https://www.nybooks.com en-US Wed, 08 Jul 2026 10:45:08 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/08/sodade-world-cup/ The bar is no more than a narrow hall. There is barely enough space between the stools and the wall to walk through to a larger room at the back. Beyond the drawn curtains separating the spaces, two musicians are conducting a mic check before rows of mostly empty chairs. No one is paying attention […]]]> Ratik Asokan Wed, 08 Jul 2026 10:42:40 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/08/sodade-world-cup/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/08/from-the-archive-the-mayakovsky-of-macdougal-street/ Episode 20 of Private Life]]> Geoffrey O’Brien, Eileen Myles Wed, 08 Jul 2026 08:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/08/from-the-archive-the-mayakovsky-of-macdougal-street/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/05/the-grain-of-the-note/ The carnyx is an ancient bronze trumpet, once used by Iron Age warriors who relied on its otherworldly blood-curdling cry to fill their opponents with the literal fear of God. The composer Liza Lim conceived her forthcoming work Tongue of the Land, crafted for the Dutch trumpeter Marco Blaauw, around the demands of this long-forgotten […]]]> Philip Clark Sun, 05 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/05/the-grain-of-the-note/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/04/extraordinarily-profitable-fiduciary-rapport-john-gregory-dunne-charlie-lee/ The old saying “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is, in fact, not all that old, and not really a saying. It was written by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for an advertising campaign in 2003, nearly thirty years after John Gregory Dunne traveled to Sin City and broke its now golden […]]]> Charlie Lee, Chandler Fritz Sat, 04 Jul 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/04/extraordinarily-profitable-fiduciary-rapport-john-gregory-dunne-charlie-lee/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/an-uncertain-triumphalism-1876-centennial-exhibition/ America’s centennial in 1876 was celebrated with a grand exhibition that projected an image of national unity and inventiveness in the anxious aftermath of civil war and recession.]]> Brenda Wineapple Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/an-uncertain-triumphalism-1876-centennial-exhibition/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/is-the-artist-present-eliza-douglas/ By transforming her own old paintings into new works of art, Eliza Douglas raises questions about sincerity and cynicism.]]> Travis Diehl Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/is-the-artist-present-eliza-douglas/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/the-eyes-have-it-carol-rama/ Carol Rama’s abstractions from the late 1960s conjure burned, brutalized bodies.]]> Jarrett Earnest Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/the-eyes-have-it-carol-rama/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/the-judeo-bolshevist-target-jochen-hellbeck/ Popular memory in the West tends to separate the Holocaust from the German war against the Soviet Union, but for the Nazi regime they were two faces of the same undertaking.]]> Omer Bartov Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/the-judeo-bolshevist-target-jochen-hellbeck/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/compromised-values-dead-center-joe-manchin/ Joe Manchin’s memoir reveals that the West Virginian Senator worshipped “work” at the expense of supporting his party’s efforts to help working people.]]> Bryce Covert Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/compromised-values-dead-center-joe-manchin/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/on-the-precipice-nadja-andre-breton/ Critics who call André Breton’s Nadja a novel miss its most innovative aspects.]]> Susan Rubin Suleiman Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/on-the-precipice-nadja-andre-breton/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/the-new-ellis-island-el-paso-jazmine-ulloa/ A history of five families in El Paso reveals the city’s significance as a bellwether of America’s immigration policy.]]> Julia Preston Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/the-new-ellis-island-el-paso-jazmine-ulloa/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/the-late-bohemian-rosemary-tonks/ Rosemary Tonks emulated French Symbolist poets before converting to Christianity and renouncing all her own works.]]> Mark Ford Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/the-late-bohemian-rosemary-tonks/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/wonder-disillusion-the-traveler-andrea-wulf/ The naturalist George Forster was fascinated by plants and animals, but he was also driven by a passionate belief in the rights of all people regardless of race, gender, or social status.]]> Jenny Uglow Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/wonder-disillusion-the-traveler-andrea-wulf/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/maybe-more-often-than-most-laura-kolbe/ Maybe more often than most she buys mirrors.The pseudo-Biedermeier at the flea market—over its workaday planking a veneer of nicer wood. Nested chevronswhose tips center the breastbone.She breathes and the crosshairs lose her, re-hone.Her will to seek glass—viz., the tiny Carnegie-toy branch library she writes in.Its transparent saffron books floating through the Tiffany wall.Breton imagined […]]]> Laura Kolbe Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/maybe-more-often-than-most-laura-kolbe/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/tornado-jim-johnstone/ I know less and less about who I am. Touching down, I lifta nail, a plank, take an entireyard and dress up like I’m going to spend the night dancing. Painting the townwhere I invented stillness by holding my breath. The way somecircle the drain before recognizingthey’re water. Even this river. This river reminds me […]]]> Jim Johnstone Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/tornado-jim-johnstone/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/fashion-forward-costume-institute-moma/ Why has the Metropolitan Museum of Art sold prime gallery space to the fashion industry?]]