Where the Magic Happens
Beatrice Monti della Corte has been welcoming writers to her villa in Tuscany for what feels like forever. Ralph Fiennes and Edmund White recount the extraordinary experience of being there
Fifty Shades of Downing Street
A British aide who worked with Dominic Cummings on the Brexit campaign is writing an erotic novel based on her time in politics
Flying Lessons
The author of a new book on Virgin Galactic didn’t have to look far for inspiration—like Virgin’s lead test pilot, his dad was a fighter pilot and Top Gun grad
Paris When It Sizzles
What’s more dazzling than Paris? Seeing it from above …
The Happiness Equation
When it comes to world happiness, the Nordic countries are the gold standard. Here’s what the rest of us can make of our abysmal numbers
The Write Stuff
Eight questions with Michael Lewis, author of a new book on the pandemic, about writing, luck, and why George W. Bush isn’t all bad
The New Williamsburg
Hasidim brought “the Jerusalem of America” to South Williamsburg after the Holocaust. All these years later, they’re on the move again
Short List
Books to read this week, from Robert Kanigel’s biography of Milman Parry, the man who reanimated Homer, to novels by Edmund de Waal and Bina Bernard
Mind Games
During W.W. I, a pair of British prisoners escaped their captors using a Ouija board. Their story reveals the power of delusion
How Do You Say “Avant-Garde” in Spanish?
Photographs by Ramón Masats chronicle the decade that revolutionized Spain
Radical Chic
Virginie Despentes managed to get her film banned in French cinemas. With the U.S. release of two of her fieriest works, the feminist shows no signs of slowing down
The Great Escape
How Nixon and Brando prevented another massacre at Wounded Knee—and allowed American Indian leader Dennis Banks to run free
Where Photography and Fashion Meet
A new volume unites the work of two greats: the photographer Peter Lindbergh and the couturier Azzedine Alaïa