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
See All
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 Tyranny of Stuff
The letters of Seamus Heaney reveal that he was bedeviled by the same problem that overwhelms all of us.
Six Books That Might Change How You Think About Mental Illness
These individual, honest narratives can help dislodge oversimplifications about mental health.
Revisiting Hidden Pasts at the National Book Awards
This year, the awards honored books that resurface previously suppressed history.
What the Gig Economy Does to a Human
In an age of precarious labor, not every life amounts to a satisfying story.
A Redacted Past Slowly Emerges
This year’s winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, Justin Torres’s Blackouts is a complex story about recovering the history of erased and ignored gay lives.
When Milton Friedman Ran the Show
The economist’s free-market ideas, once a reigning consensus, have been marginalized—yet have also left a disconcerting mark.
The Confederate General Whom All the Other Confederates Hated
James Longstreet became a champion of Reconstruction. Why?
How John F. Kennedy Fell for the Lost Cause
And the grandmother who wouldn’t let him get away with it
A Nonfiction Writer’s Biggest Challenge
To explain how the world works, authors have to break down complicated systems—without being boring.