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The Defiant Muse
Alice Blackhurst looks at "Portrait of a Lady on Fire," the latest film from Céline Sciamma.
Around the World
"For a long time now I haven't been I."
— Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
The Creative Potentials of Unsuccess: On Karolina Pavlova’s “A Double Life”
Vadim Shneyder disentangles “A Double Life,” an important 19th-century novel by Karolina Pavlova, translated by Barbara Heldt.
Lost in Libya: A Refugee’s Story of Captivity and Escape
A Somalian refugee’s story of hardship, captivity, and endurance in Libya, as shared with Human Rights Watch.
Hong Kong’s Tears of Anger: How a Democracy Movement Radicalized
China-based writer Alec Ash recounts his experience shadowing Hong Kong protester Mo Ming in the heat of this year’s riots.
Catalan Literature in the World: Speaking with Izaskun Arretxe
In her series on Catalan literature, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi speaks with Izaskun Arretxe, head of Institut Ramon Llull in Barcelona.
Starting Over: On Amber Scorah’s “Leaving the Witness”
Katie Gaddini reviews “Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life,” the debut memoir from Amber Scorah.
Lying the Truth with Emmanuel Carrère
Randy Rosenthal unpacks “97,196 Words: Essays” by Emmanuel Carrère, translated from the French by John Lambert.
The Two Lives of One Woman: On Guzel Yakhina’s “Zuleikha”
Olga Ware appreciates “Zuleikha,” a novel by Guzel Yakhina, translated from the Russian by Lisa C. Hayden.
Representative Foreigners: On Elif Shafak’s “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World”
Keija Parssinen reviews “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World,” the Booker–shortlisted novel by Elif Shafak.
Conrad and Coal
The exploitative mining of coal was central to Conrad’s critique of colonial capitalism.
Marguerite Duras and the Violence of Writing
Katie Da Cunha Lewin reviews a new translation of Marguerite Duras’s major essays and nonfiction.
After the Fall: Revisiting 1989 in a New Age of Walls
Matthew Longo considers the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall and the sociopolitical implications of it — both now and then.
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