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
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 Vietnamese American writer’s leap to the mainstream comes at a moment that demands his anti-colonialist perspective.
Mar 25, 2024 / Feature / Mari Uyehara
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
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
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
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’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
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
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