The Wild Blood Dynasty
What a little-known family reveals about the nation’s untamed spirit
25 Books to Get Lost in This Summer
The Atlantic’s writers and editors have chosen fiction and nonfiction to match all sorts of moods.
A Family Story About Colonialism and Its Aftereffects
Claire Messud tells a complicated and ambivalent tale about her French family’s history in Algeria.
Tapering
A poem for Sunday
The ‘Lurid Metaphors’ of Illness
Meghan O’Rourke recommends her favorite books about sickness and health.
The Female-Midlife-Crisis Novel
Miranda July’s new book is full of estrangement, eroticism, and whimsy.
Listen to What They’re Chanting
A close look at the words being shouted at protests on campuses across the country reveals why some see the pro-Palestinian cause as so threatening.
She Was No ‘Mammy’
Gordon Parks’s most famous photograph, American Gothic, was of a cleaning woman in Washington, D.C. She has a story to tell.
Some Late-Breaking Adjustments to My New Autobiography
Which is entirely true, by the way.
Six Books That Explore What’s Out There
These titles reflect on what drives our species to seek out the uncharted and unknown.
Hypochondria Never Dies
The diagnosis is officially gone, but health anxiety is everywhere.
No Subject
A poem for Sunday
Poetry Is an Act of Hope
Through verse, we can perhaps come closest to capturing events that exist beyond our capacity to describe.
The Complicated Ethics of Rare-Book Collecting
Literary treasures are too often hidden away from the public—but the world of private collecting isn’t all bad.
When Poetry Could Define a Life
The close passing of the poetry critics Marjorie Perloff and Helen Vendler is a moment to recognize the end of an era.
When Your Every Decision Feels Torturous
Neel Mukherjee’s new novel explores the reality that no choice—particularly as a parent—is perfect.
Noon
A poem for Sunday
A Prominent Free-Speech Group Is Fighting for Its Life
PEN America has now canceled its annual World Voices festival, after calling off its literary-awards ceremony last week. Can it survive?
Bringing a Social Movement to Life
The author Adam Hochschild recommends books that vividly illustrate moments of great change.
What the Author of Frankenstein Knew About Human Nature
An 1826 novel encourages people to practice humility in the face of nature’s awesome forces.