Try this short quiz to see how many books you can identify based on an extremely brief plot summary.
Montreal is a city as appealing for its beauty as for its shadows. Here, the novelist Mona Awad recommends books that are “both dreamy and uncompromising.”
Hari Kunzru examines the ties between art and wealth in a new novel, “Blue Ruin.”
In Alexis Landau’s ambitious new novel, “The Mother of All Things,” the frustrations of modern parenting echo through the ages.
Michael Deagler’s first novel follows a young man who is piecing his life back together and trying very hard not to drink.
The sociologist Sarah Thornton visits strip clubs, milk banks and cosmetic surgeons with the goal of shoring up appreciation for women’s breasts.
Women in Shanghai gather in bars, salons and bookstores to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
His anthology “Technicians of the Sacred” included a range of non-Western work and was beloved by, among others, rock stars like Jim Morrison and Nick Cave.
In “A Life Impossible,” the former N.F.L. player opens up about outliving his life expectancy — the challenges, loneliness and moments of joy.
Caroline Crampton shares her own worries in “A Body Made of Glass,” a history of hypochondria that wonders whether newfangled technology drives us crazier.
Set in a remote Welsh enclave on the cusp of World War II, Elizabeth O’Connor’s “Whale Fall” finds fresh resonance for a coming-of-age debut.
In Monica Wood’s rich new novel, “How to Read a Book,” death, prison and poetry become the catalyst for new beginnings.
A critic for the Book Review finds joy — and inspiration — in engaging with readers via the comments forums on his articles.
Miranda July is experimenting again — on the page and in her life.
A maid resists her employers; citizens resist their country.
The novel “American Abductions” captures the effects of U.S. immigration policy with the expansive reach of art.
The filmmakers do more to align star and character than the novel did. But somehow that doesn’t make the movie indebted to the musician.
Elise Juska takes readers back to the summer of 2021. The question is, do we want to go there?
Juli Min’s “Shanghailanders” runs from 2040 to 2014, showing how a cast of unsettled characters arrived at their current predicament.
After their 2021 wedding, John Murray and Kimberlee Stevenson experienced much heartbreak. Now comes joy.
In Fiona Warnick’s cozy coming-of-age novel, an aimless college graduate finds an unconventional way to process her difficult transition into adulthood.
He wrote a popular series of books revolving around a hunchbacked detective, Shardlake, whose troubles echo the author’s experiences of childhood bullying.
The Irish author discusses “Long Island,” the sequel to his 2009 novel “Brooklyn.”
An influential arts administrator and educator, he was a trusted confidant to countless writers, notably Philip Roth.
A reading list outside the progressive box.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
Even for the youngest readers, attempted piggy-bank robbery may not cut it.
The excesses of social protest movements can play into the hands of candidates who promise to restore order.
The writers behind Hate Reads, a pop-up newsletter for airing grievances and pet peeves, got up on their soap boxes.
His essay warning that dictatorship was a real threat went viral, which prompted the early release of “Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart — Again.” To relax, he reads the sports pages.
In an interview, the basketball star reveals her humiliation — and friendships — in Russian prison, and her path to recovery.
For the first time, China has more than 100 incarcerated writers, and Israel and Russia entered the list of the 10 countries with the most imprisoned writers.
“The Chocolate War,” published 50 years ago, became one of the country’s most challenged books. Its author, Robert Cormier, spent years fighting attempts to ban it — like many authors today.
Uno de los escritores más emblemáticos de su generación, fue un prolífico novelista, autor de memorias y guionista que saltó a la fama en la década de 1980.
The novelist played with reality and chance in tales of solitary narrators and mutable identities. Here’s an overview of his work.
Why the model and writer wants to blow up gender roles in dating, without chivalry having to die.
“I Just Keep Talking,” a collection of essays and artwork by the historian Nell Irvin Painter, captures her wide-ranging interests and original mind.
Dozens of books have disappeared from Warsaw to Paris. The police are looking into who is taking them, and why — a tale of money, geopolitics, crafty forgers and lackluster library security.
