Is Cohabitation the Feminist Future?
Stories about women living together are proliferating—and offering alternative visions to the nuclear family.
Books
Introducing The Atlantic’s expanded books coverage: essays, criticism, fiction, poetry, and recommendations from our writers and editors
Peter Hujar’s Photos Are All the Rage. He’d Be Shocked.
A new biography brings the late photographer’s relationship with the artist Paul Thek to vivid life.
If You Want a Better World, Act Like You Live in It
We’ve had Henry David Thoreau the environmentalist, the libertarian, the life coach. To understand his influence, think of him first as a dissident.
The Publishing Mystery That No One Wants to Talk About
A minimally speaking autistic man just wrote a best-selling book. Or did he?
The Paradox of Modern Medicine
Testing has become so advanced that doctors now miss important elements of diagnosis.
What To Read
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Eight of the Most Fascinating Biographies to Read
Each is animated by the author’s love—for their subject, for language, and for pushing the boundaries of what the genre can do.
Six Books That Simply Must Be Talked About
These six books demand discussion—with a pal, a date, or a book club.
Nine Books to Reset Your View of the World
Each of these titles will widen your perspective, offering you original insight and vision.
Seven Books to Read When You Have No Time to Read
These titles are worth picking up, even if you have only a moment to spare.
Newsletter
The Books Briefing
Our culture editors’ weekly guide to the best in books.
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Fiction
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Scars
A short story
Fortunes
A short story
The Honor of the Layward Brothers
A short story
We Are Not One
A short story
She Never Meant to Write a Memoir
Janet Malcolm’s autobiography presents an argument about the fundamental murkiness of autobiography itself.
Today I Love Being Alive
A poem for Sunday
How It Feels to Lose a Utopia
Stories about idyllic worlds that have disappeared can be the best reminders of the beauty that is still in our reach: Your weekly guide to the best in books
Seven Books About How Homes Shape Our Life
Dwellings are loaded with meaning for the people—and characters—who inhabit them.
A Society That Can’t Get Enough of Work
A satirical 1883 pamphlet about workers who won’t quit has eerie resonance today.
All the Pretty Republicans
If Cormac McCarthy interpreted the humiliations of Kevin McCarthy
For the Child(ren) I Cannot Carry
A poem for Sunday
The Writer’s Most Sacred Relationship
Creative partnerships can be a challenge for fragile egos—but they also provide a lifeline in difficult times.
A New Year Doesn’t Call for a New You
The drive to entirely reinvent ourselves is never stronger than it is in January.
A Civil War Over Semicolons
The biographer Robert Caro and his editor, Robert Gottlieb, have been arguing with each other for 50 years.