Barbara Pym’s Archaic England Barbara Pym’s Archaic England
In the novelist’s work, she mocks English culture’s nostalgia, revealing what lies beneath the country’s obsession with its heritage.
Feb 6, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Ashley Cullina
George Whitmore’s Unsparing Queer Fiction George Whitmore’s Unsparing Queer Fiction
Long out of print, his novel Nebraska is an enigmatic record of queer survival in midcentury America.
Jan 26, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Lybarger
John Updike, Letter Writer John Updike, Letter Writer
A brilliant prose stylist, confident, amiable, and wonderfully lucid when talking about other people’s problems, Updike rarely confessed or confronted his own.
Jan 12, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick
The Dislocations of Shuang Xuetao The Dislocations of Shuang Xuetao
The Chinese writer’s fiction details how the country transformed on an intimate level after the Cultural Revolution.
Dec 30, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Ting Lin
An Absurdist Novel That Tries to Make Sense of the Ukraine War An Absurdist Novel That Tries to Make Sense of the Ukraine War
Maria Reva’s Endling is at once a postmodern caper and an autobiographical work that explores how ordinary people navigate a catastrophe.
Dec 30, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Laura Mills
Why We Keep Reading “All Quiet on the Western Front” Why We Keep Reading “All Quiet on the Western Front”
A new translation vividly renders the sadly evergreen influence of the Erich Maria Remarque’s World War I novel.
Dec 29, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Paul Reitter
Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel
Your Name Here dramatizes the tensions and possibilities of political art.
Dec 16, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jess Bergman
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