These authors investigate the interior lives of Palestinians charged with violence and probe the confines of Israeli prisons.
A complicated, generous life yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety.
With critically lauded works like “The New York Trilogy,” the charismatic author drew inspiration from his adopted borough and won worldwide acclaim.
She was a poet who didn’t write poetry, but felt it like a poet.
In “The Demon of Unrest,” present-day political strife inspires a dramatic portrait of the run-up to the deadliest war on American soil.
Our columnist reviews this month’s latest scary releases.
Wenyan Lu’s novel, “The Funeral Cryer,” explores a Chinese tradition through a modern, more personal lens.
Rachel Khong’s new novel follows three generations of Chinese Americans as they all fight for self-determination in their own way.
Try this short quiz on novels, geography and history of the American West.
Looking for your next great read? We’ve got 3,228. Explore the best fiction and nonfiction from 2000 - 2023 chosen by our editors.
She wrote her much-anticipated second novel, “Real Americans,” while also creating the Ruby, a co-working collective for writers and other artists.
The best stories in Honor Levy’s “My First Book” capture the quiet desperation of today’s smart set. But there is such a thing as publishing too soon.
Steve Carell, William Jackson Harper, Alison Pill and Anika Noni Rose discuss the new translation of Chekhov that brought them to the farm.
New novels from R.O. Kwon, Kevin Kwan and Miranda July; a reappraisal of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy; memoirs from Brittney Griner and Kathleen Hanna — and more.
In Heidi Reimer’s debut novel, “The Mother Act,” a daughter grapples with being parented (or not) by an actress who happily mines her life for material.
In “The Age of Grievance,” the New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni chronicles the nation’s descent into constant kvetching.
PEN America needs to ensure more than one point of view is heard on even the most contentious issue.
We live in a complex world. We can’t afford to make art that serves up only simple moral lessons.
“Lublin,” a novel by Manya Wilkinson, brings together a quest fable and a dark history with disarming humor.
In a new book, an anthropologist investigates the makeshift treatment centers that have proliferated during the country’s war on drugs.
Three new arrivals help readers make sense of our mental health crisis. They also offer solidarity.
The Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson had a love-hate relationship with her most famous creations.
Carl Sandburg’s boyhood; Carolyn Forché’s political awakening.
A chorus of voices is what made #MeToo so powerful. Why did it backfire in court?
An illustrator in New York City imagines the personalities of some local bookshops and how they might be embodied.
In Lily Meyer’s first novel, “Short War,” love and family ties are tested by a nation’s upheaval.
The birth of a pioneering Black dance company comes alive in Karen Valby’s “The Swans of Harlem.”
“Liberty Equality Fashion” explores radical shifts in fashion that embodied the ideas of the French Revolution and the women who led the charge.
The writer Dolly Alderton has long had an avid following in her native England, but with her best-selling comic novel “Good Material” she’s become a trans-Atlantic success.
Her distinctive prose and sharp eye were tuned to an outsider’s frequency, telling us about ourselves in essays that are almost reflexively skeptical. Here’s where to start.
Philippa Langley devoted years to the search for Richard III’s remains. Now, she’s trying to crack a 15th-century cold case: Did he really assassinate his nephews?
Black Americans remain the only racial group with a homeownership rate below 50 percent.
Recommended reading from the Book Review, including titles by Dennis Lehane, Claire Dederer, Chad L. Williams and more.
The renowned author reflects on the fatwa ordered against him decades ago for his book “The Satanic Verses” — and surviving a brutal attack in 2022.
Jenny Erpenbeck became a writer when her childhood and her country, the German Democratic Republic, disappeared, swallowed by the materialist West.
Erika Lee and Christina Soontornvat’s “Made in Asian America” spotlights young people who defy erasure and make their own history.
A historian and sociologist of science re-examines the “posture panic” of the last century. You’ll want to sit down for this.
