Books

Most recent stories in Books

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  The Atlantic

  

  18 hours ago

  King of the River

  The Atlantic - Stanley Kunitz

  Published in The Atlantic in 1970 The poet Stanley Kunitz was reading Time magazine, he recalled in 1982, when something caught his eye: an article about Pacific salmon. The creature’s life cycle is nothing short of dramatic. After being born in the fresh water of a river, a young fish migrates into …

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  The Atlantic

  

  19 hours ago

  The Cult Classic That Captures the Grind of Dead-End Jobs

  The Atlantic - Lily Meyer

  Pop culture tends to romanticize bookstores as workplaces. Imogen Binnie’s Nevada does the opposite. Many writers have to wait until old age to see their work reissued. Imogen Binnie, whose debut novel, Nevada, came out in 2013, only had to wait nine years. Nevada was first released by Topside Press, …

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  The Atlantic

  

  1 day ago

  Eight Books in Which Ignorance Is the Point

  The Atlantic - Anthony Domestico

  People are always searching for answers, but not knowing can be its own reward. In 1893, Henry James complained about the recent publication of Gustave Flaubert’s letters. The French novelist was famous for his stylistic perfectionism. What treachery, then, to publish his casual missives, ones that …

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  The Atlantic

  

  2 days ago

  Books for a Sun-Addled Mind

  The Atlantic - Oliver Munday

  Popular novels don their summer gear. Summer is a season for vacations, relaxation, and restoration. As such, it can prove an ideal time to return to the classic texts we all know and love (and with some well-earned, unencumbered attention to boot). Close and serious reading can happen anywhere: no …

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  The Atlantic

  

  3 days ago

  Ars Poetica With Mother and Dogs

  The Atlantic - Rio Cortez

  A poem for Sunday I turn and don’t expect my mother’s face I ask how did you enter this poem she says it wasn’t easy she is dressed in my favorite horse-print silk sheath and dripping lake water says she wore it to trick my lover I want to ask how could you but instead I reach behind her and break a …

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  The Atlantic

  

  5 days ago

  A Portrait of the Artist Who Never Makes Art

  The Atlantic - Brandon Taylor

  In her latest novel, Nell Zink offers up a classic künstlerroman—the story of an artist’s becoming—but there is a hollowness at its center. We encounter Bran, the narrator of Nell Zink’s new novel, Avalon, just as she leaves a party where something pivotal and distressing has happened to her. We know …