Ireland’s Literary Femme Fatale
The James Bond producer remembers Edna O’Brien, the pioneering writer whose books were once banned for their depictions of female sexuality
Almine Rech’s Guide to Brussels
The French art dealer and gallery owner shares her favorite spots in the Belgian capital
Mimi Keene
The British actress wanted to become a veterinarian. Then roles alongside Gillian Anderson, in Sex Education, and Anjelica Huston, in Towards Zero, came calling
The Family Jewels
The Victoria and Albert Museum is paying tribute to Cartier with a glittering new show. Jacques Cartier’s great-granddaughter walks us through it
Clarion Top Notes, Plus His Head on a Cake Stand
Elza van den Heever, the Met’s new Salome, delivers the whole package
The Last Renaissance Man
Ely Callaway went from running the Burlington textile company to founding ultra-successful wine and golf businesses—all while hiding a lifelong secret
The First $100 Million and the First 100 Days
On this week’s podcast, Jacob Silverman details Trump’s epic grift
An Ode to the Humble Paperback
From Lady Chatterley’s Lover to Bright Lights, Big City to A Little Life, books that were better the next time around
Reality Check
From the French Proverbe to the English Experiment, a new coffee-table book surveys the avant-garde journals that paved the way for the 1920s’ Surrealist movement
Elephant Man
The secret history of the Asian elephants that Belgium’s Leopold II dispatched to Africa in service of his ruthless colonial vision
Nazi Loot In Limbo
Jake Heggie’s chamber opera Before It All Goes Dark
Churchill’s Angels
How a secret W.W. II–era British spy ring fought the Nazis from New York’s Rockefeller Center—and how a female agent almost lost her life in the process
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss 75 newly reissued editions of Georges Simenon’s detective novels, featuring the French inspector Jules Maigret
Stephanie Suberville’s Guide to San Miguel de Allende
The fashion designer and co-founder of Heirlome shares her go-to spots in the Mexican city
Paper Trails
A charming new exhibition at the Eric Carle Museum, in Amherst, pays tribute to an often overlooked aspect of picture book–making: endpapers
E. A. Hanks
Tom Hanks’s daughter makes her literary debut with a revelatory memoir
Hee-Haw, Taylor Swift!
It’s hard to recall a time when the singer wasn’t topping charts and bringing home Grammys. But her success was far from a sure bet
Cocktails for the End of the World
Situated just outside of Brussels, the world’s only R.E.M.-themed bar acts as a modest, mellow shrine for the band’s devoted, graying fans
