Russia's attack on the 2016 election was novel in its scope and its methods, but the underlying principles were old, writes David Shimer in an important new history.
Essayist Sejal Shah brings important, refreshing, and depressing observations about what it means to have dark skin and an "exotic" name, when the only country you've ever lived in is America.
Brit Bennett's triumphant new novel follows two light-skinned black sisters whose lives take very different paths; you'll keep turning pages not to find out what happens, but who these women are.
The New Yorker journalist says Putin and Trump were elected president without really wanting the job. They ran "not for president but for autocrat," and did not expect to settle for anything less.
Brit Bennett's new novel centers on two light-skinned African American sisters — one of whom "passes" for white. The Vanishing Half is compelling — if somewhat melodramatic.
In Meryl Wilsner's debut novel, a Hollywood showrunner and her assistant are thrust into the spotlight after an innocuous red-carpet moment prompts gossip about a relationship between the two women.
Musician Mikel Jollett writes of his young years spent in the Synanon cult and how music helped him overcome these dark days, but misses a chance to discuss music as art and the ideas guiding him now.
During a boyhood in the Philippines, Meredith Talusan received positive reactions to the white skin and blonde hair accompanying albinism. She found a different response as a trans woman in the U.S.
Nancy McKinley mixes screwball humor with social criticism in a collection of interlocking stories about two women who work at a mall in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Porochista Khakpour's work is strongest when she turns the lens on herself to examine how she, too, is complicit; many essays here are just too tantalizingly brief to allow space for deep analysis.
Ivy Pochoda keeps up her focus on the overlooked and forgotten in her new novel. Here, it's a group of sex workers and club dancers whose lives are connected — and imperiled — by a serial killer.
Edward Snowden handpicked Barton Gellman as one of three journalists he would work with to reveal government secrets. Gellman's book is an in-depth look at where he agreed and disagreed with Snowden.
In Curtis Sittenfeld's new novel, Hillary Rodham dumps Bill Clinton and goes on to forge a life of her own, in law and then politics. It's an uncomfortable, moving, technically brilliant book.
Kacen Callender's new young adult novel centers on a queer, trans teen trying to find out who's behind a traumatizing transphobic act — a quest that takes him on an emotional roller coaster.
Before COVID-19 engulfed the Chinese city of Wuhan, Fang Fang was already an award-winning novelist. But her chronicle of the lockdown of her hometown might be her most lasting work.
Benjamin Taylor, one of Roth's closest friends during the last decades of his life, has written a memoir that rekindles Roth's voice: brilliant, profane, and so very funny.
At her best, Olivia Laing turns criticism into an elevated form of hospitality: Like a good party host, she introduces you to someone, tells you what she likes about them, then leaves you to it.
As the lockdown stretches on, we bring you three books that offer an escape to a time when people could gather — and fall in love — in a shop, at a book club, or even in an office.
Martha Wells' freethinking robot stars in its first full-length adventure, remaining just as misanthropic and TV-obsessed as ever, even as it attempts to figure out who kidnapped it and its friends.
In her new novel, Samanta Schweblin gives everyone in the world a little critter that's basically a Furby with a webcam — naturally, this does not end well, for the owners, the devices, or anyone.
As a longtime Paris resident, at first I feared Dirtmight be yet another expat tale of moving to France en famille, with all its tedious clichés. I should have known better.
Now's the time for cheerful reads, so we've picked three — including Emma Straub's latest and two lively culinary memoirs — that'll help transport you to a happier place for a few hours.
Journalist Lawrence Wright learned a lot about pandemics for his new thriller — and he packs it all into sometimes-clunky dialogue. But right now, all that information is exactly what readers want.
Kaouther Adimi's novel tells the real-life story of Edmond Charlot, the Algerian bookseller and publisher who witnessed his country's independence struggle — and famously discovered Albert Camus.
