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
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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
What Andrea Gibson Understood About Very Simple Poetry
Gibson, who died this week, valued live performance and emotionally resonant language.
What to Do With the Most Dangerous Book in America
At a perilous American moment, the Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains why he wanted to read The Turner Diaries.
Andrea Gibson Refused to ‘Battle’ Cancer
The last years of the poet’s life were among their most joyful.
What We Gain by Forgetting
In Linn Ullmann’s memoiristic fiction, the erosion of memories is a feature, not a bug.
Is America Really Exceptional?
What happens anywhere—including moves toward authoritarianism—can also happen here.
Between ‘the Drive to Forget and the Obligation to Remember’
Argentina’s unfinished reckoning shows how difficult it can be to recover from state terror.
How the Grateful Dead Nearly Solved the Problem With Live Music
The band’s innovative sound system made them sound better than ever. It also nearly broke them.
Lamentations
A short story
