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.
Books
Introducing The Atlantic’s expanded books coverage: essays, criticism, fiction, poetry, and recommendations from our writers and editors
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 Does Lena Dunham Want to Tell Us?
Her new memoir captures the cost of being an impossibly popular target.
The Eighth Deadly Sin
Humankind has devised a new form of debasement.
What To Read
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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.
Six Books You Can Get Lost In
These novels highlight the power—both good and bad—of unchecked fantasizing.
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
Six Political Memoirs Worth Reading
Hackish campaign memoirs shouldn’t indict the entire genre—there are truly excellent books written about power from the inside.
A Dissident Is Built Different
How did Alexei Navalny stand up to a totalitarian regime?
Sunday Morning
A poem
What Elon Musk Really Wants
The Tesla and X mogul has long dreamed of redesigning the world in his own extreme image. Trump may be his Trojan horse.
Who Owns an Idea?
Cases of loose inspiration or coincidental convergences in art can be fascinating, because they force us to rethink what originality really means.
The Domestic Thriller That Shatters Chilean Myths
In Alia Trabucco Zerán’s novel Clean, a housekeeper’s testimony exposes social fissures that have endured after Pinochet.
Seven True Stories That Read Like Thrillers
These immersive works of journalism follow ordinary Americans facing long odds.
I Hate Didactic Novels. Here’s Why This One Works.
Richard Powers’s recent novels have traded complexity for preachiness, but his latest is an effective twist on AI panic.
A Radical Vision of the Sick Body
A Nobel Prize–winning author and her ex-lover explore the surprising vitality of a grave illness.
Han Kang’s Transgressive Art
The author, who has never shied away from criticizing Korean culture, has also given South Korea its first Nobel Prize in Literature.