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
There Is More Good Than Evil in This Country
In a new book, two sociologists reconstruct the lives of people who were abandoned in death.
Helen of Troy Meets Her First Husband
A poem for Wednesday
This Whale Has Something to Say
A novel about a young man and the orca named Lolita who knows him better than he knows himself
What’s So Bad About Asking Where Humans Came From?
Human origin stories have often been used for nefarious purposes. That doesn’t mean they are worthless.
Drift of Summer, 1965
A poem for Sunday
Obama, the Protagonist
Two literary accounts of the former president’s rise
The Patron Saint of Political Violence
Does Frantz Fanon have anything to teach us today?
Photographing Black Self-Creation in the American South
How Rahim Fortune depicts the beauty of a place and its people
The Impossible Fight to Live the Life You Want
In Lisa Ko’s ambitious, messy novel, characters go to extreme lengths in search of a purposeful existence.
A Clear-Eyed Look at the Early Obama Years
Vinson Cunningham’s new novel takes the reader back to a time when many thought the nation’s first Black president had an answer for every American ailment.