The actress Jodie Comer recasts her Tony-winning turn in Suzie Miller’s hit play “Prima Facie” for a new novelization.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
She devoted her life to showing us how and why.
“We are a literary city”: Will Evans started saying it in 2013, when he started the publisher Deep Vellum. Alongside the bookstore Wild Detectives and others, they’ve put Dallas on the literary map.
Ada Limón, the U.S. poet laureate, has a balm for your solastalgia.
The former N.F.L. player has been living with A.L.S. for more than a decade. Sharing “the most lacerating and vulnerable times” in “A Life Impossible” was worth the physical and emotional toll, he says.
Our crime columnist on mysteries by Catherine Mack, Katrina Carrasco, Marcia Muller and K.C. Constantine.
The Cumberland Valley School Board reversed its decision to cancel Maulik Pancholy’s speech at a middle school next month. “I cannot wait to meet all of you in person,” he said.
The Australian actress and comedian accused Sacha Baron Cohen of inappropriate behavior during filming of a 2016 movie, which he has denied.
In the poetry marketplace, her praise had reputation-making power, while her disapproval could be withering.
Psychologists, counselors and other experts share the titles they recommend most.
At 83, the novelist and professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, likes to “go into the new.”
“Finish What We Started,” by the journalist Isaac Arnsdorf, reports from the front lines of the right-wing movement’s strategy to gain power, from the local level on up.
A show at the New York Botanical Garden, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s books, will explore his fictional and real worlds through plants, art and artifacts.
Alana S. Portero’s debut, “Bad Habit,” follows one woman’s coming-of-age in a blue-collar Madrid neighborhood.
Our romance columnist recommends three terrific new books, but the one she loves most is Cat Sebastian’s “You Should Be So Lucky.”
In “Rebel Girl,” the punk frontwoman reveals the story of her life — the men who tried to stop her, the women who kept her going and the boy who made her a mother.
Unos 50 estudiantes de la Universidad de Harvard, que integran una clase dedicada a Taylor Swift, se reunieron para esperar el lanzamiento de su nuevo álbum. Justo a la medianoche, comenzó el análisis.
With the model Kaia Gerber, the hairstylist Guido Palau created a “low-fi” project about the transformative power of hair.
As described by Gabriel Brownstein, the basis for one of Freud’s most famous cases posed as many questions as it answered.
The venerated editor Adam Moss walks through how to make good work great.
“Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other,” the author’s new collection, ranges from a playful one-act drama set in a lake to short fiction rife with apocalyptic anxiety.
In “The Whole Staggering Mystery,” Sylvia Brownrigg explores her mysterious parent’s past, and finds more than she bargained for.
“Lucky” features a 1970s singer-songwriter who finds improbable success.
The event had been set for April 29, but weeks of escalating criticism of the organization’s response to the war had led nearly half of the prize nominees to withdraw.
Emily Schubert has done makeup and prosthetics on movies like “The Sweet East” and “Good Time.” She shares her tricks in a new book with A24.
Try this short quiz to test your knowledge of books and their memorable movie adaptations.
The editor and essayist Joseph Epstein looks back on his life and career in two new books.
How Percival Everett and Barbara Kingsolver reimagined classic works by Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.
Creators will spotlight Blondie in the comic strip, as she brings someone on board for her catering business.
In “The Rulebreaker,” Susan Page pays tribute to a pioneering journalist who survived being both a punchline and an icon.
Prison, pregnancies and other operatic turns propel Caroline Leavitt’s latest book, “Days of Wonder.”
Focusing on disaster hasn’t changed the planet’s trajectory. Will a more upbeat approach show a way forward?
Slim and precious, “Somehow: Thoughts on Love” doesn’t measure up to her best nonfiction.
Justin Taylor’s novel “Reboot” examines the convergence of entertainment, online arcana and conspiracy theory.
Alex Garland’s “Civil War” is not a vision of what might happen in America but a collage of what already has happened, some here and much elsewhere.
A stroll around the city with a great stylist; a comic novel of love and real estate.
