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.
Subject to The Atlantic's Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions
Fortunes
A short story
The Honor of the Layward Brothers
A short story
We Are Not One
A short story
Diseducators
A short story
There Is a Word for What Is Happening in Minneapolis
What ICE’s opponents are doing in Minnesota is part of a long and successful historical tradition: dissidence.
What Does Life After Ambition Actually Look Like?
Writing a great memoir about choosing a “good enough” life, it turns out, is hard.
Half His Age Isn’t At All What It Seems
Jennette McCurdy’s novel may seem like a story of exploitation—but it’s much more intriguing than that.
Josh Shapiro Takes a Gamble on His Faith
The presidential contender’s memoir presents his Jewishness as a unifying force—and in this morally fraught moment, it might just work.
George Saunders Brings Morality Back to Fiction
The author’s work makes an excellent case that literature can explore virtue—even if his latest novel reveals its pitfalls.
The Worst Thing About the Black Dahlia Case
Before her murder made her a true-crime obsession, Elizabeth Short was a real person. A new book tries to separate truth from myth in the infamous case.
Forbearance
A poem
A Biography Without ‘The Boring Bits’
One example I highly recommend focuses on the work, not the life, of its subject.
George Saunders Has a New Mantra
The author discusses his new novel, Vigil; the source of his ideas; and fiction as a vehicle for truth.
A Novel About the Costs of Family Secrets
In Quiara Alegría Hudes’s The White Hot, they hurt the people they’re meant to protect.