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.
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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Scars
A short story
Fortunes
A short story
The Honor of the Layward Brothers
A short story
We Are Not One
A short story
Where Han Kang’s Nightmares Come From
In her novels, the South Korean Nobel laureate returns again and again to her country’s bloody past.
A Holocaust Novel Confronts Fiction’s Limits
Lily Tuck’s attempt to bring to life a victim of the atrocity turns her into a prosecutor, not a novelist.
A Palestinian Story Unlike Any Other
In her debut novel, Too Soon, Betty Shamieh isn’t trying to educate or enlighten.
We stay and its ours
A poem for Sunday
Why We Celebrate When Copyright Expires
Every January 1 in the Books department, we like to make an extra toast for a concurrent holiday: Public Domain Day.
The Saint America Needs Now
Kindness has become countercultural. Perhaps Saint Francis can help.
What to Read When the Odds Are Against You
Literature is full of reminders that long odds can sometimes be surmounted.
How Sherlock Holmes Broke Copyright Law
Adaptations of Holmes stories are exploding now that the detective is in the public domain. Critics believe it should have happened decades ago.
American Realism
A short story