> Jed Perl Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/fashion-forward-costume-institute-moma/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/when-india-reinvented-prints-divine-color-household-gods/ Two forceful exhibitions have shown how Indian artists and presses met the cultural upheaval of the nineteenth century with lithographic prints that rendered Hindu gods more approachable and helped to galvanize national identity.]]> Andrew Raftery Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/when-india-reinvented-prints-divine-color-household-gods/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/song-of-our-cells-beyond-inheritance-roxanne-khamsi/ Though a mystery to Darwin in his lifetime, the constant mutation of our genes is what allows for life’s magnificent diversity.]]> David Quammen Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/song-of-our-cells-beyond-inheritance-roxanne-khamsi/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/climate-and-punishment-vigil-george-saunders/ Vigil finds George Saunders returning to the theme of his first novel, grief—this time not for a person but for a planet.]]> Gabriel Winslow-Yost Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/climate-and-punishment-vigil-george-saunders/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/hungary-the-flood-gordon-sander/ Peter Magyar’s landslide electoral victory in April made clear that after sixteen years, Hungarians were tired of Viktor Orbán.]]> Gordon F. Sander Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/hungary-the-flood-gordon-sander/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/space-oddity-muskism-slobodian-tarnoff/ Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff’s Muskism examines how Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, by selling a vision of the future that very few people would want to inhabit.]]> Mark O’Connell Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/space-oddity-muskism-slobodian-tarnoff/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/01/robert-gluck-on-frank-ohara/ Episode 19 of Private Life]]> Robert Glück, Jarrett Earnest Wed, 01 Jul 2026 17:35:11 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/01/robert-gluck-on-frank-ohara/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/broken-promises-in-cuban-miami-ferrer-pensack/ Donald Trump has reversed the government’s longstanding benevolence toward Cuban asylum seekers, even as his administration exacerbates the crisis they fled.]]> Ada Ferrer, Miriam Pensack Tue, 30 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/07/23/broken-promises-in-cuban-miami-ferrer-pensack/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/28/the-unraveling-of-afghan-asylum/ Afees Monsef has a grave magnetism that makes him easy to find, even in a crowd.1 We first met in the spring of 2025, at a gathering in the basement of the Hazrati Abu Bakr Siddique mosque in Flushing, two years after he and his family of eight crossed the US–Mexico border fleeing persecution by […]]]> Tanvi Misra Sun, 28 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/28/the-unraveling-of-afghan-asylum/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/27/spare-me-the-hedgehoggery/ “I’m not fond of efforts to see ourselves reflected in places where we aren’t: better, I think, to let the past be the past in all its irreducible bloody-minded weirdness.”]]> Clare Bucknell, Julia Shi Sat, 27 Jun 2026 10:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/27/spare-me-the-hedgehoggery/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/26/resistance-choirs-raven-chacon/ For centuries the Lenape people had hunting grounds and fishing camps in an area they called Penadnic, in the rocky hills of upper Manhattan. Wrested away from its original inhabitants by Dutch and British settlers following the infamous “sale” of the island to the Dutch colonial governor Peter Minuit in 1626, the land passed through […]]]> Nate Wooley Fri, 26 Jun 2026 08:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/26/resistance-choirs-raven-chacon/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/24/through-the-looking-glass-leanne-shapton/ A dispatch from the Art Editor]]> Leanne Shapton Wed, 24 Jun 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/24/through-the-looking-glass-leanne-shapton/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/24/safety-is-when-theres-no-one-dying-lebanon-children/ The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund is based in the Blue Building, a medical center across from the American University of Beirut, in the city’s Hamra district. Many of the children whose care it sponsors have come to Lebanon from Gaza, mostly by way of Egypt, after an intensive vetting process involving the Israeli state […]]]> Mary Turfah Wed, 24 Jun 2026 08:48:28 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/24/safety-is-when-theres-no-one-dying-lebanon-children/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/24/from-the-archive-chronicles-of-love-and-loss-by-helen-vendler/ Episode 18 of Private Life]]> Helen Vendler, Langdon