https://www.nybooks.com en-US Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:07:52 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/16/hardy-men-hardy-boys-passage-press/ In 2022 Jonathan Keeperman, then a lecturer in the English department at the University of California, Irvine, who for years had moonlighted as a right-wing Internet provocateur, founded a boutique publisher called Passage Press. His goal, he told Ross Douthat in a New York Times interview last year, was to build a reactionary cultural apparatus that would […]]]> Daniel Lefferts Thu, 16 Apr 2026 07:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/16/hardy-men-hardy-boys-passage-press/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/16/she-knows-a-place-mavis-staples/ There’s a recording I hold close, Joan Armatrading’s “Woncha Come on Home.” When the song was released in 1977, it was common for music producers to double-track vocal lines, recording two nearly identical takes and layering them on top of each other to produce a full, uniform sound. The vocals in “Woncha Come on Home,” […]]]> Sophie Abramowitz Thu, 16 Apr 2026 07:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/16/she-knows-a-place-mavis-staples/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/15/everything-but-the-leanne-shapton/ A dispatch from the Art Editor]]> Leanne Shapton Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/15/everything-but-the-leanne-shapton/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/15/from-the-archive-the-banality-of-empathy/ In March 2019 Namwali Serpell wrote for the NYR Online about a choose-your-own-adventure-style episode of the television show Black Mirror, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Hannah Arendt, and Violet Allen’s story “The Venus Effect,” among other subjects, in an expansive essay on about narrative empathy. In this episode of Private Life, “The Banality of Empathy” is read by the writer Lovia Gyarkye. […]]]> Namwali Serpell, Lovia Gyarkye Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:36:56 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/15/from-the-archive-the-banality-of-empathy/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/13/go-out-and-sue-a-polluter/ Shortly before Christmas in 1969 a dense fog rolled in across the bayous of the Texas Gulf Coast. For more than four days it blanketed a vast region, as far west as San Antonio and as far east as Port Arthur. Flights were grounded, cars crashed, and all traffic halted in the Houston Ship Channel, […]]]> Scott W. Stern Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:36:58 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/13/go-out-and-sue-a-polluter/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/11/a-widening-gulf-adam-hanieh/ “It would be a mistake to treat the Gulf as politically homogeneous. The war has clearly shown the weight of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but it has not eliminated the different calculations of other Gulf states.”]]> Adam Hanieh, Nawal Arjini Sat, 11 Apr 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/11/a-widening-gulf-adam-hanieh/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/11/a-workingmans-surrealist-hc-westermann/ You could say that H. C. Westermann became an artist on the morning of March 19, 1945. While serving as a marine gunner on the USS Enterprise during World War II, the twenty-two-year-old witnessed an enemy aircraft dive-bomb the nearby USS Franklin off the coast of Japan, killing more than seven hundred men—most of them […]]]> Jeremy Lybarger Sat, 11 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/11/a-workingmans-surrealist-hc-westermann/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/10/the-emirates-on-the-tightrope/ On Sunday, March 22, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, maternal brother of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, put on a brave face. The evening prior, President Donald Trump declared that if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened within forty-eight hours, he would order strikes on Iranian […]]]> Colin Powers Fri, 10 Apr 2026 11:27:39 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/10/the-emirates-on-the-tightrope/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/09/namwali-serpell-on-toni-morrison-criticism-and-narrative-empathy/ In this episode of Private Life, the writer and New York Review contributor Namwali Serpell joins Jarrett Earnest to discuss her new book, On Morrison, a collection of essays about Toni Morrison and her work.  Click the “Subscribe” link in the player above to follow this podcast on your favorite listening platform. Their conversation covers Morrison’s life as a […]]]> Namwali Serpell, Jarrett Earnest Thu, 09 Apr 2026 06:21:30 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/09/namwali-serpell-on-toni-morrison-criticism-and-narrative-empathy/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/04/novels-of-future-aaron-matz/ “Difficile est saturam non scribere: if you’re paying attention to present conditions, it’s difficult not to write satire,” writes Aaron Matz, quoting the Roman poet Juvenal, in a review of Dan Sperrin’s State of Ridicule from our March 26, 2026, issue. Unfortunately, literary political satire has been in a long period of decline—and not just because it has been supplanted […]]]> Aaron Matz, Willa Glickman Sat, 04 Apr 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/04/novels-of-future-aaron-matz/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/to-share-is-our-duty-uncollected-letters-of-virginia-woolf/ Two consummate Virginia Woolf scholars have added more than 1,400 letters to the corpus. On show are charm, careful condolence, generosity, candor about her reading and writing, and a belief that “communication is health.”]]