Top Book News provided by The New York Review of Books©

• ‘Go Out and Sue a Polluter’
  Shortly before Christmas in 1969 a dense fog rolled in across the bayous of the Texas Gulf Coast. For more than four days it blanketed a vast region, as far west as San Antonio and as far east as Port Arthur. Flights were grounded, cars crashed, and all traffic halted in the Houston Ship Channel, […]
• A Widening Gulf
  “It would be a mistake to treat the Gulf as politically homogeneous. The war has clearly shown the weight of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but it has not eliminated the different calculations of other Gulf states.”
• A Workingman’s Surrealist
  You could say that H. C. Westermann became an artist on the morning of March 19, 1945. While serving as a marine gunner on the USS Enterprise during World War II, the twenty-two-year-old witnessed an enemy aircraft dive-bomb the nearby USS Franklin off the coast of Japan, killing more than seven hundred men—most of them […]
• The Emirates on the Tightrope
  On Sunday, March 22, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, maternal brother of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, put on a brave face. The evening prior, President Donald Trump declared that if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened within forty-eight hours, he would order strikes on Iranian […]
• Namwali Serpell on Toni Morrison, Criticism, and Narrative Empathy
  In this episode of Private Life, the writer and New York Review contributor Namwali Serpell joins Jarrett Earnest to discuss her new book, On Morrison, a collection of essays about Toni Morrison and her work.  Click the “Subscribe” link in the player above to follow this podcast on your favorite listening platform. Their conversation covers Morrison’s life as a […]
• Novels of the Future
  “Difficile est saturam non scribere: if you’re paying attention to present conditions, it’s difficult not to write satire,” writes Aaron Matz, quoting the Roman poet Juvenal, in a review of Dan Sperrin’s State of Ridicule from our March 26, 2026, issue. Unfortunately, literary political satire has been in a long period of decline—and not just because it has been supplanted […]
• Blood in the Game
  For two novels that address the escalating violence, rampant corruption, and class resentment poisoning our society, Lee Clay Johnson’s Bloodline and Carl Hiaasen’s Fever Beach are also surprisingly funny.
• Lot’s Wife
  I always get confused.I think it’s Lot’sturning back that turnedher to salt. A wholepillar of it. I always thinkhe’s an Orpheus of sorts,though Orpheus wasgorgeous and a knockouton his lute. But Lot?There’s not a wholelot we can say in his favor.I have to think his wife had a name other thanLot’s wife, that shemight have […]
• Misjudgment at Nuremberg
  In James Vanderbilt’s film Nuremberg, about the trial of the major Nazi war criminals, the questioning of Russell Crowe’s all too charming Hermann Göring becomes a moment of invented high drama.
• ‘To Share Is Our Duty’
  Two consummate Virginia Woolf scholars have added more than 1,400 letters to the corpus. On show are charm, careful condolence, generosity, candor about her reading and writing, and a belief that “communication is health.”
• Friendship 7
  Museum Visit: Friendship 7; a collage by Lucy Sante
• The Painter’s Shadow World
  Morgan Meis’s Three Paintings Trilogy is the most exciting new writing about the visual arts to appear in a generation.
• The Throwaway Planet
  Three books raise political and moral questions about human consumption—and the value we place on those who clean up the waste.
• Living Through the Civil War
  George Templeton Strong’s diaries provide the North’s best record of daily passions and woes during its struggle against the South.
• ‘A Vast Symphony of Stone’
  In his renovation of Notre-Dame, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.
• The Aging Class
  Retirement, like so much of the American economy, is a broken system that benefits private interests and exploits the most vulnerable people.
• World of His Fathers
  Nicholas Lemann’s Returning traces his Louisiana family’s gradual distancing across generations from its Jewish faith and his own efforts to reembrace it.
• Psalm 121
  From the prohibition against representation    that binds the globe in images.From that blue sea from which like whips    my help will cometo mend me nameless to this rock the world    that I may see you,my Lord. Who once misfit the eye    as mere prosperity,the glare that causes objects. Who once    set us in the deepa password, lock and mercenary. Who […]
• Heaven’s Elegist
  Alfred Tennyson's poetry addressed the central anxiety of his day: how to live in a world where scientific discoveries were slowly replacing religious faith.
• A Devotee of Deception
  In Domenico Starnone’s The Old Man by the Sea, an elderly writer looks back across a life in which he has always sought distance and control rather than passion.
• Reimagining the Future of Ireland
  Two writers from different parts and traditions of the island argue with each other and themselves about the advantages and disadvantages of Irish unification.