Hammer Wed, 24 Jun 2026 08:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/24/from-the-archive-chronicles-of-love-and-loss-by-helen-vendler/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/23/an-eternal-indoors-backrooms/ It is a persistent wonder of the Internet that so much can, at times, be built from so little. A simple doorway opens to a vast labyrinth, assembled by the seemingly infinite labors of the obsessed and anonymous. The foundation of Backrooms, the new film by Kane Parsons—which has made him, at twenty years old, […]]]> Gabriel Winslow-Yost Tue, 23 Jun 2026 10:45:41 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/23/an-eternal-indoors-backrooms/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/21/figuring-lovia-gyarkye/ In the “At the Galleries” column from our June 25, 2026, issue, Lovia Gyarkye writes about an exhibition of work by the British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York. Yiadom-Boakye is most known for painting solitary, serene figures that nonetheless possess, as Gyarkye writes, “a sly, even conspiratorial edge.” The […]]]> Lovia Gyarkye, Nawal Arjini Sun, 21 Jun 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/21/figuring-lovia-gyarkye/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/20/variations-on-broken-eggs-arendt-jarrell/ In April 1951 Randall Jarrell sent a short poem titled “A War” to his friend Robert Lowell: There set out, slowly, for a Different World,At four, on winter mornings, different legs…You can’t break eggs without making an omelette—That’s what they tell the eggs. The poem is unnervingly odd, with its disjointed second line that evokes, […]]]> Christopher Benfey Sat, 20 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/20/variations-on-broken-eggs-arendt-jarrell/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/19/no-one-comic/      ]]> Liana Finck Fri, 19 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/19/no-one-comic/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/17/eve-babitzs-letters-from-too-la/ Episode 17 of Private Life]]> Eve Babitz, Gina Gershon Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:45:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/17/eve-babitzs-letters-from-too-la/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/17/dead-lands/ In the mid-1990s, among the various unrelated jobs I took up, there was one that involved teaching video-making workshops to schoolchildren. One such workshop was to take place at an all-girls elementary school in the old city of Jerusalem. The number of attendees was set at twenty. A couple of weeks before our sessions were […]]]> Adania Shibli Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:05:09 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/17/dead-lands/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/14/putting-the-lake-to-work-great-salt-lake/ In November 2022, the Great Salt Lake dropped to a record-low water level. That winter, dust blew off newly exposed patches of the lakebed, clouding the Salt Lake Valley for days at a time. Its particles were contaminated with byproducts of decades’ worth of human activities—including mining and smelting—that had both leached from nearby tailings […]]]> Caroline Tracey Sun, 14 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/14/putting-the-lake-to-work-great-salt-lake/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/13/planet-ufc/ For decades it has been White House tradition to invite Ireland’s prime minister, the Taoiseach, to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with a ceremonial exchange of a bowl of shamrocks, symbolizing Irish-American friendship. But two months into Donald Trump’s return in 2025, a very different figure was marking the holiday with a very different kind of […]]]> Nic Johnson Sat, 13 Jun 2026 12:37:13 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/13/planet-ufc/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/13/the-moviegoer-dennis-lim/ “When we keep saying cinema is dead or dying, we lose sight of what we have actually lost and what might still be possible, even as so much about the art form continues to change.”]]> Dennis Lim, Gabriel Winslow-Yost Sat, 13 Jun 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/13/the-moviegoer-dennis-lim/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/11/matthew-aucoin-on-opera-music-criticism-and-poetry/ Episode 16 of Private Life]]> Matthew Aucoin, Jarrett Earnest Thu, 11 Jun 2026 07:53:51 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/11/matthew-aucoin-on-opera-music-criticism-and-poetry/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/10/the-archbishops-library/ In an article for Wired in 1999, William Gibson idly mentions a coffee shop in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. It sounds like a typical Turkish cafe, except for the fact that it’s been open “twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, literally for centuries.” Gibson does not linger on the subject. As […]]]> Christian Donlan Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/10/the-archbishops-library/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/09/cloudbusting-in-california-steve-hilton/ Just over twenty years ago, in April 2006, British media gave generous space to film and photographs of a sled hauled over a vast expanse of snow by a team of six huskies. The man driving the sled, dressed in expensive Arctic gear, was David Cameron, who had been elected leader of the Conservative opposition […]]]> Fintan O’Toole Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:27:53 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/06/09/cloudbusting-in-california-steve-hilton/