Zona, Geoff Dyer’s extended meditation on Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker, meanders through this complex film about avoiding a confrontation with our soul. …more

Ann Beattie’s collagist new novel, Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life, questions the inherent value of fiction. …more

In her new book, The Art of Cruelty, Maggie Nelson draws upon a wide range of work (from Diane Arbus to Brian Evenson to name just two) as she grapples with what cruelty means and how its representation impacts us.

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Will the ironies that plague the demise of print never end? …more

Douglas Coupland’s new biography of Marshall McLuhan bends the rules of the medium—but what, exactly, is the message? …more

Elif Batuman offers a rogue’s gallery of Russian writers, scholars, and literary characters—the only oddball missing is herself. …more