• Why ‘The West’?: An Exchange
  To the Editors: In his review of Georgios Varouxakis’s The West [NYR, December 18, 2025], Yuri Slezkine makes assertions that should unsettle anyone concerned about the fate of liberal democracy. Most troubling are these: that historic Russia is a largely passive entity against which “the West” defines itself; that Ukraine—a country fighting for its existence […]
• Gini Alhadeff Reads from André Breton’s ‘Nadja’
  In this episode of Private Life, the writer, translator, and editor Gini Alhadeff reads excerpts from Mark Polizzotti’s recent translation, for NYRB Classics, of André Breton’s 1928 surrealist novel, Nadja. Blending autobiography and fiction, this abidingly strange book recounts, analyzes, and remembers Breton’s brief love affair with the eponymous young woman in 1920s Paris. Click the […]
• Timid Europe
  On Sunday, March 22, three weeks into the US–Israeli war in Iran, Donald Trump received an unlikely pledge of support. The previous Friday he had taken to Truth Social to lambast his fellow NATO members, calling them “COWARDS” for refusing to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively blocked with threats […]
• Born in the USA
  For the Supreme Court to accept the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke birthright citizenship, it would have to repudiate the Constitution, its own precedents, and the long-standing position of all three branches of the US government.
• ‘Tell Me Your Worst’ 
  The Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck told her models to stay silent and look away from her while she worked. She would not tolerate conversation or a returned gaze. As a result her paintings show the many ways art can present a person indirectly: in profile, eyes closed, staring off in the distance or looking askance, […]
• Indecorous Decorations
  Around the year 1400 a young woman in Central Europe was given a saddle made of bone, likely for her wedding day. As she rode from her parents’ home to that of her new husband, she sat upon carved scenes of lovers embracing and men banging drums or clutching their belts. In France, at about […]
• Syphoning Morale
  Soon after the outbreak of war in Iran, as America was blitzing the country from a distance with a fusillade of bombs and missiles, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth exulted that we were “punching them while they’re down.” In those early days a US submarine sunk an Iranian naval vessel thousands of miles from the […]
• From the Rooftops of Tehran
  We in Iran own our grief, mourning all by ourselves.
• Mark Polizzotti on André Breton, Translation, and Surrealism
  In this episode of Private Life, Jarrett Earnest is joined by Mark Polizzotti to discuss André Breton’s surrealist novel, Nadja, originally published in 1928 and translated into English by Polizzotti for NYRB Classics in 2025. Click the “Subscribe” link in the player above to follow this podcast on your favorite listening platform. Polizzotti gives insight into the […]
• The Neocons’ Revenge?
  Since Donald Trump’s improbable first win in 2016, pundits have passed countless hours trying to understand how his rise, and the populist movement that powered it, have changed American conservatism. If Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party was, famously, a three-legged stool consisting of social traditionalists, free-market champions, and foreign interventionists, Trump’s MAGA coalition has swelled its […]
• Bottling the World Economy
  Amid the destruction of the US–Israeli war against Iran, much of the world’s attention has fixed on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. In normal times ships traversing the Strait—which runs between Oman and the United Arab Emirates on one […]
• The Gaza Doctrine
  On Friday, March 13, nearly two weeks into the Lebanese front of “Operation Roaring Lion,” Israeli forces bombed Burj Qalaouiyah, a village in the country’s south. The strike destroyed a health care center, killing twelve doctors, paramedics, nurses, and patients; The New York Times reported that “only one severely injured worker survived.” Among the victims, […]
• Spirit in the Sky
  What do Italian astronomers, cloistered nuns, levitating saints, and the “sexy dreams” of desert church fathers have in common? In the pages of the Review, they’re all the domain of the critic and scholar Erin Maglaque. Maglaque is a student of archival texts, often written by women, that challenge conventional secular and religious interpretations of […]
• Elegy for Rafah
  Since the beginning of the year, my phone has been a window through which I watch the Rafah crossing from my bedroom in Paris three thousand kilometers away. Every piece of news about it awakes something in me that neither the cold of this city nor the long distance can quiet. After nine months in […]
• Rigging the Vote: Trump’s Threats to Elections
  Sue Halpern hosts the attorney and voting rights expert Marc Elias for a wide-ranging conversation on threats to American voting rights, including gerrymandering, ballot seizures, and the SAVE Act. This conversation originally aired on March 12, 2026.
• Shenzhen Express
  In Shenzhen, the successes and failures of China’s remarkable new economy are on full display.
• Crowds and Lovers
  In his novel G., John Berger shifts between the revolutionary possibilities of mass demonstrations and of erotic encounters, ultimately writing a historical novel about the present.
• Deciphering Dame Muriel
  In Electric Spark, Frances Wilson attempts to crack the ingenious codes that were of prime importance in Muriel Spark’s life and writing.
• Rivals of the Landscape
  The more we learn about J.M. W. Turner and John Constable, the more extraordinary it seems that two such breathtakingly original painters could emerge and flourish at the same time in the British art world.
