A New Novel Explores How to Develop Black Identity in the Absence of Black Culture A New Novel Explores How to Develop Black Identity in the Absence of Black Culture
In Essie Chambers’s debut novel, Swift River, protagonist Diamond Newberry finds ways to fill the gaps in her family tree.
Jun 6, 2024 / Kali Holloway
A Coming of Age Novel That Puzzles Through Gender A Coming of Age Novel That Puzzles Through Gender
In Griffin Hansbury’s Some Strange Music Draws Me In, a man’s recollections of his transition opens up into a nuanced examination of gender identity’s many contradictions.
May 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Grace Byron
The Imperial Gaze Turns on Britain’s Isles The Imperial Gaze Turns on Britain’s Isles
In Elizabeth O’Connor’s Whale Fall, an encounter between English documentarians and a remote Welsh island community provokes questions of sexual and national identity.
May 23, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Emmet Fraizer
Claire Messud’s Remarkable Experiment in Historical Fiction Claire Messud’s Remarkable Experiment in Historical Fiction
Chronicling a pied-noir family across generations and continents, she examines the moral and political responsibilities a novelist owes their kin and their readers.
May 22, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer
The Radical World-making of Joanna Russ The Radical World-making of Joanna Russ
In her science fiction, the novelist offered not only an astringent critiques of the present but also bold visions of the future.
May 13, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Stephanie Burt
Vinson Cunningham’s Searching Novel of Faith and Politics Vinson Cunningham’s Searching Novel of Faith and Politics
In Great Expectations, Cunningham examines the hope and aspirations of the Obama generation.
May 8, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Tope Folarin
Gabriel García Márquez’s Last Lesson Gabriel García Márquez’s Last Lesson
His final novel, Until August, serves as not only a record of his last struggles with illness but also as a document of courage.
May 7, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Nicolás Medina Mora
Data, Desire, and Where Fiction Goes Next Data, Desire, and Where Fiction Goes Next
The Nation speaks to Jessi Jezewska Stevens about her new short-story collection, which dramatizes late-capitalist living.
Apr 24, 2024 / Q&A / Rose D’Amora
Bringing a Seminal Palestinian Resistance Novel to the World Bringing a Seminal Palestinian Resistance Novel to the World
Talking with the translators of Wissam Rafeedie's The Trinity of Fundamentals, a book whose genesis is as extraordinary as its contents.
Apr 19, 2024 / Q&A / Rayan El Amine
The Mexican Conquest: A Story Told in the Conditional Tense The Mexican Conquest: A Story Told in the Conditional Tense
Restaging the meeting between Moctezuma and Hernán Cortés, Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires explores how little we still know about this moment in history.
Apr 4, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lucas Iberico Lozada