> Hermione Lee Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/to-share-is-our-duty-uncollected-letters-of-virginia-woolf/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/the-aging-class-golden-years-work-retire-repeat/ Retirement, like so much of the American economy, is a broken system that benefits private interests and exploits the most vulnerable people.]]> Trevor Jackson Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/the-aging-class-golden-years-work-retire-repeat/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/friendship-7-lucy-sante/ Museum Visit: Friendship 7; a collage by Lucy Sante]]> Lucy Sante Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/friendship-7-lucy-sante/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/the-painters-shadow-world-morgan-meis/ Morgan Meis’s Three Paintings Trilogy is the most exciting new writing about the visual arts to appear in a generation.]]> Jed Perl Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/the-painters-shadow-world-morgan-meis/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/the-throwaway-planet-waste-wars-clapp/ Three books raise political and moral questions about human consumption—and the value we place on those who clean up the waste.]]> Caroline Fraser Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/the-throwaway-planet-waste-wars-clapp/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/living-through-the-civil-war-george-templeton-strong/ George Templeton Strong’s diaries provide the North’s best record of daily passions and woes during its struggle against the South.]]> Michael Gorra Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/living-through-the-civil-war-george-templeton-strong/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/lots-wife-andrea-cohen/ I always get confused.I think it’s Lot’sturning back that turnedher to salt. A wholepillar of it. I always thinkhe’s an Orpheus of sorts,though Orpheus wasgorgeous and a knockouton his lute. But Lot?There’s not a wholelot we can say in his favor.I have to think his wife had a name other thanLot’s wife, that shemight have […]]]> Andrea Cohen Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/lots-wife-andrea-cohen/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/a-vast-symphony-of-stone-viollet-le-duc/ In his renovation of Notre-Dame, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.]]> David A. Bell Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/a-vast-symphony-of-stone-viollet-le-duc/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/world-of-his-fathers-returning-nicholas-lemann/ Nicholas Lemann’s Returning traces his Louisiana family’s gradual distancing across generations from its Jewish faith and his own efforts to reembrace it.]]> Brenda Wineapple Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/world-of-his-fathers-returning-nicholas-lemann/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/psalm-121-timmy-straw/ From the prohibition against representation    that binds the globe in images.From that blue sea from which like whips    my help will cometo mend me nameless to this rock the world    that I may see you,my Lord. Who once misfit the eye    as mere prosperity,the glare that causes objects. Who once    set us in the deepa password, lock and mercenary. Who […]]]> Timmy Straw Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/psalm-121-timmy-straw/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/heavens-elegist-tennyson-boundless-deep-holmes/ Alfred Tennyson's poetry addressed the central anxiety of his day: how to live in a world where scientific discoveries were slowly replacing religious faith.]]> Kathryn Hughes Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/heavens-elegist-tennyson-boundless-deep-holmes/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/a-devotee-of-deception-old-man-by-the-sea-starnone/ In Domenico Starnone’s The Old Man by the Sea, an elderly writer looks back across a life in which he has always sought distance and control rather than passion. ]]> Tim Parks Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/a-devotee-of-deception-old-man-by-the-sea-starnone/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/blood-in-the-game-bloodline-fever-beach/ For two novels that address the escalating violence, rampant corruption, and class resentment poisoning our society, Lee Clay Johnson’s Bloodline and Carl Hiaasen’s Fever Beach are also surprisingly funny.]]> Francine Prose Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/blood-in-the-game-bloodline-fever-beach/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/reimagining-the-future-of-ireland-otoole-mcbride-toibin/ Two writers from different parts and traditions of the island argue with each other and themselves about the advantages and disadvantages of Irish unification.]]