The New York Review of Books
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‘The premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language.’
Pinned
February 26, 2026 Issue
Table of Contents
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Our 2/26 issue is now online, with @fotoole.bsky.social on the murders in Minneapolis, Namwali Serpell on Toni Morrison’s sense of humor, @juliangewirtz.bsky.social on the new microchip race, Vivian Gornick on Arundhati Roy, @rhodesben.bsky.social on Robert McNamara’s sins, and much more.
“The migration of hungry, desperate people isn’t about to stop, and governments in the Northern Hemisphere can either attempt the ICE solution or plan realistically…toward a repaired environment.” —an interview with Alma Guillermoprieto
The Writer from the Dance | Alma Guillermoprieto, Nawal Arjini
Alma Guillermoprieto has spent her nearly fifty-year career writing about America—North and South, from New York to Argentina. From her earliest essay in
www.nybooks.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:13 AM
“The migration of hungry, desperate people isn’t about to stop, and governments in the Northern Hemisphere can either attempt the ICE solution or plan realistically…toward a repaired environment.” —an interview with Alma Guillermoprieto
“The paintings, like Fra Angelico’s life, are far more concerned with addressing, and attempting to heal, the discontents created by…wealth: pride, greed, and a brutally unequal society.” —Ingrid D. Rowland
Painted Sermons | Ingrid D. Rowland
The dazzling works of Fra Angelico both testify to the immense wealth and power of fourteenth-century Florentine society and attempt to heal its pride, greed, and brutal inequality.
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February 13, 2026 at 9:17 AM
“The paintings, like Fra Angelico’s life, are far more concerned with addressing, and attempting to heal, the discontents created by…wealth: pride, greed, and a brutally unequal society.” —Ingrid D. Rowland
“Trump is so focused on profiteering that he is apparently willing to sacrifice long-term American competitiveness, while Xi is so obsessed with control…that he may be willing to sacrifice near-term Chinese competitiveness.” —@juliangewirtz.bsky.social
When the Chips Are Down | Julian Gewirtz
President Trump’s reversal of a ban on sales of advanced semiconductors to China undercut the strategic logic behind years of American policy that was meant to keep the US ahead in the race to develop...
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February 13, 2026 at 1:16 AM
“Trump is so focused on profiteering that he is apparently willing to sacrifice long-term American competitiveness, while Xi is so obsessed with control…that he may be willing to sacrifice near-term Chinese competitiveness.” —@juliangewirtz.bsky.social
“The history of slavery functions differently on the two sides of the Atlantic. In the US it’s a fundamental part of our racial identity.… Slavery and the Atlantic slave trade reside within the chain-link fence of American race.” —Nell Irvin Painter
My Elsewheres | Nell Irvin Painter
I’m a Black American woman who was formed in the twentieth century, amid the cold war and racial segregation that was entrenched even in the Bay Area. But
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February 13, 2026 at 12:05 AM
“The history of slavery functions differently on the two sides of the Atlantic. In the US it’s a fundamental part of our racial identity.… Slavery and the Atlantic slave trade reside within the chain-link fence of American race.” —Nell Irvin Painter
Madeleine Schwartz on Gaza’s archaeological relics
Pieces of Gaza | Madeleine Schwartz
Until 2024, the objects on display in “Trésors sauvés de Gaza” (“Treasures Saved from Gaza”), an exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris that
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February 12, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Madeleine Schwartz on Gaza’s archaeological relics
Françoise Ega on her life as a working-class writer and maid, translated by Emma Ramadan
‘Fill It with Reality’ | Françoise Ega, Emma Ramadan
In 1962 Françoise Ega, a Martinican woman working odd jobs and raising five children in Marseille, stumbled upon a newspaper article about Carolina Maria
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February 12, 2026 at 3:04 PM
Françoise Ega on her life as a working-class writer and maid, translated by Emma Ramadan
Larry Rohter on the “most unrelentingly dark and pessimistic” novel in twentieth-century Latin American literature
Chasing Ghosts | Larry Rohter
With its brilliant prose and unrelenting darkness and pessimism, José Donoso’s The Obscene Bird of Night towers over Chilean literature.
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February 12, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Larry Rohter on the “most unrelentingly dark and pessimistic” novel in twentieth-century Latin American literature
Maurice Samuels on the “anguished itineraries” of Hannah Arendt, Heinrich Mann, and scores of European intellectuals on their escape from the Nazis through Marseille
Rescuing the Refugees | Maurice Samuels
After the fall of France many writers and artists fleeing the Nazis ended up in Marseille, desperately seeking a way out of occupied Europe.
