A Mysterious Literary Pattern
Robert Kolker’s The Vanishing Family joins a growing bookshelf of new works focusing on dementia.
Reviews
The Atlantic
Long reviews and essays on new books
2026
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What Vienna Lost When It Lost Its Jews
Douglas Smith’s The City Without Jews revisits the decimation of a robust community—and the city that betrayed it.
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A Dissatisfying Apocalypse
Hernan Diaz’s new novel, Ply , fails to fulfill the promise of every great end-of-the-world novel.
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American Scoundrel
“Offers an effective portrait of Cohn’s role in New York society in an era when sleaze and respectability were not clearly delineated. There is a great deal of salacious gossip; readers will learn far more than they ever wanted to know about Cohn’s sexual habits. Yet despite the extent of Bird and Goldmark’s research, the portrayal of Cohn as an unbounded narcissist misses some of what his life mig”
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The Mysteries of Human Personality
Robert Kolker’s latest book, The Vanishing Family , tracks the effects of inherited dementia and the many transformations that follow.
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The Confrontation That Broke New York
A new book sheds some light on the death of Jordan Neely and the trial that divided a post-pandemic city.
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Why the Bomb Is Bad for Democracy
A famous documentarian’s new book suggests that secrecy is a major impediment to sensible nuclear policy.
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What Comes After America
Emily St. John Mandel’s latest work of science fiction considers the tenuousness of any possible future.
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A Nation of Strange, Idle Men
Jon Ronson’s The Castle argues that men are giving up on society because they have nothing better to do.
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A Sudden Flicker of Light
“I can’t recall such a bleak appraisal of an art form since Tipper Gore went after Twisted Sister in the 1980s ... Thomson’s book, coming late in his career, is more successful as a provocation than as a persuasive indictment of cinema ... Thomson sprinkles critique throughout his book like seasoning unevenly applied to a gamey piece of meat. He concedes that his argument jumps around confusingly, ”
