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Urgent Messages from Eternity

An exhibition of Franz Kafka’s postcards, letters, and manuscript pages rekindles our sense of him as a writer deeply connected to his own time and place.

Franz Kafka

an exhibition at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, May 30–October 27, 2024, and the Morgan Library and Museum, New York City, November 22, 2024–April 13, 2025


Guatemala: Democracy Imperiled

Bernardo Arévalo’s inauguration last year as president of Guatemala symbolized the revival of democracy in a notoriously corrupt country. A concerted effort by obstructionist elites now threatens to oust him on specious grounds—and bring repression back.

Guatemala: Democracia en Peligro

La asunción del presidente de Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, el año pasado significó el renacimiento de la democracia en un país notoriamente corrupto. Esfuerzos concertados de las élites amenazan ahora con derrocarlo bajo cargos falaces—y regresar a una era de represión.

It’s Technicolor

Alvin Ailey is one of those artists, like Picasso and Faulkner, whose name is shorthand for a whole field.

Edges of Ailey

an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, September 25, 2024–February 9, 2025


Farmer George

Bruce Ragsdale’s Washington at the Plow examines the connections between the first president’s commitment to agricultural innovation and his evolving attitudes toward his enslaved laborers at Mount Vernon.

Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of Slavery

by Bruce A. Ragsdale


A Half-Century of Artistic Genius

For two generations Sienese painters and sculptors engaged in a nonstop flurry of experimentation and innovation.

Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350

an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, October 13, 2024–January 26, 2025, and the National Gallery, London, March 8–June 22, 2025


‘Bonds and Gestures’

Long Island, Colm Tóibín’s sequel to his novel Brooklyn, is a concentrated study of the missed or canceled life.

Long Island

by Colm Tóibín


Turtles All the Way Up

The idea that living beings have no free will might sound scientific today, but it remains as dogmatic as it has always been.

Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will

by Robert M. Sapolsky


The House of Self-Worth

In Halle Butler’s third novel, Banal Nightmare, the real enemy is the careerism of the millennial.

Banal Nightmare

by Halle Butler


De Gaulle’s Gamble

After the defeat of 1940, Charles de Gaulle was convinced that even a minor contribution to the war against the Axis would assure France’s place among the victors.

The War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle


Real Misfits in Real Gardens

The Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s films often focus on incongruous moments of enchantment within communities living at the margins of society.

La Chimera

a film directed by Alice Rohrwacher


With Liberals Like These

Twice in modern Russian history—in 1905 and in 1985—liberal reformers have gained influence only to be succeeded by autocratic regimes.

Russian Liberalism

by Paul Robinson


Too Close for Comfort

Why are economists in the US today uniquely able to exercise such sway over the state?

The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism

by Clara E. Mattei

Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in US Public Policy

by Elizabeth Popp Berman

Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality

by Angus Deaton


Bewildered Rhapsodies

The difficult history of translating a miraculous text

The Qur’an: A Verse Translation

by M.A.R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence

The Devotional Qur’an: Beloved Surahs and Verses

selected and translated by Shawkat M. Toorawa

Issue Details

Cover art
Didier Viodé: Danseurs du crépuscule (series), 2018
Series art
Margaux Williamson: Untitled, 2024

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