Fiction

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." — Mark Twain

A Burdensome Memory: Rebecca Makkai’s “The Great Believers”
Dan Lopez on the central concern of Rebecca Makkai’s “The Great Believers,” arguing for the urgency of the history for those marginalized in their time.
Dan LópezAug 4, 2018
- Fiction
- Gender & Sexuality
Blood, Love, Immigration in Roxane Gay’s “Ayiti”
"Gay’s stories about the 'first free black nation' are written with unapologetic realness. Her characters sat beside me, close enough to touch."
Utibe Gautt AteAug 2, 2018
- Fiction
Toward A Different Solution: Édouard Louis, Émile Zola, and the Literary Accusation
Benjamin S. Bernard and Colton Valentine on “Qui a tué mon père” (Who Killed My Father), a novel by French author and public intellectual Édouard Louis.
Benjamin Bernard, Colton ValentineAug 2, 2018
Delightful Listening: A Conversation Between Viet Thanh Nguyen with Arundhati Roy
Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose novel “The Sympathizer” won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, speaks to novelist Arundhati Roy.
Viet Thanh NguyenJul 31, 2018
Leaps of Doubt in R. O. Kwon’s “The Incendiaries”
R. O. Kwon’s debut cannily blurs the line between campus novel and cult lit.
Anna E. ClarkJul 31, 2018
- Fiction
WhatsApps with Women #1: Joanna Walsh Talks to Writer Lauren Elkin about Twitter
A WhatsApp conversation between Joanna Walsh, the author of “Break.up,” and Lauren Elkin, the author of “Flâneuse: Women Walk the City.”
Joanna WalshJul 30, 2018
- Fiction
- Memoir & Essay
García Márquez Slept Here
A writer discovers a surprising history to her apartment and its connection to the Latin American Boom in literature.
Lucía BenavidesJul 28, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Bad Idea That Keeps on Giving
Why does such a thinker as Ayn Rand persist in being taken seriously by otherwise smart people?
Scott TimbergJul 27, 2018
I’ll Take Manhattan: Judith Krantz, Donald Trump, and the Long, Long 1980s
What Judith Krantz’s 1986 novel tells us about Donald Trump’s America.
Elizabeth SchambelanJul 26, 2018
- Fiction
- Politics
The Land of Pain
Pain is both enemy and idol in Michael Downs’s “The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surgeon Dentist.”
Maria BrowningJul 26, 2018
- Fiction
Irrational Authoritarianism: Ismail Kadare’s “The Traitor’s Niche”
Ani Kokobobo on an allegory of modern authoritarianism set in the Ottoman Empire.
Ani KokoboboJul 19, 2018
Braving Every Storm: Lauren Groff’s “Florida”
Joseph Peschel finds the stories in Lauren Groff’s “Florida” as beautifully crafted as any fiction she has written.
Joseph PeschelJul 19, 2018
- Fiction