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
Beware the Language That Erases Reality
An open letter signed by famous writers decrying Israel’s response to the Hamas attack shows a startling moral obtuseness.
Nine Books That Push Against the Status Quo
These titles demand a clear-eyed look at things people too often take for granted.
A Worthy Heir to David Foster Wallace and Thomas Pynchon
In Wellness, Nathan Hill recounts a love story, but also much, much more.
Why Children Are Everywhere in Louise Glück’s Poetry
By placing mothers and their babies at the center of her poems, the Nobel laureate explored a world made of reality and myth.
Explaining Pain
A poem for Sunday
A Poet Reckons With Her Past
In a striking new memoir, the Jamaican writer Safiya Sinclair attempts to make peace with her Rastafari childhood and the island that shaped her.
This Week in Books: Madonna Is the Blueprint for a Diva
Mary Gabriel’s new biography reveals the star’s indelible position in pop.
The Protestant Sleep Ethic
A recent memoir considers how much we concede when we regard rest as a call to judgment.
The Journalist and the Fallen Billionaire
In Going Infinite, Michael Lewis gets close—too close—to Sam Bankman-Fried.
What Madonna Knows
The artist is always one step ahead—and has a unique power to scandalize each generation anew.