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
See All
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.
Subject to The Atlantic's Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions
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
The Book That Teaches Us to Live With Our Fears
Wolfish explores the question of what, exactly, we perceive as threats.
I Actually Went to the Lighthouse
Searching for Virginia Woolf on the Isle of Skye
The Importance of the Coming-of-Age Novel
The transitions from child to teenager and teenager to adult are full of triumphs and struggles.
What Isaac Asimov Can Teach Us About AI
The science-fiction writer imagined artificial intelligence—and what it might want—long before this uncanny reality ever became our own.
The Movie That Helped Kazuo Ishiguro Make Sense of the World
The Nobel Prize–winning author’s work has long had a symbiotic relationship with cinema. His Oscar-nominated film, Living, is the logical next step.
The Double Life of John le Carré
As The Spy Who Came In From the Cold turns 60, a reassessment of John le Carré and the forces that shaped the writer and the man
You Should Be Reading Sebastian Barry
Ireland’s fiction laureate has a special understanding of the human heart.
Judy Blume Goes All the Way
A new generation discovers the poet laureate of puberty.
Six Memoirs That Go Beyond Memories
Sometimes, a writer can use more than their own recollections to tell a personal story.
Flesh
A poem for Sunday