Solvej Balle and the Tyranny of Time Solvej Balle and the Tyranny of Time
The Danish novelist’s septology, On the Calculation of Volume, asks what fiction can explore when you remove one of its key characteristics—the idea of time itself.
Dec 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Dilara O’Neil
Luigi Pirandello’s Broken Men Luigi Pirandello’s Broken Men
The Nobel Prize-winning writer was once seen as Italy’s great man of letters. Why was he forgotten?
Dec 2, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gus O’Connor
Franz Kafka’s Best Friend Franz Kafka’s Best Friend
Kafka’s late story about a philosopher dog, like most of his stories about animals, is really about our lost humanity.
Nov 12, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Lethem
Zadie Smith: "I Say What I See" Zadie Smith: "I Say What I See"
A conversation with the acclaimed author about her new essay collection, Dead and Alive.
Nov 7, 2025 / Q&A / Edna Bonhomme
The Marriage Plot From 50,000 Feet Above The Marriage Plot From 50,000 Feet Above
Kate Folks’s Sky Daddy pokes fun at the need for love at the core of most fiction—dramatizing one woman’s quest for romance through her very literal lust for airplanes.
Oct 30, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Laura Adamczyk
Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs
Himes helped reinvent the idea of the detective novel. He also transformed it into a powerful vehicle for social criticism.
Oct 20, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gene Seymour
“To Free Someone Else”: Toni Morrison the Book Editor “To Free Someone Else”: Toni Morrison the Book Editor
A recent book on her career in publishing makes the case that the great American novelist should also be seen as a pathbreaking editor.
Oct 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Marina Magloire
Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair
J.R.R. Tolkien has a message for us: Don’t give in to Trump.
Oct 3, 2025 / Aaron Regunberg
On the Road With Joe Westmoreland On the Road With Joe Westmoreland
The writer’s only novel, Tramps Like Us, is a classic of queer literature—one that crystallizes the agony and the ecstasy of coming of age during the HIV era.
Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sasha Geffen
Susan Choi’s Big Novel of History Susan Choi’s Big Novel of History
In Flashlight, Choi examines the tragedies—past and present—that haunt a family living in Japan.
Sep 10, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sarah Chihaya