Fiction

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

The Magic of Reading Bernard Malamud

The Magic of Reading Bernard Malamud The Magic of Reading Bernard Malamud

His work, unlike that of Bellow or Roth, focused on the lives of often impoverished Jews in Brooklyn and the Bronx and bestowed on them a literary magic.

Feb 20, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick

A model home in Sydney, 1968.

Helen Garner’s Alienating Domesticity  Helen Garner’s Alienating Domesticity 

In her novel The Children’s Bach, the Australian writer conjures a relentless portrait of the comforts and restrictions of family life.

Feb 12, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Isabella Trimboli

Pier Paolo Pasolini at a demonstration in Rome, 1970.

In the Streets of Rome With Pier Paolo Pasolini In the Streets of Rome With Pier Paolo Pasolini

His bracing debut novel, Boys Alive, documents the hard and loose lives of vagabonds in the Italian capital’s underbelly.

Feb 7, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Jack Hanson

Juan Rulfo, 1985.

Juan Rulfo’s Revolution in Mexican Fiction Juan Rulfo’s Revolution in Mexican Fiction

In his 1955 masterpiece Pedro Páramo, he gave the bloody history of his country—between the rich and poor, landed and landless—mythic dimension.

Feb 1, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Ratik Asokan

Isabella Hammad’s Novel of Art and Exile in Palestine

Isabella Hammad’s Novel of Art and Exile in Palestine Isabella Hammad’s Novel of Art and Exile in Palestine

Enter the Ghost looks at a group of Palestinians who try to put on a production of Hamlet in the occupied West Bank. 

Jan 25, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Raja Shehadeh

“Night,” 1897.

Susan Taubes’s Uncanny Chronicles of Domestic Hell Susan Taubes’s Uncanny Chronicles of Domestic Hell

Her previously unreleased fiction—a novella and short stories—in Lament for Julia peek into the banal and nightmarish travails of married life.

Jan 4, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kathy Chow

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