A poem
What Elon Musk Really Wants
The Tesla and X mogul has long dreamed of redesigning the world in his own extreme image. Trump may be his Trojan horse.
Who Owns an Idea?
Cases of loose inspiration or coincidental convergences in art can be fascinating, because they force us to rethink what originality really means.
The Domestic Thriller That Shatters Chilean Myths
In Alia Trabucco Zerán’s novel Clean, a housekeeper’s testimony exposes social fissures that have endured after Pinochet.
Seven True Stories That Read Like Thrillers
These immersive works of journalism follow ordinary Americans facing long odds.
I Hate Didactic Novels. Here’s Why This One Works.
Richard Powers’s recent novels have traded complexity for preachiness, but his latest is an effective twist on AI panic.
A Radical Vision of the Sick Body
A Nobel Prize–winning author and her ex-lover explore the surprising vitality of a grave illness.
Han Kang’s Transgressive Art
The author, who has never shied away from criticizing Korean culture, has also given South Korea its first Nobel Prize in Literature.
Scent of a Man
In a new memoir, Al Pacino promises to reveal the person behind the actor. But is he holding something back?