John le Carré died Saturday at eighty-nine. His novels rejected the glamor and ritz of Cold War–era spy fiction. Instead, he portrayed espionage as a dreary, disturbing machine that ground up innocents for a goal that didn’t justify the human cost.
Walter Mosley's incredible speech from last month's National Book Awards, receiving The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters - the first African American man to receive this award.
Ten guesses why social justice activism rarely appears in our novels and movies. In the midst of major popular uprising, where are the lists of stories that would draw us into the heads and hearts of activist characters taking on injustices they face
In Vineland, Thomas Pynchon's dour 1990 novel, the author of Gravity’s Rainbow anticipated a United States where all available definitions of freedom are channeled through security apparatuses understood as the greatest good. Sound familiar?
Next year, says the reviewer, the Nobel Committee for Literature should look beyond Europe. Despite the differences between awardees Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke, they both reflect a divided Europe as viewed only from within its borders.
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