• Interminable Ignorance
  Why has the will to ignorance become so virulent in our time?
• A Man-Made Disaster
  There has never been a moral and historical reckoning with the horrors inflicted by the Allied firebombing of Japan during World War II.
• Mother Daughter Sister Wife
  A new anthology of female Hungarian poets engages with the nation’s often tragic history through various forms of reticence, misdirection, and playfulness.
• Dantès’s Inferno
  When I first read The Count of Monte Cristo, it offered something irresistible: the possibility of reinvention. If, against all odds, Edmond Dantès could remake himself, so could I.
• The Possibility of Humor
  In his novel A Fool’s Kabbalah, Steve Stern writes in a manic whirl of disturbing and hilarious images as he follows the great historian of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem on his journey to gather up the remains of a vanished civilization.
• Possessing the Painful Parts
  Tyriek White’s We Are a Haunting traces the lives of Black Brooklynites dealing with the porous boundaries between the past and the present as they forge lives amid the detritus that others have discarded.
• In Defense of Algebra
  The mathematician Paul Lockhart believes to his core that math is the purest of the arts, and anyone can learn to love it.
• Who Built France?
  A new history explores France’s empire from the perspective of the indigenous and enslaved people who participated, willingly or not, in its creation.
• ‘Not Insane!’
  The Firesign Theatre, a comedy group formed in the 1960s, created surreal albums that mixed satire and science fiction, and inspired a generation of misfits.
• Ondine
  To speak freely, I could never land on anything worth talking about    but from the moment they shut me up, I’ve been full of things to say.It’s not that the mind is tricking itself but that the mind itself is a trick    played on silence by the body. You might imagine a cool black pond completely devoid […]
• The Tennissance
  Two young tennis stars have revived the sport by embodying the sort of athletic-aesthetic duality that made Nadal and Federer so fascinating.
• The Marbles & the Muses
  A.E. Stallings’s reflections on the Elgin Marbles illustrate how beautiful objects have the power to inspire both the noblest effusions and the pettiest efforts at acquisition.
• Richard Hell Reads from
  Episode 6 of Private Life
• Lebanon’s Negations
  Since Monday, March 2, Israel’s armed forces have launched daily airstrikes on Lebanon. Begun after Hezbollah fired a small volley of rockets into Israel in response to the killing of Ali Khamenei (causing no casualties), the Israeli strikes have so far killed more than nine hundred people and displaced more than a million out of […]
• Charade Night
  A dispatch from the Art Editor

New York Times Books©

• Martin Amis: An Appreciation
  Our critic assesses the achievement of Martin Amis, Britain’s most famous literary son.
• Book Review: ‘NB by J.C.,’ by James Campbell
  “NB by J.C.” collects the variegated musings of James Campbell in the Times Literary Supplement.
• In ‘Fires in the Dark,’ Kay Redfield Jamison Turns to Healers
  In “Fires in the Dark,” Jamison, known for her expertise on manic depression, delves into the quest to heal. Her new book, she says, is a “love song to psychotherapy.”
• The Detective Novel ‘Whose Body?,’ by Dorothy L. Sayers, Turns 100
  Dorothy L. Sayers dealt with emotional and financial instability by writing “Whose Body?,” the first of many to star the detective Lord Peter Wimsey.
• Book Review: ‘Dom Casmurro,’ by Machado de Assis
  “Dom Casmurro,” by Machado de Assis, teaches us to read — and reread — with precise detail and masterly obfuscation.
• Book Review: ‘The Late Americans,’ by Brandon Taylor
  Brandon Taylor’s novel circulates among Iowa City residents, some privileged, some not, but all aware that their possibilities are contracting.
• Martin Amis’s Best Books: A Guide
  The acclaimed British novelist was also an essayist, memoirist and critic of the first rank.
• The Best Romance Novels of 2024 (So Far)
  Looking for an escapist love story? Here are 2024’s sexiest, swooniest reads.
• What Book Should You Read Next?
  Finding a book you’ll love can be daunting. Let us help.
• ‘Giant’ Revisits Roald Dahl’s Antisemitic Comments: What to Know
  Mark Rosenblatt’s Broadway play, starring John Lithgow as the British children’s book author, draws from Dahl’s comments over the years.
• Book Review: ‘Muskism,’ by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff
  In a new book, Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue that Elon Musk’s disruptive approach to business is transforming both politics and the economy.
• Book Review: ‘Rasputin’ by Antony Beevor
  In “Rasputin,” the biographer Antony Beevor delves into the mysterious life of the last czarina’s mystic adviser.
• Book Review: ‘Into the Wood Chipper,’ by Nicholas Enrich
  Nicholas Enrich’s tell-all memoir, “Into the Wood Chipper,” has advice for others caught between their conscience and their government.