For those past the age of a parental tuck-in, audiobooks might provide a soothing analogue.
His new play “Patriots,” now on Broadway, follows Putin’s rise to power and the Russian oligarchs who mistakenly thought he’d be their puppet.
In “The Paris Novel,” Ruth Reichl is a glutton for wish fulfillment.
In “Habsburgs on the Rio Grande,” Raymond Jonas’s story of French-backed nation building in Mexico foreshadows the proxy battles of the Cold War.
Espousing his ideas in best sellers, he insisted that religion was an illusion, free will was a fantasy and evolution could only be explained by natural selection.
The students taking Harvard University’s class on the singer are studying up. Their final papers are due at the end of the month.
Selected paperbacks from the Book Review, including titles by Quentin Tarantino, Elizabeth Kolbert, Tyriek White and more.
Shoe horns, lampshades and CBD-infused elixirs are among the goods Graydon Carter is selling at a new newsstand-style shop in New York.
Harvard’s recent decision to remove the binding of a notorious volume in its library has thrown fresh light on a shadowy corner of the rare book world.
Three books describe the work of government investigators who want to uncover or bury the truth.
Jamaica Kincaid and Kara Walker unearth botany’s buried history.
A new photo book reorients dusty notions of a classic American pastime.
Two hundred years after his death, this Romantic poet is still worth reading.
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
“I don’t want other people to miss out on the wisdom and joy this genre has to offer, the way I did for so long,” says the best-selling novelist. “Funny Story,” about a heartsore librarian and the new man in her life, is out next week.
Six people, from Lorraine O’Grady to Wallace Stevens, who found a new creative calling – or received long-overdue recognition — later in life.
Marina Abramović, David Henry Hwang and others reveal their juvenalia.
The author of nine suspense books also finds time to foster kittens from a Chicago-area shelter.
The author, known for her “Persepolis” series, is releasing a new illustrated book about the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, inspired by the death of Mahsa Amini.
Musicians, writers and others revisit the work that started it all for them, and what (if anything) they might have done differently.
It takes courage to start. And far more to continue.
Inside the book conservation lab at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In “The Sorrow Apartments,” Andrea Cohen’s signature maneuver is a kind of twist that shifts a poem away from the ending that seems to be coming.
In the 1980s and ’90s, Dafydd Jones’s party shots captured Manhattan’s rich and powerful.
Maulik Pancholy was scheduled to give a talk on anti-bullying at a Pennsylvania school next month. School board members scrapped it, citing concerns about his activism and “lifestyle.”
In her 60s, she set off on a hulking Harley-Davidson and found a new area of anthropological research: bikers, and in particular, female bikers.
The author of the best-selling book series said she had been undergoing treatment for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor, after a diagnosis in 2022.
Rusty Foster could never live in New York. But his hit newsletter, Today in Tabs, is an enduring obsession of the city’s media class.
A nonprofit that distributed books for many of the country’s small presses has closed, and the fallout could affect the publishing industry in ways both big and small.
“In the Shadow of Liberty,” by the historian Ana Raquel Minian, chronicles America’s often brutal treatment of noncitizens, including locking them up without charge.
In Bekah Brunstetter’s new play “The Game,” women withhold sex from their partners who are obsessed with a Fortnite-like game. Her previous work includes “The Oregon Trail.”
Bus stations. Traffic stops. Beaches. There’s no telling where you’ll find the next story in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Peace Adzo Medie shares some of her favorites.
Gregory Cowles, the poetry editor of The New York Times Book Review, recommends four books that are perfect for National Poetry Month.
The record-setting pitcher known as Oisk in Brooklyn was the last surviving member of “The Boys of Summer.”
More books were removed during the first half of this academic year than in the entire previous one.
Our reporter on the author’s new memoir.
“Crooked Seeds,” by Karen Jennings, is set in a drought-stricken South Africa where its fraught history is ever-present.
There’s more than blarney in Caoilinn Hughes’s riotous, ambitiously structured new novel.