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
Cynthia Ozick on the Link Between Beauty and Purity
“Feeling, pure feeling, is a willing collaboration between the godlet and the believer who is carried away.”
Late-Night-Radio Talk-Show Host Tells All
A short story
Tidal
A poem for Sunday
Should We Psychoanalyze Our Presidents?
Sigmund Freud once applied his Oedipal theory to the leader of the free world.
What You Should Be Reading This Summer
20 books to match some warm-weather moods
Other Writers Seem Asleep by Comparison
After Martin Amis’s death, Jennifer Egan reflects on his influence and his humor.
The 400-Year-Old Tragedy That Captures Our Chaos
Pop culture is finding new currency in the tale of a king beset by madness.
American Guns, American Deaths
What photographs of the sites of mass shootings show—and what they omit
Chain-Gang All-Stars Is Gladiator Meets the American Prison System
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s new novel is set in a world where extreme brutality has become corporate entertainment.
What Kind of Nazi Was He?
In a new memoir, the grandson of a Nazi official wonders whether “passive resistance” to Hitler’s regime ought to be categorized as a moral victory or failure.