• Obsessed With the Titanic? These Historical Fictional Books Will Transport You.
  This gripping historical fiction will transport you to the doomed ship and back to land.
• Book Review: ‘On the Calculation of Volume IV,’ by Solvej Balle
  Solvej Balle’s cult hit series about a woman trapped in a time loop continues with a fourth volume.
• In ‘Famesick,’ Lena Dunham Diagnoses Celebrity, Illness and Herself
  This unusually unfiltered memoir takes us to the hospital, to therapy and to the sometimes hostile set of “Girls.”
• Book Review: ‘RFK Jr.,’ by Isabel Vincent
  In “RFK Jr.: The Fall and Rise,” a New York Post reporter paints an intimate portrait of the Kennedy scion and cabinet member.
• Book Review: ‘Korean Messiah,’ by Jonathan Cheng
  A new history by Jonathan Cheng argues that an influx of missionaries in the late 19th century profoundly shaped the ruling Kim family dynasty.
• Book Review: ‘Where the Music Had to Go,’ by Jim Windolf
  Jim Windolf’s new book, “Where the Music Had to Go,” traces the influence of Dylan on the Beatles and the Beatles on Dylan.
• Tucker Carlson Is Starting a Publishing Imprint
  Tucker Carlson Books, a joint venture between Carlson’s media company and Skyhorse Publishing, will put out books by Russell Brand, Milo Yiannopoulos and more.
• Book Review: ‘See You on the Other Side,’ by Jay McInerney
  Jay McInerney has written about the literary party boy Russell Calloway once a decade since the 1990s. He returns in the Covid novel “See You on the Other Side.”
• Book Review: ‘Go Gentle,’ by Maria Semple
  Maria Semple is back with another frenetic human comedy.
• Book Review: ‘The Future Is Peace,’ by Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon
  Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon both lost loved ones to the conflict in the Middle East. In “The Future Is Peace,” they look for hope and understanding.
• Thanks to an Old-Fashioned Family Novel, This 22-Year-Old is Already a Literary Star in Europe
  Just 22 and still a student, Nelio Biedermann has been compared to Thomas Mann thanks to “Lázár,” his sweeping family saga.
• Book Review: ‘Lázár,’ by Nelio Biedermann
  “Lázár,” by Nelio Biedermann, is a multigenerational novel that spans the collapse of a monarchy, two world wars and a revolution.
• Book Review: ‘Passport Photo Service,’ by Philip Sharkey
  In 10 minutes or less, this mom-and-pop London institution produced stylish snapshots for some of the world’s biggest stars.
• Lena Dunham Is Still Trying to Figure Out Why People Hated Her So Much
  The writer, actor and lightning rod is not done sharing yet.
• Book Review: ‘A Terrible Intimacy,’ by Melvin Patrick Ely
  A new book by the historian Melvin Patrick Ely draws on court records to highlight the complex relationships between enslavers and the enslaved.
• Book Review: ‘EMPIRE OF SKULLS’ by Paul Stob
  In “Empire of Skulls,” Paul Stob explores how a mania took over America.
• Book Review: ‘The Monuments of Paris,’ by Violaine Huisman
  After devoting her first novel to her wild mother, Violaine Huisman focuses her second on her father, a man who amassed wealth, love affairs and stories.
• How Authors and Readers Feel About the ‘Shy Girl’ Cancellation
  Major publishing houses risk unwittingly putting out books generated with A.I. tools. Authors and readers are frustrated, nervous and grasping for solutions.
• Book Review: ‘The Oracle’s Daughter,’ by Harrison Hill
  In his excellent “The Oracle’s Daughter,” Harrison Hill looks at the people and the questions beyond the headlines.
• Book Review: ‘When Tomorrow Burns,’ by Tae Keller
  Tae Keller’s new novel, “When Tomorrow Burns,” offers reassuring answers to the question, “What do you do when your biggest fear comes true?”
• Oscar Wilde’s Grandson Reckons With the Legacy of Scandal
  Merlin Holland has spent decades dismantling the myths that grew up around his grandfather. He hopes his new book may finally settle the record.
• Books Our Editors Loved This Week
  Reading recommendations from critics and editors at The New York Times.
• If You Love ‘The Pitt,’ You’ll Love These Memoirs by Real E.R. Doctors
  Memoirs from the front lines capture the high-octane pace, roller coaster stakes and unforgettable personalities of emergency medicine.
• The Hit Erotica Writers Outwitting Nigeria’s Religious Censors
  Zealous officials burned their predecessors’ romance novels. Now, young Muslim women in northern Nigeria publish their erotic books in installments on WhatsApp.
• Best Alien Books by Octavia E. Butler, Ted Chiang and More
  In these science fiction books, extraterrestrial beings are sympathetic, horrifying and everything in between.

The Chronicle of Higher Education©

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