The Books Briefing: Presidential Biographies—And Presidential Mythologies
Books that influence how complicated political figures are remembered: Your weekly guide to the best in books
What Novelists Can Learn From Playwrights
Brontez Purnell on writing fiction from a theater background
Early Retirement
A short story
A Word on Statistics
A poem by Wisława Szymborska, published in The Atlantic in 1997
My Sister Was Disappeared 43 Years Ago
A casualty of Argentina’s so-called Dirty War, Isabel haunted my childhood like a ghost. Then I started searching for her.
The Books Briefing: Humor, Mined From the Absurd
Times are dark. Laughter can provide a respite: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Cairo Apartments
A poem for Sunday
Discovery
New fiction from Lauren Oyler
Lauren Oyler on the Drama of Swiping and Scrolling
“You could say conspiracy theories are like bad fiction, which attempts to tie everything up and explain it all.”
The Man Without a Country
Donald Trump was America’s first stateless president.
The Books Briefing: The Propulsive Power of Desire
Lustful monologues, youthful longings, and “unruly appetites”: Your weekly guide to the best in books
What the Living Do
A poem by Marie Howe, published in The Atlantic in 1994
The Books Briefing: The Best Books of 2020
Our favorite titles from a year that has highlighted the particularities of that thing called reading: Your weekly guide to the best in books
The 15 Best Books of 2020
The memoirs, novels, and poetry that stood out most
The Real Legacy of the Suffrage Movement
The cause produced undaunted trailblazers, Black and white, who continued to pursue social reform.
Life on Earth
A poem for Sunday
The Books Briefing: The Novel Life of Jesus Christ
Why the enigmatic character of Christ sparks the imagination of religious and nonreligious writers alike: Your weekly guide to the best in books
Uncovering the Cultural Revolution’s Awful Truths
Rebel historians chronicle a past that the Chinese Communist Party grows ever more intent on erasing.
The Singular Achievement of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
No spy novel has captured England—or the human capacity for duplicity—like John le Carré’s hunt for the mole.
How Civilization Broke Our Brains
What can hunter-gatherer societies teach us about work, time, and happiness?