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February 12, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Maurice Samuels on the “anguished itineraries” of Hannah Arendt, Heinrich Mann, and scores of European intellectuals on their escape from the Nazis through Marseille
“Every situation…contains a certain openness; people can and do act in ways that reject the necessity of what exists. Asad Haider’s word for this undertaking was politics.” —Ben Tarnoff
People Think | Ben Tarnoff
Asad Haider, the foremost socialist thinker of his generation, staked his philosophy on the principle that everyone should be fundamentally free.
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February 12, 2026 at 11:53 AM
“Every situation…contains a certain openness; people can and do act in ways that reject the necessity of what exists. Asad Haider’s word for this undertaking was politics.” —Ben Tarnoff
“What I am talking about is the ability to put felt life on the page, a talent intimately related to focused storytelling.” —Vivian Gornick
Mother Trouble | Vivian Gornick
In her new memoir, Arundhati Roy tries to find the language to grapple with the shadow of her formidable, extraordinary mother.
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February 12, 2026 at 9:27 AM
“What I am talking about is the ability to put felt life on the page, a talent intimately related to focused storytelling.” —Vivian Gornick
Listen to the first episode of our new podcast, Private Life, with host Jarrett Earnest interviewing Darryl Pinckney https://go.nybooks.com/4txlaay
Darryl Pinckney on Memoir, Friendship, and Elizabeth Hardwick
In the first episode of our podcast Private Life, Darryl Pinckney talks with host Jarrett Earnest about his close friend and former teacher Elizabeth Hardwick.
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February 11, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Listen to the first episode of our new podcast, Private Life, with host Jarrett Earnest interviewing Darryl Pinckney https://go.nybooks.com/4txlaay
Reposted by The New York Review of Books
adoption, colonialism & capitalism go hand in hand:
"With overseas couples paying up to $30,000 per child in the late 1980s, adoption became an immensely profitable industry, particularly in a country economically devastated by war."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
"With overseas couples paying up to $30,000 per child in the late 1980s, adoption became an immensely profitable industry, particularly in a country economically devastated by war."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Torn Asunder | Oscar Lopez
As Guatemala and El Salvador were being torn apart by violent US-backed regimes, tens of thousands of children—many of them war orphans, others forcibly taken from their birth parents—were being adopt...
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February 11, 2026 at 12:56 PM
adoption, colonialism & capitalism go hand in hand:
"With overseas couples paying up to $30,000 per child in the late 1980s, adoption became an immensely profitable industry, particularly in a country economically devastated by war."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
"With overseas couples paying up to $30,000 per child in the late 1980s, adoption became an immensely profitable industry, particularly in a country economically devastated by war."
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Reposted by The New York Review of Books
Read this stunning essay about Toni Morrison’s work, humor, signifying, the dozens. By Namwali Serpell .
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Toni Plays the Dozens | Namwali Serpell
What’s so funny about Toni Morrison?
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February 11, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Read this stunning essay about Toni Morrison’s work, humor, signifying, the dozens. By Namwali Serpell .
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Reposted by The New York Review of Books
🥚 NY Review of Books reviews two new titles about the tens of thousands of children—many forcibly taken from their birth parents—who were adopted overseas from Guatemala and El Salvador as a direct result of U.S.-backed violence.
Average price tag: $30K per kid
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Average price tag: $30K per kid
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Torn Asunder | Oscar Lopez
As Guatemala and El Salvador were being torn apart by violent US-backed regimes, tens of thousands of children—many of them war orphans, others forcibly taken from their birth parents—were being adopt...
www.nybooks.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:03 PM
🥚 NY Review of Books reviews two new titles about the tens of thousands of children—many forcibly taken from their birth parents—who were adopted overseas from Guatemala and El Salvador as a direct result of U.S.-backed violence.
Average price tag: $30K per kid
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Average price tag: $30K per kid
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Reposted by The New York Review of Books
This is really good. Makes a link between the attention economy, the superhero era and what it means to be the person paid attention to vs. being "a normal" i.e. the faceless no-one who is part of the crowd.
“To watch KPop Demon Hunters,” writes Kevin Power, “is to recognize that the corporate entertainment industries and the fandoms that they solicit and serve have now entered into a sort of closed loop.”
Promo Time | Kevin Power
“This is what it sounds like…” Readers of a certain generation will perhaps automatically complete this phrase by saying “when doves cry.” But it isn’t
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February 11, 2026 at 3:22 AM
This is really good. Makes a link between the attention economy, the superhero era and what it means to be the person paid attention to vs. being "a normal" i.e. the faceless no-one who is part of the crowd.
“McNamara…could acknowledge mistakes in Vietnam, but he never questioned the American exceptionalism that put us there in the first place.” —@rhodesben.bsky.social
An American Reckoning | Ben Rhodes
Robert McNamara’s failure to reckon with the exceptionalism that led the United States into the Vietnam War contributed to fifty years of foreign policy failures. It can help us understand the crisis ...
