Two Murder Mysteries’ Surprising Window Into Human Genius
Why novelists love to imagine great historical figures as detectives
Book Review
What Does the Literature of the Working Class Look Like?
A new entrant to the genre of workplace literature argues that even mundane labor shapes your identity.
The Dark Weirdness of R. Crumb
The illustrator dredged the depths of his own subconscious—and tapped into something collectively screwy in America.
The New King of Tech
How Jensen Huang built Nvidia into a nearly $3 trillion business
Who Needs Intimacy?
Influential novelists are imagining what women’s lives might look like without the demands of partners and children.
Why We’re Still Talking About the ‘Trauma Plot’
People will always experience terrible things, and many will want to write about them.
What to Make of Miracles
In a new book, Elaine Pagels searches for the narrative origins of Jesus’s most wondrous acts.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Ultimate Taboo
Fang Fang’s newly translated novel uncovers the brutal, buried history of land reform in China.
An Iranian American Rom-Com That Breaks the Mold
Mariam Rahmani’s debut novel is both charmingly familiar and totally unpredictable.
A Country Imperfectly Pulling Itself Together
Wildcat Dome’s characters can’t escape the calamities that marked their lives—and their country’s history.