Fiction

Point West of Algiers, North Africa, travel sketch, 1896.

Claire Messud’s Remarkable Experiment in Historical Fiction Claire Messud’s Remarkable Experiment in Historical Fiction

Chronicling a pied-noir family across generations and continents, she examines the moral and political responsibilities a novelist owes their kin and their readers.

May 22, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer

Illustration from “The Ship That Sailed to Mars,” by William M. Timlin.

The Radical World-making of Joanna Russ The Radical World-making of Joanna Russ

In her science fiction, the novelist offered not only an astringent critiques of the present but also bold visions of the future.

May 13, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Stephanie Burt

Vinson Cunningham’s Searching Novel of Faith and Politics

Vinson Cunningham’s Searching Novel of Faith and Politics Vinson Cunningham’s Searching Novel of Faith and Politics

In Great Expectations, Cunningham examines the hope and aspirations of the Obama generation.

May 8, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Tope Folarin

Gabriel García Márquez’s Last Lesson

Gabriel García Márquez’s Last Lesson Gabriel García Márquez’s Last Lesson

His final novel, Until August, serves as not only a record of his last struggles with illness but also as a document of courage.

May 7, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Nicolás Medina Mora

Jessi Jezewska Stevens

Data, Desire, and Where Fiction Goes Next Data, Desire, and Where Fiction Goes Next

The Nation speaks to Jessi Jezewska Stevens about her new short-story collection, which dramatizes late-capitalist living.

Apr 24, 2024 / Q&A / Rose D’Amora

Prisoners at a prison in Tel Mond, Israel, 2004.

Bringing a Seminal Palestinian Resistance Novel to the World Bringing a Seminal Palestinian Resistance Novel to the World

Talking with the translators of Wissam Rafeedie's The Trinity of Fundamentals, a book whose genesis is as extraordinary as its contents.

Apr 19, 2024 / Q&A / Rayan El Amine

The Mexican Conquest: A Story Told in the Conditional Tense

The Mexican Conquest: A Story Told in the Conditional Tense The Mexican Conquest: A Story Told in the Conditional Tense

Restaging the meeting between Moctezuma and Hernán Cortés, Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires explores how little we still know about this moment in history.

Apr 4, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lucas Iberico Lozada

Olga Ravn’s Novel of Parenting and Its Discontents

Olga Ravn’s Novel of Parenting and Its Discontents Olga Ravn’s Novel of Parenting and Its Discontents

In My Work, the novelist examines the trials and tribulations of being a mother.

Apr 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Jess Cotton

The Many Faces of Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Many Faces of Viet Thanh Nguyen The Many Faces of Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Vietnamese American writer’s leap to the mainstream comes at a moment that demands his anti-colonialist perspective.

Mar 25, 2024 / Feature / Mari Uyehara

“The Ricotta Eaters,” Vincenzo Campi (c.1585). Found in the Collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon.

At Mathias Énard’s Table At Mathias Énard’s Table

Set between the 16th and 22nd centuries, The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild is a work of political comedy, fixated on class, climate, food, wine, and the afterlife.

Mar 25, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Dustin Illingworth

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