> Colm Tóibín Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/reimagining-the-future-of-ireland-otoole-mcbride-toibin/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/misjudgment-at-nuremberg-james-vanderbilt/ In James Vanderbilt’s film Nuremberg, about the trial of the major Nazi war criminals, the questioning of Russell Crowe’s all too charming Hermann Göring becomes a moment of invented high drama.]]> Alice Kaplan Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/misjudgment-at-nuremberg-james-vanderbilt/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/why-the-west-an-exchange/ To the Editors: In his review of Georgios Varouxakis’s The West [NYR, December 18, 2025], Yuri Slezkine makes assertions that should unsettle anyone concerned about the fate of liberal democracy. Most troubling are these: that historic Russia is a largely passive entity against which “the West” defines itself; that Ukraine—a country fighting for its existence […]]]> John Connelly, Maria Sonevytsky, Yuri Slezkine Thu, 02 Apr 2026 07:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/why-the-west-an-exchange/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/01/gini-alhadeff-reads-nadja/ In this episode of Private Life, the writer, translator, and editor Gini Alhadeff reads excerpts from Mark Polizzotti’s recent translation, for NYRB Classics, of André Breton’s 1928 surrealist novel, Nadja. Blending autobiography and fiction, this abidingly strange book recounts, analyzes, and remembers Breton’s brief love affair with the eponymous young woman in 1920s Paris. Click the […]]]> André Breton, Gini Alhadeff Wed, 01 Apr 2026 16:39:49 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/04/01/gini-alhadeff-reads-nadja/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/31/timid-europe-iran-war/ On Sunday, March 22, three weeks into the US–Israeli war in Iran, Donald Trump received an unlikely pledge of support. The previous Friday he had taken to Truth Social to lambast his fellow NATO members, calling them “COWARDS” for refusing to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively blocked with threats […]]]> Caitlin L. Chandler Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:47:25 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/31/timid-europe-iran-war/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/born-in-the-usa-birthright-citizenship-david-cole/ For the Supreme Court to accept the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke birthright citizenship, it would have to repudiate the Constitution, its own precedents, and the long-standing position of all three branches of the US government.]]> David Cole Tue, 31 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/born-in-the-usa-birthright-citizenship-david-cole/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/29/tell-me-your-worst-helene-schjerfbeck/ The Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck told her models to stay silent and look away from her while she worked. She would not tolerate conversation or a returned gaze. As a result her paintings show the many ways art can present a person indirectly: in profile, eyes closed, staring off in the distance or looking askance, […]]]> Bridget Alsdorf Sun, 29 Mar 2026 08:03:02 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/29/tell-me-your-worst-helene-schjerfbeck/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/28/indecorous-decorations-medieval-sexuality/ Around the year 1400 a young woman in Central Europe was given a saddle made of bone, likely for her wedding day. As she rode from her parents’ home to that of her new husband, she sat upon carved scenes of lovers embracing and men banging drums or clutching their belts. In France, at about […]]]> Lauren Kane Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/28/indecorous-decorations-medieval-sexuality/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/27/syphoning-morale-hegseth-stars-and-stripes/ Soon after the outbreak of war in Iran, as America was blitzing the country from a distance with a fusillade of bombs and missiles, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth exulted that we were “punching them while they’re down.” In those early days a US submarine sunk an Iranian naval vessel thousands of miles from the […]]]> Bill McKibben Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:38:41 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/27/syphoning-morale-hegseth-stars-and-stripes/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/from-the-rooftops-of-tehran/ We in Iran own our grief, mourning all by ourselves.]]