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.
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
Love Is Magic—And Also Hormones
Scientific inquiry is an attempt at illumination, not an act of desecration.
Heritage
A poem for Sunday
This Week in Books: A Novel That Sees Through Self-Delusion
Lydia Kiesling’s new novel explores the line between culpability and innocence when it comes to climate change.
What Do You Do When You Realize You’re Ruining the Earth?
Lydia Kiesling’s new novel presents us with an individual who goes to great lengths to justify the harm she’s doing.
Seven Books That Explore How Marriage Really Works
In writing, matrimony can prompt questions about freedom, desire, and identity.
The Man Who Transformed American Theater
How August Wilson became one of the country’s most influential playwrights
The Greatest Act of Greenwashing in American History
A new chronicle of redwood logging exposes how a cadre of wealthy industrialists reaped a fortune in the name of environmentalism.
Pemaquid Lighthouse Revisited
A poem for Sunday
A Novel Doesn’t Have to Be About an Individual
James McBride’s radical approach to fiction
The Devil Inside Her
A newly published book by the novelist Susan Taubes further reveals her struggle to make herself whole.