Books Briefing
Our culture editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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Sebastian Mast / Connected Archives When the Status Quo Doesn’t Cut It
Alternatives to the medical or economic state of affairs offer hope—and danger.
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Courtesy of Mariner Books* The Funniest Part of Alison Bechdel’s Work
The author is willing to let her main character be both her double and the butt of her joke.
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Tobias Nicolai / Connected Archives What It Costs to Get the Life You Want
The kind of freedom that Mavis Gallant’s characters seek can still be out of reach.
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Martin Parr / Magnum Take Your Book Outside
Reading al fresco isn’t always idyllic, but it can be sublime.
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Harry Gruyaert / Magnum The Last True Private Realm
When our waking thoughts get transmuted into dreams, what do we learn?
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Courtesy of New York Review Comics The Gleeful, Chaotic World of Underground Comics
Diane DiMassa’s Hothead Paisan is full of unrestrained, devil-may-care attitude.
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State Russian Museum / Bridgeman Images Who Are We, Really?
A new subgenre of literature explores what’s uncovered when you take away someone’s public-facing persona.
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Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Bettmann / Getty; … What’s Next for America’s Largest Creative-Writing Conference
Trump’s executive orders have made it downstream to authors.
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GraphicaArtis / Bridgeman Images The Danger of a Too-Open Mind
Perhaps being persuadable is overrated—at least if it means “coming to accept the unacceptable.”
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Evelyn Freja / Connected Archives The Literature of the Pandemic
Half a decade on, we now have at least a small body of work that takes on COVID.
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David Avazzadeh / Connected Archives The Place of Politics in Fiction
Should novelists write the world as it is or as it should be?
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Lawrence Alma-Tadema / Buyenlarge / Getty A Delightfully Frenetic Cult Classic
Chloe Caldwell’s Women revolves around a life-altering yet toxic affair.
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Illustration by Jonelle Afurong / The Atlantic. Sources: … Thinking About Divorce in a New Way
Haley Mlotek’s new memoir finds a fresh way to talk about the dissolution of a marriage.
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Jakub Schikaneder / Fine Art Images / Heritage … The Fantasy of a More Neighborly Past
Sun City offers evidence that Americans’ widespread isolation began long before they became absorbed in their phones.
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Heritage Images / Getty A New, Unbearably Honest Kind of Writing
Two authors’ memoirs attempt to communicate intensely isolating experiences to readers.
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Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic. … Why Contemporary Fiction Loves Analog Tech
In Catherine Airey’s new novel, a young person’s curiosity about a life lived without social media or streaming is deployed to superb effect.
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Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Source: … What to Read in the Face of Disaster
Can any writer offer useful wisdom when ash rains over a metropolis?
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Fine Art / Getty How Does a Real Person Become a Character?
Two novels take different approaches to bringing the dead back to life.
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Silver Screen Collection / Getty 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.
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DeAgostini / Getty How ‘the End’ Helps Us Find New Beginnings
Contemplating death at the start of a new year
