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  How to See Like a 17th-Century Friar

  A major new study puts the visual paradoxes and optical illusions of baroque art at the heart of theological debates of the Counter-Reformation.

  Emanuele LugliFeb 13

  • Philosophy & Religion

  • Art & Architecture

• 

  Really Classical Figures

  In the wake of Bob Weir’s death, a new book emerges on the Grateful Dead’s overlooked engagement with literature.

  Christian KriticosFeb 12

  • Music

  • Literary Criticism

• 

  Taiwan, Hong Kong, Columbia

  Chris Horton’s ‘Ghost Nation’ and Ching Kwan Lee’s ‘Forever Hong Kong’ follow protesters and revolutionaries who, successfully or otherwise, challenged the power of the state.

  Paul KreitmanFeb 11

  • Politics

  • History

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  Until the Next Grave Is Dug

  On Urszula Honek’s bleak debut story collection, the Booker long-listed ‘White Nights,’ newly translated by Kate Webster.

  Cory OldweilerFeb 10

  • Fiction

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  Monsters of the Anthropocene

  Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ reduces Mary Shelley’s novel to a one-dimensional warning about technological hubris.

  Deborah R. CoenFeb 9

  • SF

  • Science & Technology

  • Film

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  The Crisis at the Heart of Modernity

  Terry Eagleton’s recent book employs his trademark witty style in an attempt to say something new about the era that birthed modernism.

  Arleen IonescuFeb 9

  • Cultural Studies

  • Literary Criticism

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  What Comes First, the House or the Haunting?

  ‘Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora,’ a new anthology edited by Kristy Park Kulski, uses storytelling to demonstrate why ‘the ghosts of our futures cannot just be entities that lurk in the background.’

  Jered MabaquiaoFeb 7

  • Fiction

  • Cultural Studies

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  A Clearing in the Mind’s Petrified Forest

  In ‘Monk Fruit,’ Edward Salem’s poetry presents ‘a wild ride of touchpoints’ that serve together as a ‘gastric lavage’ for the trauma-fatigued reader.

  Rosalie MoffettFeb 7

  • Poetry

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  A Void Filled with Possibilities

  The protagonist of Antônio Xerxenesky’s novel ‘An Infinite Sadness,’ newly translated by Daniel Hahn, searches for ‘something beyond psychological solutions’ at a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps.

  Rachel GerryFeb 5

  • Fiction

• 

  The End of Psychiatry (Kind Of)

  Neurologist Pria Anand lauds Khameer Kidia’s new dissection of Western psychiatric imperialism.

  Pria AnandFeb 3

  • Science & Technology

  • Cultural Studies

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  Loners and Assassins

  Tom Lutz’s new novel ‘Chagos Archipelago’ finds unexpected heart in the adventures of geopolitical operatives and globe-trotting fuckups.

  Jerry StahlFeb 3

  • Fiction

  • Noir

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  Hold Me Too Close

  Writer-director Bradley Cooper’s ‘evangelizing’ new film ‘Is This Thing On?’ explores human connection in marriage and stand-up comedy.

  Frank FalisiFeb 2

  • Film

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