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.
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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
Cloud Pantoum
A poem for Sunday
What to Read in the Face of Disaster
Can any writer offer useful wisdom when ash rains over a metropolis?
The ‘Dark Prophet’ of L.A. Wasn’t Dark Enough
As fires have raged, so have citations of the prescient author Mike Davis. But in a changed world, we need new thinkers too.
Be Like Sisyphus
How to embrace hopeful pessimism in a moment of despair
There’s a New Language Sheriff in Town
Whether renaming the “Gulf of America” or issuing edicts on gender, Trump is enforcing his own brand of political correctness.
The Millworker’s Wife
A poem for Sunday
How Does a Real Person Become a Character?
Two novels take different approaches to bringing the dead back to life.
The Forgotten Woman Who Transformed Forensics
In the 1970s, Martha Goddard invented the rape kit. So why did she die in relative obscurity?
The Hipster Grifter Peaked Too Soon
Kari Ferrell’s memoir is a zippy, intimate account of low-level trickery before the era of scams fully erupted.
A New Kind of Immigrant Novel
Aria Aber’s debut about an Afghan German party girl in Berlin shows that there are plenty of ways to tell an outsider’s story.