Fiction

Rafia Zakaria (credit: Jeremy Hogan)

Divided Affections Divided Affections

One writer’s fight against traditions that stifle women in Pakistan.

Sep 10, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

Letters Icon

Letters From the September 28–October 5, 2015, Issue Letters From the September 28–October 5, 2015, Issue

Ishmael Reed on life in the Major League; Scott Walker as Nixon’s protégé…

Sep 10, 2015 / Our Readers and Jesse McCarthy

Miriam Toews (credit: Carol Loewen)

The Unfathomable Sadness The Unfathomable Sadness

Miriam Toews writes about death and mental illness without sentimentality or sweeping platitudes.

Sep 10, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Lauren Oyler

Saul Bellow (middle) after acknowledging his receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature, October 22, 1976. (Credit: Charles Knoblock / AP)

The Flow of Life The Flow of Life

Is Saul Bellow the central American novelist since Willa Cather and William Faulkner?

Sep 10, 2015 / Books & the Arts / David Mikics

September 10, 1885: Carl Van Doren Is Born

September 10, 1885: Carl Van Doren Is Born September 10, 1885: Carl Van Doren Is Born

“He has labored untiringly to dig the weeds out of the annals of American fiction.”

Sep 10, 2015 / Richard Kreitner

September 2, 1973: J.R.R. Tolkien Dies

September 2, 1973: J.R.R. Tolkien Dies September 2, 1973: J.R.R. Tolkien Dies

“One is puzzled to know why the author should have supposed he was writing for adults.… There is little in The Lord of the Rings over the head of a seven-year-old child.”

Sep 2, 2015 / Richard Kreitner

Yoss

Welcome to Earth: Cuba’s ‘Special Period’ Gets the Sci-Fi Treatment Welcome to Earth: Cuba’s ‘Special Period’ Gets the Sci-Fi Treatment

The funny, scathing, and heart-wrenching universe of A Planet for Rent.

Aug 27, 2015 / Books & the Arts / André Naffis-Sahely

Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany Speaks Samuel R. Delany Speaks

The award-winning novelist discusses the intersection of race, sexual identity, and science fiction.

Aug 24, 2015 / Cecilia D’Anastasio

How a Harper Lee Novel Unfit to Print Was Turned Into Found Money

How a Harper Lee Novel Unfit to Print Was Turned Into Found Money How a Harper Lee Novel Unfit to Print Was Turned Into Found Money

The decision to publish was purely a marketing decision. It turned out to be a shrewd one.

Aug 18, 2015 / Richard Lingeman

August 18, 1958: Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ Is Published in the US

August 18, 1958: Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ Is Published in the US August 18, 1958: Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ Is Published in the US

“Lolita by high art transmutes persons, motives and actions which in ordinary life are considered indecent, into objects of delight, compassion and contemplation.”

Aug 18, 2015 / Richard Kreitner

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