Where My Characters Come From
I don’t choose them; they choose me.
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Getty; The Atlantic Seven Books That Will Make You Smarter
These titles do more than answer questions: They explain how the world moves and what moves it.
Getty; The Atlantic Science Fiction Got Surveillance All Wrong
Government scrutiny isn’t how it appears in 1984. To understand privacy, we’ll need to update our analogies.
Stock Montage / Getty What’s the One Book That Explains American Politics Today?
The Atlantic’s writers have chosen books to help you understand the stakes of the midterms.
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Reading alone can’t take away the pain, but prose can be part of one’s internal healing.
Photography by Lauren Coleman for The Atlantic 
Photo-illustration by Oliver Munday 
Gareth Phillips 
Photograph by Katie Martin / The Atlantic
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