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Island Time

Cooking the Books

The Son Also Rises

From Slush Pile to Pulitzer

Joshua Cohen couldn’t find a publisher for his novel about Harold Bloom and the Netanyahus. Now it’s a heralded prizewinner

A Study in Scarlet

Joel Meyerowitz’s study of the many shades and styles of red hair is an ode to the world’s natural redheads

The Queerest of Capitals

In Putin’s Shadow

In an interview with the lieutenant turned military historian Antony Beevor about his newest book on a pre-U.S.S.R. Russia, it all goes back to Ukraine

Women on a Mission

Just after World War II, six nuns from Kentucky moved to India to set up a missionary hospital. Their letters home offer insight into life on the ward

Staff Picks

Don’t miss a journalist’s memoir about re-invention; an appeal for readers to start writing; and the story of two men’s search for the source of the Nile River

Murder, They Wrote

Actresses and other deceptive women dominate this month’s new thrillers. Plus, a look back at a true original: Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple

School for Scandal

A Legacy of Spies

The case of the Russian spy Robert Hanssen has been called the “worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.” Many years on, the risk of espionage is just as high

Risky Business

Pulitzer Prize–winning war correspondent Ray Bonner always had a taste for trouble, but he just took on his most dangerous assignment yet: he bought a bookstore in Australia

Letting It Loose

On the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., and the legendary tour that followed, the unlikely story of how a rock ’n’ roll masterpiece came to be

Gen Z Finds Its Wise Man

How did Ryan Holiday, a former marketing executive in rural Texas, become the go-to philosopher for these times?

Hello, Deli!

Let’s Get Metaphysical

Guardian Angel

In the 19th century, Caroline Norton campaigned for mothers to have legal rights to their own children. She secured them for others—but not for herself

Staff Picks

Don’t miss the history behind the Kentucky Derby anthem; a biography of the philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville; and a dazzling look at Renaissance altarpieces

When Marilyn Went British

In a 1956 trip to England, Marilyn Monroe sowed the seeds of divorce with Arthur Miller, battled with Laurence Olivier on set, and snagged an audience with the Queen

Meet You at Mortimer’s

A new book revisits the mid-70s heyday of Mortimer’s restaurant, which played host to everyone from Jackie O and Nancy Reagan to Liz Smith and Mick Jagger

Up in the Air

Where the Rare Books Are

Talking in Riddles

A collection of 95 medieval riddles has left scholars scratching their heads—and clutching their pearls