> Anonymous Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:03:35 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/from-the-rooftops-of-tehran/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/25/mark-polizzotti-on-andre-breton-translation-and-surrealism/ In this episode of Private Life, Jarrett Earnest is joined by Mark Polizzotti to discuss André Breton’s surrealist novel, Nadja, originally published in 1928 and translated into English by Polizzotti for NYRB Classics in 2025. Click the “Subscribe” link in the player above to follow this podcast on your favorite listening platform. Polizzotti gives insight into the […]]]> Mark Polizzotti, Jarrett Earnest Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:41:47 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/25/mark-polizzotti-on-andre-breton-translation-and-surrealism/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/25/neocons-revenge-trump-maga-coalition/ Since Donald Trump’s improbable first win in 2016, pundits have passed countless hours trying to understand how his rise, and the populist movement that powered it, have changed American conservatism. If Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party was, famously, a three-legged stool consisting of social traditionalists, free-market champions, and foreign interventionists, Trump’s MAGA coalition has swelled its […]]]> Osita Nwanevu, Suzanne Schneider Wed, 25 Mar 2026 07:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/25/neocons-revenge-trump-maga-coalition/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/23/bottling-the-world-economy-hormuz-gulf/ Amid the destruction of the US–Israeli war against Iran, much of the world’s attention has fixed on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. In normal times ships traversing the Strait—which runs between Oman and the United Arab Emirates on one […]]]> Adam Hanieh Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:17:23 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/23/bottling-the-world-economy-hormuz-gulf/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/22/the-gaza-doctrine-iran-lebanon/ On Friday, March 13, nearly two weeks into the Lebanese front of “Operation Roaring Lion,” Israeli forces bombed Burj Qalaouiyah, a village in the country’s south. The strike destroyed a health care center, killing twelve doctors, paramedics, nurses, and patients; The New York Times reported that “only one severely injured worker survived.” Among the victims, […]]]> Neve Gordon Sun, 22 Mar 2026 10:52:07 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/22/the-gaza-doctrine-iran-lebanon/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/21/spirit-in-the-sky-erin-maglaque/ What do Italian astronomers, cloistered nuns, levitating saints, and the “sexy dreams” of desert church fathers have in common? In the pages of the Review, they’re all the domain of the critic and scholar Erin Maglaque. Maglaque is a student of archival texts, often written by women, that challenge conventional secular and religious interpretations of […]]]> Erin Maglaque, Chandler Fritz Sat, 21 Mar 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/21/spirit-in-the-sky-erin-maglaque/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/20/elegy-for-rafah/ Since the beginning of the year, my phone has been a window through which I watch the Rafah crossing from my bedroom in Paris three thousand kilometers away. Every piece of news about it awakes something in me that neither the cold of this city nor the long distance can quiet. After nine months in […]]]> Doha Kahlout, Katharine Halls Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:11:36 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/20/elegy-for-rafah/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/19/rigging-the-vote-trumps-threats-to-elections/ Sue Halpern hosts the attorney and voting rights expert Marc Elias for a wide-ranging conversation on threats to American voting rights, including gerrymandering, ballot seizures, and the SAVE Act. This conversation originally aired on March 12, 2026.]]> Marc Elias, Sue Halpern Thu, 19 Mar 2026 13:28:08 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/19/rigging-the-vote-trumps-threats-to-elections/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/crowds-and-lovers-g-john-berger/ In his novel G., John Berger shifts between the revolutionary possibilities of mass demonstrations and of erotic encounters, ultimately writing a historical novel about the present. ]]> Ben Lerner Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/crowds-and-lovers-g-john-berger/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/deciphering-dame-muriel-electric-spark-frances-wilson/ In Electric Spark, Frances Wilson attempts to crack the ingenious codes that were of prime importance in Muriel Spark’s life and writing.]]> Miranda Seymour Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/deciphering-dame-muriel-electric-spark-frances-wilson/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/rivals-of-the-landscape-turner-and-constable/ The more we learn about J.M. W. Turner and John Constable, the more extraordinary it seems that two such breathtakingly original painters could emerge and flourish at the same time in the British art world.]]> Jenny Uglow Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/rivals-of-the-landscape-turner-and-constable/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/interminable-ignorance-mark-lilla-ignorance-and-bliss/ Why has the will to ignorance become so virulent in our time?]]> Robert Pogue Harrison Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/interminable-ignorance-mark-lilla-ignorance-and-bliss/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/a-man-made-disaster-firebombing-japan-world-war-ii/ There has never been a moral and historical reckoning with the horrors inflicted by the Allied firebombing of Japan during World War II.]]