Fiction

Diane Johnson’s Homecoming

Diane Johnson’s Homecoming Diane Johnson’s Homecoming

In her new novel, the novelist returns to the United States to offer a self-conscious story of American fragmentation.

Jun 28, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Becca Rothfeld

Austrian author Thomas Bernhard. Tonhof. Maria Saal. Carinthia. Photograph. Christmas 1957/58 (Photo by Helmut Baar

The Epic Misery of Thomas Bernhard The Epic Misery of Thomas Bernhard

His little-known novel The Cheap-Eaters, recently translated by Douglas Robertson, puts forward a basic thesis: Life is a sequence of crushings.

Jun 7, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Missouri Williams

The History of Publishing Is a History of Racial Inequality

The History of Publishing Is a History of Racial Inequality The History of Publishing Is a History of Racial Inequality

A conversation with Richard Jean So about combining data and literary analysis to understand how the publishing industry came to be dominated by white writers. 

May 27, 2021 / Q&A / Rosemarie Ho

Richard Wright

Did ‘Cancel Culture’ Drive Richard Wright Underground? Did ‘Cancel Culture’ Drive Richard Wright Underground?

On “Memories of My Grandmother” and The Man Who Lived Underground.

May 20, 2021 / Joseph G. Ramsey

A Portrait of Cis-Trans Solidarity

A Portrait of Cis-Trans Solidarity A Portrait of Cis-Trans Solidarity

Torrey Peters’s novel Detransition, Baby reimagines what we call the family.

May 20, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Sophie Lewis

Service Center by Mark McMahon

The Mundane and Alienated Life of a Freelancer The Mundane and Alienated Life of a Freelancer

Kavita Bedford’s novel Friends and Dark Shapes explores the false promises and precarity of writing in the age of the gig economy.

May 13, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer

A Prophet at the Barbecue: Larry McMurtry, 1936–2021

A Prophet at the Barbecue: Larry McMurtry, 1936–2021 A Prophet at the Barbecue: Larry McMurtry, 1936–2021

Three views of a Texas giant.

May 7, 2021 / Feature / Benjamin Moser

Virgina Woolf

Helpful Men: Defending Philip Roth, Dismissing Virginia Woolf Helpful Men: Defending Philip Roth, Dismissing Virginia Woolf

Like most women who write, I live my life according to the firmly stated judgments of literary men.

May 6, 2021 / Alyssa Harad

Graham Greene’s God

Graham Greene’s God Graham Greene’s God

As a new biography shows, the British novelist was always haunted by, and uncertain about, his own faith.

May 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / John Banville

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Quietly Bracing New Novel

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Quietly Bracing New Novel Jhumpa Lahiri’s Quietly Bracing New Novel

How writing in Italian gave Lahiri a new sense of creative freedom.

May 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Wilson

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