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
What Emily Dickinson Left Behind
The winding story of how a trove of 8,000 of the poet’s family objects were saved
Tolstoy Was Wrong About Happy Families
In Loved and Missed, Susie Boyt presents the story of a woman raising a child, and the surprising reality of just how pleasurable it all is.
Nixon Between the Lines
Alone in his study, ballpoint pen in hand, the president revealed himself in the margins of his books.
The Overlooked Danger That’s Massacring Wildlife
A new book argues that there’s nothing worse for wild animals than cars.
All Our Pretty Sons
A poem for Sunday
The Undoing of a Great American Band
Sly and the Family Stone suggested new possibilities in music and life—until it all fell apart.
This Week in Books: Should We Still Read Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
A conversation with Clint Smith on the moral complexity in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous book
Why Are Women Freezing Their Eggs? Look to the Men.
A new book explores the “mating gap” and why women are struggling to find a male co-parent.
Rainbow Queen Encyclopedia
A poem for Wednesday
Lauren Groff Has Written a New Gospel
In her new novel, The Vaster Wilds, the writer tells the story of a girl escaping a colonial outpost and finding herself enveloped in the natural world.