> Joshua Hammer Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/a-man-made-disaster-firebombing-japan-world-war-ii/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/mother-daughter-sister-wife-under-a-pannonian-sky/ A new anthology of female Hungarian poets engages with the nation’s often tragic history through various forms of reticence, misdirection, and playfulness.]]> Ange Mlinko Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/mother-daughter-sister-wife-under-a-pannonian-sky/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/the-marbles-and-the-muses-frieze-frame-elgin/ A.E. Stallings’s reflections on the Elgin Marbles illustrate how beautiful objects have the power to inspire both the noblest effusions and the pettiest efforts at acquisition.]]> James Romm Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/the-marbles-and-the-muses-frieze-frame-elgin/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/the-tennissance-the-warrior-rafael-nadal/ Two young tennis stars have revived the sport by embodying the sort of athletic-aesthetic duality that made Nadal and Federer so fascinating.]]> Pablo Scheffer Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/the-tennissance-the-warrior-rafael-nadal/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/ondine-timothy-donnelly/ To speak freely, I could never land on anything worth talking about    but from the moment they shut me up, I’ve been full of things to say.It’s not that the mind is tricking itself but that the mind itself is a trick    played on silence by the body. You might imagine a cool black pond completely devoid […]]]> Timothy Donnelly Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/ondine-timothy-donnelly/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/not-insane-firesign-theatre/ The Firesign Theatre, a comedy group formed in the 1960s, created surreal albums that mixed satire and science fiction, and inspired a generation of misfits.]]> Andrew Katzenstein Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/not-insane-firesign-theatre/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/dantess-inferno-the-count-of-monte-cristo-pbs-series/ When I first read The Count of Monte Cristo, it offered something irresistible: the possibility of reinvention. If, against all odds, Edmond Dantès could remake himself, so could I.]]> Michael Dirda Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/dantess-inferno-the-count-of-monte-cristo-pbs-series/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/shenzhen-express-house-of-huawei-breakneck/ In Shenzhen, the successes and failures of China’s remarkable new economy are on full display.]]> Yi-Ling Liu Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/shenzhen-express-house-of-huawei-breakneck/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/the-possibility-of-humor-fools-kabbalah-steve-stern/ In his novel A Fool’s Kabbalah, Steve Stern writes in a manic whirl of disturbing and hilarious images as he follows the great historian of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem on his journey to gather up the remains of a vanished civilization.]]> Cathleen Schine Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/the-possibility-of-humor-fools-kabbalah-steve-stern/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/possessing-the-painful-parts-we-are-a-haunting-white/ Tyriek White’s We Are a Haunting traces the lives of Black Brooklynites dealing with the porous boundaries between the past and the present as they forge lives amid the detritus that others have discarded.]]> Omari Weekes Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/possessing-the-painful-parts-we-are-a-haunting-white/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/in-defense-of-algebra-paul-lockhart/ The mathematician Paul Lockhart believes to his core that math is the purest of the arts, and anyone can learn to love it.]]> Dan Rockmore Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/in-defense-of-algebra-paul-lockhart/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/who-built-france-by-flesh-and-toil-lamotte/ A new history explores France’s empire from the perspective of the indigenous and enslaved people who participated, willingly or not, in its creation.]]> David A. Bell Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/who-built-france-by-flesh-and-toil-lamotte/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/18/richard-hell-reads-from-godlike/ Episode 6 of Private Life]]> Richard Hell Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:54:06 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/18/richard-hell-reads-from-godlike/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/18/lebanons-negations/ Since Monday, March 2, Israel’s armed forces have launched daily airstrikes on Lebanon. Begun after Hezbollah fired a small volley of rockets into Israel in response to the killing of Ali Khamenei (causing no casualties), the Israeli strikes have so far killed more than nine hundred people and displaced more than a million out of […]]]> Loubna El Amine Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:31:27 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/18/lebanons-negations/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/18/charade-night-leanne-shapton/ A dispatch from the Art Editor]]> Leanne Shapton Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/18/charade-night-leanne-shapton/