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February 11, 2026 at 3:58 PM
“McNamara…could acknowledge mistakes in Vietnam, but he never questioned the American exceptionalism that put us there in the first place.” —@rhodesben.bsky.social
Joy Neumeyer on Poland’s oscillation between democracy and authoritarianism
Poland: Halfway to Democracy | Joy Neumeyer
What do the far right’s fluctuating fortunes in Poland suggest about countries seeking an off-ramp from autocracy?
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February 11, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Joy Neumeyer on Poland’s oscillation between democracy and authoritarianism
“Curzio Malaparte was a journalist at heart who needed to witness the outside world, larger political developments, and front lines,” @racheldonadio.bsky.social writes. “[He] had a light touch in a dark time.”
February 11, 2026 at 2:20 PM
“Curzio Malaparte was a journalist at heart who needed to witness the outside world, larger political developments, and front lines,” @racheldonadio.bsky.social writes. “[He] had a light touch in a dark time.”
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum would prefer “to see the persecution of the Jews as a singularity beyond all comparison,” Peter E. Gordon writes. “But this idea threatens the universal standards it is meant to protect.”
Never Again, Once Again | Peter E. Gordon
A few years ago, in the early summer of 2019, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum declared on its website that it “unequivocally rejects efforts
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February 11, 2026 at 1:15 PM
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum would prefer “to see the persecution of the Jews as a singularity beyond all comparison,” Peter E. Gordon writes. “But this idea threatens the universal standards it is meant to protect.”
“Morrison often said she thought of her novels as ‘village literature,’ a notion from John Berger that she applied to black culture: ‘peasant literature for my people.’” —Namwali Serpell
Toni Plays the Dozens | Namwali Serpell
What’s so funny about Toni Morrison?
www.nybooks.com
February 11, 2026 at 11:10 AM
“Morrison often said she thought of her novels as ‘village literature,’ a notion from John Berger that she applied to black culture: ‘peasant literature for my people.’” —Namwali Serpell
“To watch KPop Demon Hunters,” writes Kevin Power, “is to recognize that the corporate entertainment industries and the fandoms that they solicit and serve have now entered into a sort of closed loop.”
Promo Time | Kevin Power
“This is what it sounds like…” Readers of a certain generation will perhaps automatically complete this phrase by saying “when doves cry.” But it isn’t
www.nybooks.com
February 10, 2026 at 11:17 PM
“To watch KPop Demon Hunters,” writes Kevin Power, “is to recognize that the corporate entertainment industries and the fandoms that they solicit and serve have now entered into a sort of closed loop.”
“The failures of the interim government [in Bangladesh] have allowed charismatic politicians, both old and new, to step into the power vacuum.” —Cyrus Naji
Bangladesh’s Stalled Student Revolution | Cyrus Naji
The young radicals who ousted the country’s authoritarian prime minister have so far failed to implement the democratic reforms they promised. Will elections in February correct their course?
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February 10, 2026 at 9:15 PM
“The failures of the interim government [in Bangladesh] have allowed charismatic politicians, both old and new, to step into the power vacuum.” —Cyrus Naji
“I wanted to be a revolutionary, and so I broke with art, which nearly undid me.” —an interview with Alma Guillermoprieto
The Writer from the Dance | Alma Guillermoprieto, Nawal Arjini
Alma Guillermoprieto has spent her nearly fifty-year career writing about America—North and South, from New York to Argentina. From her earliest essay in
www.nybooks.com
February 10, 2026 at 6:56 PM
“I wanted to be a revolutionary, and so I broke with art, which nearly undid me.” —an interview with Alma Guillermoprieto
Reposted by The New York Review of Books
In NYRB, @joyneumeyer.bsky.social looks at Poland's lessons for democracy supporters hoping to unite against autocrat dirtbag nationalists. "Feminist fury" as an engine for change, if you can keep it. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
February 10, 2026 at 6:38 AM
In NYRB, @joyneumeyer.bsky.social looks at Poland's lessons for democracy supporters hoping to unite against autocrat dirtbag nationalists. "Feminist fury" as an engine for change, if you can keep it. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Reposted by The New York Review of Books
A fantastic review from Ben Rhodes of a new book on Robert McNamara (by the Taubmans) that spins into a personal reflection on the cynicism and self-deception that gets American-exceptionalism-chugging elites to sleep at night. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
February 10, 2026 at 7:25 AM
A fantastic review from Ben Rhodes of a new book on Robert McNamara (by the Taubmans) that spins into a personal reflection on the cynicism and self-deception that gets American-exceptionalism-chugging elites to sleep at night. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...