Catherine Lacey
The author discusses her latest novel, a fictionalized biography of a “Frankenstein’s monster of 20 artists and 20 writers” whom she admires, from Kathy Acker to Susan Sontag
An Amusement Park of Dreams
The first-ever art amusement park—launched in 1987 in Hamburg, and featuring art by everyone from Basquiat to Baselitz to Lichtenstein—has since been all but forgotten. Ahead of Luna Luna’s reopening, next year, a new book surveys this feat of the imagination
The Crucible
An interfaith Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival, 134 years after the work’s premiere on the same stage
Staff Picks
Don’t miss an epic catalogue of Edward Hopper’s paintings, a tale of walking from Washington D.C. to New York City, and an appreciation of the architect Shigeru Ban
We’ll Always Have Paris
In Paris Hilton’s new memoir, the socialite seems disingenuous and her ghostwriter’s touch is too obvious. And yet, we’re still captivated
Mona Simpson’s Guide to Writing
In an interview, the novelist discusses her new book, her early days working at The Paris Review, and finding inspiration
Sex in the Stacks?
On this week’s podcast: how an old London library has become a dating site for the younger literary set
The Writers’ Room
Who needs WeWork, anyway? At the London Library, authors of all persuasions gather to toil, tinker, and socialize
Three Days in New Orleans
The second annual New Orleans Book Festival, held on the Tulane University campus and co-chaired by Walter Isaacson, featured panels with Maggie Haberman, Michael Lewis, and AIR MAIL’s Alessandra Stanley and Nathan King
Murder, They Wrote
This month’s mystery books take on the subject of war from all angles—and places, from the English countryside to Egypt
How Mel Brooks Got Smart
Over a seven-decade career, the actor and filmmaker behind some of the most successful TV comedies of all time achieved success by becoming a poet of failure
Instant Epic, No Charge
Dazzling projections on the façade of the Zurich Opera House encapsulate Wagner’s “Ring” cycle for neophytes and devotees alike
One for the Books
To write a book about Sotheran’s, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, a rare-book seller chased down the store’s elusive 18th-century origins
It Takes Two
For the Paris Opera Ballet, choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith has collaborated with her husband, Or Schraiber, on a show that subverts gender clichés
Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina
In an interview, the director of Argentina, 1985 discusses the young legal team that brought down the country’s military dictatorship
